Carmen C. Geiger
I was more a girl than a teenager when I begun dreaming of motorcycles. My dream came true with holding my driver license at age 19. In Germany you have to be 18 to make the license and drive cars and motorcycles. A CB650C was my first bike for almost 5 years. It was unusual and rare to see Lady’s riding and own bikes. The only place you would see a Lady riding is on the backseat with a partner. Then I saw and realized the first GL1000 K1 red, owned by a good friend of mine. The style, sound and the massive figure fascinated me. It was love on the first view. Time came (money don't) and I was offered a GL1000LTD ... a dream of a bike. Burgundy, golden wheels shiny chrome and minutes later MINE! It must have been a little sensation, a 24-year-old skinny lady with a big and heavy bike. The beauty and the beast guess who is who? In-between a month I was well known. After a while I became a member of the GWRRA, which was under direction of Americans. The president moved back to the states and the club almost fell apart (dissolve.) Five years later I moved 160 miles, and gave up my membership. First of the distance and second too much disputes between the members. I became a LONE-STAR-WINGER, which is my 'club' (only me.) I’ve been biking now for 15 years with the LTD through all the highs and lows, attending a lot of meetings and Gold Wing Rally’s. Last year I received two trophies. One was for traveling the longest distance in the women’s category and the second was for the OLDEST Gold Wing. When my bike was 12 and the GL1500 came out almost everybody was crazy about this ship. At Gold Wing Rally’s those riding the 1500 would come by and ask me: "Hey, how about you and your old scrap heap?" Or "Is the old grandpa still running?" That was more than mean and I said to myself: I’ll show you all how strong we are. After all I gave my bike the name of GRANDY. From this point on it was no longer only a bike or GL1000LTD, it was "HE". Now 'he' is 25 years old and I nobled him to a SIR. I refer to my GL1000LTD as SIR GRANDY. I know it's crazy, but I hate to be normal and bourgeois. This year I dare the step again to become a member of a Gold Wing Club, although I've had bad experiences with the first membership of the GWRRA - Germany. My first club is GWCD = GOLD WING CLUB DEUTSCHLAND. Second is CWC = CLASSIC WING CLUB USA, which I'm very proud of. We don't have a classic wing club in Germany but I'm writing technical tips and tricks for all the GL1000 owners in our GWCD INFO-magazine. Next year I'd like to open up a 'classic wing corner' page to register all our members which own a running GL1000 with pictures and stories? One GL1000 on the road is worth two off the road. Last month I was offered another LTD unfortunately not in the original paint. My plan is to bring back the almost original color and rebuild into a race-bike. I'll send pictures of before and after. Well that's all for now. Here is technical data on 'SIR' from the LTD General.
You all ride save and keep the beauty’s running. Carmen Lone-Star-Winger |
