When you park your car on arrival at the hotel the evening before an SAHB seminar, you naturally look in the car park for interesting vehicles that members may have brought. This time, however, for our October 2025 autumn event, the most striking machine was a Gold Wing. Any Gold Wing is worthy of our interest; one with “Adventure before Dementia” on the top box (or Trunk in Honda terminology?) is doubly interesting.
It was not until breakfast the next morning that we met Colin, Essex Regional Rep of the Gold Wing Owners Club of Great Britain, owner of this bike, and at the hotel for a Gold Wing meeting. And he told the following story, which simply has to be related here, of a recent tour of Gold Wings that passed through France. There were six bikes on the trip, with one woman and six men. In a tribute to the extreme seriousness of the tour – no frivolity of any kind allowed – they named themselves Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs; Colin was Doc.
On arrival at a small French town they were approached by a small group of nuns, one of which asked whether she could sit on the Gold Wing. Naturally, the group acquiesced, but did ask: “What would the Mother Superior think?” “I am the Mother Superior”, came the reply.
The group were then invited to visit the Convent; they caused great delight to the nuns, and were photographed with them.
There is one final charming occurrence to relate. Colin showed the Mother Superior the eyes of the teddy bear on the top box of his Gold Wing, which light up red with the stop lights. Colin was concerned: “They look a bit demonic, don’t they? Could that be a problem for you?” Unperturbed, the Mother Superior reached into her habit, took out her cross, blessed the teddy bear, and confirmed that this should solve any possible demonic issues.
Our thanks are due to Colin Will of the Gold Wing Owners Club of Great Britain for permission to tell this story and to reproduce his photos.
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