Also a long time member of GWRRA...since 1984. Our first Wing Ding was Knoxville, TN in '85? Lifetime member, got the last magazine after WingDing 43 and found out about the closing in the editorial. Our last GoldWing was an '88...first year for reverse, and 1500 engine...had a Motovation II sidecar on our '84 Wing, and thought the new bike was perfect for sidcar use, swapped it to the new bike...and it was! Only the first 500-600 miles for engine break in were as a solo bike...the rest were all hack miles. That outfit had been to Washington, DC and Wing Ding in Santa Clara, CA (San Francisco). We sold it a few years ago, and I asked my wife 'another sidecar or a trike'? To my surprise she said trike....and here we are!
Not happy about the closure of the group, but understandable with current demographics and numbers.
Bill
I've done a lot of riding in the past 52 yrs. Had a few smaller Honda models 9 goldwings and 7 Harley ultras. Went to trikes 10 yrs ago. Ride a 2019 DCT Wing now. Probably be my last one. The demographic that went to Trikes are aging and dying off. Young folks simply don't ride. Sales are down on all bikes. I, like many of you have been all over the country on bikes and loved every minute of it. Battery technology has come a long way in a short time, but it will need to come a much longer way before motorcycles can operated on battery power. The weight alone would prohibit many aspects of bikes. I'm afraid we are part of a dying breed.
You sound like Shakespear - you begin to die the day you were born (lol)
I still agree with you - as I visit our dealership, more and more bikes are trikes. More and more folks are up there in age. Still, I plan to ride as long as I can. Longer trips - shorter rides for the day since I am retired and can just take my time.
Our trips are usually around 300 miles per day. Still, if the total trip is 400 miles, we will just take two days