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pg. 24 pg. 40 pg. 50 pg. 58 Tires:Tires: WhatWhat GoesGoes Around,Around, ComesComes AroundAround TwoTwo Cross-AmericaCross-America ToursTours Long-Distance-DeliveredLong-Distance-Delivered ValkyrieValkyrie RiderRider EducationEducation Rocks!Rocks! AndAnd RollsRolls inin thethe SunshineSunshine State!State! May 2006 • Monthly U.S. $3.95 • Canada $4.95 www.wingworldmag.com May 2006 • Volume 29 Issue 5 ABOUT THE COVER CONTENTS Page 40 Page 58 Page 63 Features Dangerous Curves: Downhill Sweeper...............................................................................36 Across The Great Divide, Part II..........................................................................................40 Two members of the Arizona Music City Wings Welcome You To Wing Ding ................................................................48 Drill Team were caught up A Dragon for the Stable ........................................................................................................50 close and personal as they Back to the Basics! ..................................................................................................................56 performed at the Salome, Arizona, annual Chili Cook Florida Rider Education Fair—2005 ..................................................................................58 Off on February 18, 2006. Gold Book Addendum ..............................................................................................................60 That’s Charly Seeburger on Monkey on his Wing...............................................................................................................62 the left and Jim Graybeal on Six Weeks Across America ....................................................................................................63 the right. Tires:What Goes Around, Comes Around .......................................................................70 Marc McDaniel, GWRRA #240852, Geocache…Huh?.....................................................................................................................76 of Goodyear,Arizona, took the photo with his eight-megapixel Canon Wing Ding:All Things New and Re-Newed ......................................................................77 Digital Rebel XL and sent it to us, courtesy of Chapter AZ-B. Info Bytes Frequently Asked Questions About GWRRA...................................................................34 You’re a New Gold Wing Owner........................................................................................25 Back to the Basics....................................................................................................................34 Mechanical Miseries to Avoid................................................................................................29 Insights from the Aftermarket...............................................................................................29 DEPARTMENTS Acts of Kindness ................................................14 GWRRA Official Products...............................95 Product Reports ..........................................32, 33 Advertisers Listing .............................................48 GWRRA/Rescue Plus Application..................89 Readers’ Responses...........................................11 Another Point of View ......................................22 Hall of Fame ........................................................94 Readers’ Rides ....................................................99 Association Leader Listing ...............................90 In Memoriam.......................................................94 Two for the Road.................................................4 Events....................................................................87 Executive Viewpoint.............................................7 Motorcycle Goodies..........................................82 Wing Ding 28 Application................................79 Finishing Touches..............................................101 News Briefs .........................................................24 Wing Ding Housing Information ....................81 Free Classifieds...................................................85 Product Previews ...............................................26 Workbench..........................................................16 NEW SHOWS! See ON-LINE • WING WORLD • JUNE & JULY SAFETY AND KNOWLEDGE FRIENDS FOR FUN, schedule on page 47. user name: rolling • password: wheels May 2006 3 TWO FOR THE ROAD omehow, while I’ve not been looking, I’ve put more than 57,000 needs four tires; each motorcycle needs half as many tires, therefore miles on my Toyota Highlander SUV and its original set of tires. there are fewer motorcycle tires sold to spread the costs over. SThe wear bars are now almost flush with the remaining tread sur- The technological challenges of motorcycle tires are also greater. face, so it’s time for a change. Now, if I were a real tightwad, I might try The average small truck (SUV) tire uses two rubber compounds; your to squeeze another thousand miles or two out of them just to prove it motorcycle tires have up to seven different compounds. Dunlop uses 20 can be done. But this past weekend’s weather changed my mind. different compounds in a variety of combinations for its various motor- We awoke Saturday morning to the ever-so- cycle tires. welcome sound of rain drumming on the roof But why the difference in useful life between a tiles of our home. Thus ended our record-break- motorcycle’s tires and a four-wheelers’? You’d ing 143-day stretch of no measurable precipita- think since bikes are lighter than SUVs, their tires tion in Phoenix. Residents came out of their hous- would last longer. es and peered upward at the phenomenon, it hap- Consider the unique stresses motorcycle tires pens so seldom. Predictably, motor vehicle drivers must endure, how they cope with those stresses, all over town freaked out, skidding and sliding into and the physics of the machine they’re attached each other even more than usual. to.Your motorcycle rides on two 2 x 4-inch con- As my wife, Ginny, & I drove downtown to a tact patches—about the area of the soles of a charity function in the midst of a Saturday night man’s pair of shoes. An SUV has four 6 x 8-inch downpour, I reminded myself of the condition of contact patches—twelve times as much gripping my Highlander’s tires. Actually, I mentally scolded area over which to distribute stress. myself for jeopardizing our safety on what had to Since motorcycles lean, and they shift their be marginal rubber at best. weight forward and aft more dramatically than Many of us are awfully cavalier about the con- four-wheeled vehicles do, their tires must flex dition of our four-wheelers’ tires. We rarely constantly to maintain a grip. They also must inspect them for punctures or blisters.Weeks and absorb the ripping, tearing and bashing forces of months go by without checking their inflation bad pavement over a much smaller footprint.And, pressures. We don’t rotate them and overlook we touring riders expect them to grip as well as Nick Hoppner missing valve stem caps. As Stu Oltman’s article racing tires but on much worse surfaces, in all on page 70 points out, if we let these neglectful weather conditions, and still yield high mileage, habits affect how we treat our Gold Wing’s tires, often under extreme loads.That’s quite a compli- we could be in for a lot of pain—and not just in cated recipe! the pocketbook. I, for one, am grateful we Gold Wingers have By shopping around, I discovered I’ll be able to Tires: excellent options to choose from in fitting our replace all four of the Goodyear Integrity tires on machines. The top producers of touring tires for my Highlander for just over $350 bucks out the our bikes—Avon, Bridgestone, Dunlop, Metzeler, door. By my calculations, that means my original The Real Michelin and others—build very few substandard Goodyears each delivered dependable perform- tires today, and when they learn they’ve got a ance at a cost of about one-and-a-half hundreths Cost problem, they hurry to fix it. So whether you like of a cent ($0.0015) per tire per mile.That’s pret- your tires built in America, Britain, France, ty inexpensive service, wouldn’t you agree? Germany or in the Orient, the product you can Remarkably, earlier this year I replaced my buy today is dependably better than what it was Gold Wing GL1800’s two D250 tires (with [email protected] even as little as a decade ago. around 11,000 miles on each) with a set of Of course, once your mechanic has installed Dunlop’s E3s for just about the same price— and balanced your tires, its up to you to eke out $368.53. So, if my calculations are correct, I spent about one and two- the most you can from them thereafter. Don’t just “get ’em and forget thirds cents ($0.0167) per mile per tire. Humm, somewhat more ’em” or you’ll waste your money and endanger yourself in the process. expensive. Get yourself a top-quality air pressure gauge and use it religiously. Why such a cost per mile per tire discrepancy? Why should two Know the correct inflation pressures for one-up and two-up riding and motorcycle tires—installed and balanced—cost almost exactly the abide by them. Visually inspect your tires regularly for any unusual same as four automobile tires, yet be close to worn out in a fraction of cracks, blisters or splits. Have your mechanic check your tires and valve the mileage? The answer is partly economic, and partly