Shadowfax-ST Blog

To recap, we'd been awake and travelling to Offenburg, Germany since 2:30 am. Bikemoto's offer of a free coffee felt overwhelmingly generous while we waited for Sherbert's paperwork to be readied. There was a hire agreement to cover our ride back to Ireland, the ownership documentation, Certificate of Compliance, manuals, sales agreements, and more. It all took time. All the time I was taking stock of the enormity of the day and second-guessing the plan. Self doubt I'd not ridden for nearly 5 years since fixing Arod's speedometer sensor and finding his fork seals were leaking. COVID 19 and working from home were little motivation to set things right. Now I am about to ride a new-to-me model of bike I've not ridden before. Sherbert is heavier than an ST1300, a weightier insurance liability, and has a dual clutch transmission (DCT). He's extra expensive to buy and more-so to fix. I'm riding on the right side of the road in Europe and with my wife rid

Offenburg is a couple of hours south of Frankfurt.  Initial plans were to fly to Frankfurt, catch a train to Offenburg, and then a taxi to the bike shop. Unfortunately, RyanAir fly to Frankfurt Hahn airport and don't hint at the fact Hahn is two hours west of Frankfurt. We discovered that gem after booking the flights. No plan survives first contact, right? So we adapted and hired a car to drive the 3 hours to Offenburg. Adapt or fail We learned that RyanAir will only allow helmets on spare seats–one helmet per seat by the read of it. Otherwise your life-saving equipment needs to go in the hold to be crushed, battered, and invisibly compromised by damage. Our new Shuberth C5s had arrived only a couple of days ahead of the flight in two smart boxes within a single purpose sized box. Mrs G called RyanAir and confirmed a 'suitcase' can be a box and what the maximum dimensions can be.  The box fitted the bill. Into Hahn Typically, the Friday flight out was at around 6am and w

Yes. Germany. We looked at buying a GoldWing from Ireland and found the mileage and used prices were higher than brand new bikes in the UK. A new GoldWing DCT with airbag is listed near €41,000 and a used 2023 with 18,000 Km was listed at €38,000. A 2018 on the same forecourt commanded €32,000. They all felt too used and too rich. The younger 2023 was scuffed up and black too. The options were otherwise 'baggers' and pretty as they can be I really wanted the tourer for two-up riding. Importing even used vehicles from the UK is made near impossible following Brexit. UK imports attract 23%VAT and Duty at 10%. Then there's the Vehicle Registration Tax (VRT) that Europe told Ireland to drop years ago. VRT for bikes is €2 per CC to 330cc and then €1 per CC from there. It al adds up to a plus 40% on purchase price–albeit you can claim back any VAT paid to a UK dealer. There's a little discount when you import a used vehicle. That's one with 6,000 Km on the clock and ov

Introducing Sherbert, my white GoldWing recently brought over to Ireland from Germany. There's a story here and it doesn't quite begin with Arod, my second trusty ST1300 'STeed'. You may spot a long gap between blog posts? More stories, and all we need to know is that Shadowfax is resting and Arod is recovering and baying at the bit to return to our roads shortly. Meanwhile, I have the privilege to ride Sherbert. Stick around if you're interested in the differences between an ST1300 and a GoldWing 2018+. There's a lot to unpack beyond the typical "borrow a GoldWing for 20 minutes and write a full review".

Looking back at Dorset Commutes It was 2010. So redundancy. It should have phased me, but 2 phone calls later and we were trotting through Hampshire toward Blandford in Dorset on our first 3-month contract. 8-months later, I'd earned a year's salary and ridden another 20,000+ miles. Our preferred route was to gallop down the M27 and on to the A31 to Ringwood, and then turn through Three-Legged-Cross to Hornton and from there to the Blandford and Sailsbury A350 road and cut in the back gate: about 55-miles. Our best time was 1hr 4min; worst, over 2-hrs, but average around 1hr 10min with a fair spurt on. We had some thrills - like when the Dorset Steam Fair left one wet single-lane country road swimming in traction engine oil, and a spill when knocked off deliberately by a cock at M27 Junction 10. I mentioned the preferred route, but more often than not in the warmer months we'd cut across the New Forrest through Fordingbridge. What a ride :) Of course, the whole