John G Evans
OldFogey
John G Evans
An Englishman, born in Worcester but living in Glasgow Scotland, I'm now 65 years old. A time served engineer, I have done more different jobs than I care to think about! Currently I drive a private hire taxi and run a part-time motorcycle spares business.
In 1975 I bought a motorcycle. Not just any motorcycle, but the heaviest,second fastest and perhaps the most technically advanced motorcycle the world had seen.This was the Honda Goldwing GL1000.
I only had it a short time when my first child came along, with the result that motorcycling came to a halt for the next 30 years as the family grew, jobs changed and life took it's course.
In 2007 I bought another; this was not your pristine, carefully looked after classic, more a mobile heap of scrap. No matter, the aim was to restore it and get it back on the road looking the way it should look. I could do the majority of the work myself courtesy of my engineering background.
During this extensive period, I joined various forums in the search for parts and information. The main one catering for these ancient dinosaurs is the Naked Goldwing Club (www.ngwclub.com) and I have really made a home, and a whole lot of friends, on that forum.
One of these, Doug Snavely, since become my best friend and business partner, convinced me to go to the States in 2009 to ride the Tail of the Dragon in the Smoky Mountains. We didn't make it to that part of the country during the 2500 miles we did then, but I went back in 2010 and rode about 3000 miles which included the T.o.t.D. several times.
We had talked about doing a big trip, but when the economy went down the toilet it seemed that was a pipe dream (well, 15000 miles and a four month trip probably was a pipe dream!).
This trip, the subject of this blog, is somewhat shorter in time, miles and money but we hope will still be an amazing experience.
