Hello everyone!

Boy has it been hot for the month of August. Hope everyone has been staying out of the heat as much as possible. We had seven chapter members to go to Reelfoot for Chapter D-2's fun day. As usual they had a great day with plenty of food, fun, and fellowship.

This past week we were looking at the GWRRA home page about Wing Ding in 2008 that will be in Greenville, South Carolina. There are 3 hotels that are already sold out. So if you think you might want to go check out the web page and make you reservations as soon as possible. Jim and I found a Quality Inn that is 3 miles from the rally if anyone is interested.

Once again W-2 will be leading Wings Across Tennessee Jackson to St. Jude. We will need everyone elbissop to come and help that day. This will be Saturday, September 15th., please make plans to help.

On September 29th we have an overnight ride scheduled to go to Hot Springs to dig for diamonds. We will talk more about this at the meeting.

The 2007-2008 T. GWRRA Operations meeting will be held on November 17th. at the Montgomery Bell State Park. All Chapter officers are required to attend. All staff members are invited also. This will be the first meeting for the new District Director.

Please remember to bring items for the Alzheimers Day Services. You will find a copy of the list in the newsletter.

The scramble word this month is somewhere in this newsletter.

Looking forward to seeing everyone at the meeting.

Pat and Jim

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Editors Corner:

Anyone who has any money for St. Jude needs to turn in that money at the Sept. meeting. The money will be totaled, and LeeAnn will write a check to be presented to St. Jude at Wings Across TN on September 15. On Sept. 15, Chapter N will be having a breakfast meeting, eat at 8:30 AM with the meeting at 9:30 AM. Then they will meet the Wings Across TN group.

The Region N Rally, and GWRRA 30^th anniversary celebration is September 1 & 2 in Nashville at the Gaylord Hotel.

The TN District Picnic is September 8, in Lebanon, TN.

Chapter I announced they will be having a free cookout at Chickasaw State Park on October 27. You are invited. Mark your calendar!

Rider Education

By: Chuck Caldwell

Hello W2,

This month’s newsletter article is taken from a recent article and used with permission, from Kyle and Mitzela Craig, the Chapter Educators from chapter K2 in North Carolina. Not only does this apply to weather, I feel it applies just as well to other situations, like trying to ride too far to get somewhere, when you know you aren’t really ready for a trip like that. Exceeding personal limits is a far too common occurrence. We all can learn from this. Think about it.

When enough is enough!

On Tuesday, July 10, 2007, I decided to go to Winston-Salem, NC, to visit that chapter. I had ridden approximately 60 of 129 miles from home when the weather decided to change. About 3 miles from Siler City, NC, the sky turned dark and black, and then the rain came. Just after the sky turned black, I switched to the weather band to check out what was going on. Thunderstorms and high winds of 38 to 40 mph were being called for, but not in the particular area of my route. So, I pulled into Siler City, found a service station, took shelter for about 20 minutes, and called the CD in Winston-Salem, David Hester. David said the weather had cleared up, and the storm had passed over and was headed north. Therefore, with my Frogg Toggs on, I remounted my trusty steed and headed north. About 20 miles further into the trip, the weather made a sudden and drastic change. First came the winds and then came the rain. You’ve heard the phrase, “raining cats and dogs”. It was raining cats, dogs, gators, and anything it could find. I’ve ridden in this type of weather before, so I slowed down and it was no big deal. Then all of a sudden the worst scenario took place, lightning. I am not a strong believer of playing with Mother Nature when she’s throwing lightning bolts down from the heavens. I’ve studied this phenomenon before, and I know from research that lightning kills more people worldwide yearly than any other weather phenomenon. Seeing lightning strikes miles away from you and then having them occur around you puts a new look on life. Therefore, since I was out in the open, I immediately reduced the risks (the lightning, the direction of storm movement, etc.). I found a place to turn around and headed home. I can always make the meeting another day. I know “When Enough Is Enough”! Do you?

Thanks to Kyle and Mitzlea for their approval to use their comments.

It is way to easy to succumb to the desire to get on to a destination when you are tired, or feel like you must get somewhere to meet a deadline or schedule. I know I have had the urge at times. Sometimes logic and common sense has won out, sometimes it hasn’t. Fortunately for me, I am still around to talk about it, and hopefully when confronted with a challenge like this in the future, will make the smart choice.

I encourage everyone to share your comments about this or any other safety topic with me at our next chapter meeting.

Chuck Caldwell CE W2

Just like in the old TV show “IN SEARCH OF”…I found myself wondering if a 12P connector really existed on my GL1800 GoldWing. Now the maintenance manual indicated that it existed and was very clear that it had one as you can read for yourself

– Actual excerpt from the manual -

– TRUNK -

– Remove the seat (page 2-5)

– Open the trunk

– Disconnect the 12P connector of the trunk control unit sub-wire-harness and remove the sub-wire harness from the wire band and clamps.

– Remove the six mounting bolts and trunk lid.

– Install the trunk lid in the reverse order of removal.

Pretty simple stuff right…..well I hope that I’ve got your attention so I’ll start at the beginning – My sweetheart, Karen, had decided that she liked being a passenger on my Wing rather than piloting her own and even though I tried to convince her that we needed TWO matching White Wings – I knew that it was just a matter of time before one would be up on the auction block for sale. What you may not have known is that I’ve been putting all the Bling Bling on Karen’s Wing because I knew that mine would have more miles and the warranty would be gone on it long before hers (I bought the extended warranty on hers and not mine). Even last year when I “Spoiled” and “Racked” my trunk lid I knew that eventually I’d swap the parts from Wing 1 to Wing 2. This would allow us to sell a PLAIN WHITE JANE WING and own one that would be fully dressed (Tulsa windshield, butler, highway boards, back rest, trailer hitch, spoiler, trunk rack etc…). That being said, I’ve set the stage for this episode of “In search of a 12P connector” – I quickly removed the seat from Wing 1 and set it aside. I then opened the trunk just like in the instructions and initiated the search for a 12P connector…the wing had its wiring clearly in view however the bones and inner workings on it would not reveal the exact location for this connector…it was hot in the garage so after 25 minutes of looking, I decided to consult the Maintenance CD just in case I missed the exact location for this ****** connector. The pictures were as clear as mud to me so I once again returned to the task of finding an elusive connection or location that housed the control unit sub-wire harness or so I thought….and again, I spent 25 minutes tracing these wires from the trunk lid to the middle of the rear fender where the picture from the wiring diagram indicated I would find this connection…oh no…it was not there so…I stopped for a second – could have said some words that I would have been embarrassed if anyone heard them – and decided to trace the wiring harness further as this connecter was clearly in a different place. Eureka, there it was wedged behind the battery and right next to another connector (just for your information this one was a 14P connector according to the manual). Now all I had to do was take it apart and continue the trunk lid swap – simple right ….wrong. These connectors were tightly installed (CRAMMED) behind the battery and in the bones of the frame so to take them out and then take them apart became quite a challenge. Another 30 minutes and I had the 12P connector finally disconnected as well as the trunk lid removed from Wing 1 (Disassembly Successful). On to Wing 2, remove seat – check. Disconnect the 12P Connector etc…since I knew where to find it, I went right to it, disconnected it and began the process of removing it. Here is where grown men cry…My new Wing with all the Bling Bling also has a trailer hitch installed so – you guessed it – the 12P Connector had to be removed right through the location where the hitch is installed. This took 45 minutes to carefully tread the connector through the maze and free it up so that the trunk lid could be removed. Got it done – and began the install process. Went rather well on the Plain White Jane Wing except for the seat…finally got the seat on and everything put physically together – looked right – engine still ran – lights worked etc…so I started on Wing 2 – installed the trunk lid mounting bolts – threaded the control unit sub-wire harness into the correct location – connected everything – tested it and then tried to put the seat on – this seat has a backrest installed and it just did not want to sit correctly on the bike. I could have said some more things that I

(continued on page 5)

September 2007

Sun	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat
						1
						Region N Rally
2	3	4	5	6	7	8
Region N Rally	Labor Day			W2 Meeting		District Picnic
9	10	11	12	13	14	15
T2 Meeting		Chuck Caldwell B-Day				N Meeting - Wings Across TN
16	17	18	19	20	21	22
D2 Meeting				W2 Dinner Ride		Troy Berry B-Day
23	24	25	26	27	28	29
						Phyllis Davis B-Day
30

(continued from page 4)

would have regretted but instead took a little break. Guess that was the trick as the next attempt went smooth as silk. To this day I could tell you that I did everything just like before but this time the seat went on easily – again, EUREKA. Now that I was all done with this task, I asked my sweetheart if she would like to go for a short ride out to the lake. We did and while we were out there I pushed the trunk lock button on the remote. NOTHING HAPPENED!! Since we were there and enjoying the view and a coke, I did not spoil the mood with any words that I might regret if I said them in PUBLIC but knew that I had more work to do once we returned home. In reality the “Luck of the Irish” was with me as all I had to do was swap the remote from Wing 1’s set of keys to Wing 2’s. Just a quick note - your GL1800 GoldWing owner’s manual tells you to see your Honda dealer if you need a new remote or you’re having problems with your remote because it must be programmed. All I have to say after this exercise in trunk lid swapping is ..I hope that if you ever decide to try this you don’t end up with any spare parts.

GWRRA

Chapter W2

9116 Deer Meadow Dr

Cordova, TN 38016