Gold Wing motorcycle enthusiasts say they are a brotherhood

Air in his hair and breeze on his knees are what Todd Meadows loves best about riding his Honda Gold Wing motorcycle. Smelling tobacco fields and fresh-cut grass and feeling the temperature change 15 degrees make riding much more fun for Meadows than driving a car.

When Meadows bought his first Gold Wing a couple of years ago, he got more than a thrilling ride - he got an 80,000-member family.

As a Gold Wing owner, Meadows was automatically eligible to join the Gold Wing Road Riders Association.

Besides providing road-side assistance and discounted hotel rates, the Gold Wing club offers a worldwide network of family and friends.

Founded in 1977, the association has tens of thousands of members in the United States, Canada and 53 other countries.

The New Bern chapter of the club has about 50 active members. These men and women have become Meadows' best friends and extended family.

The riders do everything together from day-trips to dining, vacationing, competing, celebrating weddings and mourning at funerals.

Eight members from the New Bern chapter recently participated in the 31st annual Wing Ding Rally in Greenville, S.C. The men won first place in the team challenge. The group also placed in several couples' challenges.

The rally drew a crowd of 11,000 Gold Wing riders. They showed off their skills -weaving around orange cones, snatching tennis balls off the cones, tossing bean bags into buckets and wheeling their bikes in tighter and tighter circles.

To sharpen their skills for next year's rally the four couples on the team meet in the parking lot of Pollocksville Elementary School every Tuesday night. The men practice stunts and maneuvers around cones, while the women eat, tell stories, and occasionally cheer from lawn chairs on the sidelines.

When Darrell Bell, "the show-off of the group," rides backward on his bike, the women don't know whether to clap or cover their eyes.

Bell, 53, has been riding motorcycles since he was 8 years old and switched to Gold Wings 12 years ago. He recently bought his third Gold Wing - a $22,000, 860-pound machine.

This Cadillac on two wheels - as he calls it- came with grip heaters, a seat heater, cruise control, reverse, an intercom, CB radios and GPS.

"We have all the Dairy Queens and buffets programmed" in the GPS, Bell said.

The members sometimes call themselves the Gold Wing Restaurant Raider's Association.

"This bike's also got a 40-watt stereo system," Bell said, cranking it up to demonstrate.

Bell has raced motocross and ridden all kinds of street bikes. He said he got into Gold Wings because they are the best.

"If you want to ride the ultimate, this is what you've got to have," he said.

Todd Meadows, agreed. When he was younger, he didn't think Gold Wings looked cool.

"I had always been the laid-back Harley type," Meadows said. "I didn't want a Gold Wing until I rode one."

Meadows, 44, named the bald-headed baby of the group by his wife, is the youngest member of his four-man team. The oldest is his 66-year-old father-in-law, Billy Ray Joyner.

Joyner, whose wife directs the New Bern chapter, is the one who convinced him he had to get a Gold Wing.

Meadows, who does commercial cleaning and lawn maintenance for a living, decided on a bike not quite as flashy as Bell's. He bought an older model for $6,500 without as many bells and whistles.

His wife, Sheila Meadows, teased him at their practice recently. When he finally got his first Gold Wing he told her, "Now don't think this means I'm going to take it out in the parking lot and play with it like your daddy does."

At first, Meadows was hesitant to do dare-devilish stunts with his new toy because he didn't want to scratch or wreck it.

"But look at him now," Sheila Meadows said. "It didn't take him long to start playing."

The real selling point for Meadows, though, was the comfort the bike provides on long road trips. The soft wide seats, back supports and arm rests make a cozy place for the passenger to settle in as well. His wife said she often puts a pillow between them and falls asleep.

The riders said they would rather take a road trip on the Gold Wing than in a car any day.

"Some of the best vacations we've ever had have been on a motorcycle," Sheila said.

Her friend Vickie Bell said you see things, hear things and smell things that you never would in a car.

"The greatest experiences I've had in the mountains are riding on a back road smelling the flowers, and the fresh, crisp air. It's like you can almost smell the waterfalls," she said.

Besides having friends to travel with, Gold Wing members have family to stay with all over the country.

Members get a telephone directory of all other Gold Wing members who are willing to provide services. Whether they need a tow, parts, or a place to sleep, there are members in every part of the country willing to assist.

A Goldsboro Chapter member rode all the way from North Carolina to Alaska without paying for one hotel. He would call people in the book along the way and stay in their houses or camp in their yards with a mini pop-up camper he towed behind his bike.

"Our chapter has a spare alternator that we loan out, and people mail it back to us once they get home and get theirs fixed," said chapter director Pat Joyner.

Sharon and Robby Tew once saw a Gold Wing couple from Elizabeth City go down on the side of the road. They called up their friends Vickie and Darrell Bell to come and give them a tow. The Bells have a shop at their house where they stored the motorcycle until the couple left the hospital and was able to tow it back home.

This sense of a big family is why Todd Meadows loves being a biker, especially a Gold Wing biker.

"It's that feeling of brotherhood," he said, "no matter who you pass riding down the road. You know what that man's thinking going the other way, because you're going this way feeling the same thing."