Honda Gl1800 Gold Wing Airbag
Honda GL1800 Gold Wing Airbag
ROUNDUP
QUICKRIDE
Why, in my day, the airbag rode on the back
I BET IF YOU COULD BRING back Socrates or daVinci or Ronald Reagan, they’d be more amazed by the Gold Wing than just about any modern invention. Airplane? Yeah, works like a bird, huh? We knew that would happen someday. Ferrari? Burns gas instead of hay, makes sense. If you drove up on this big banana of a Gold Wing with the stereo on full blast, though, they’d make that surprised-guy-in-a-Godzilla-movie sound: WhahuUNNHH?? How does that not fall over?
The GL 1800 took over from the GL1500 in 2001, carrying on the tradition of being CPFs ne plus ultra touring rig for the umpteenth time, with an incredibly smooth, injected 1832cc boxer-Six in an amazingly tight and surprisingly compact package. I am 5-foot-8 on a tall day, but it’s easy enough to almost get both feet flat on the ground for parkinglot maneuvering way more graceful than it has any right to be. Reverse means you require no tugboats.
Despite its appearance, the thing is like driving half a Porsche—the good half: makes the right sounds, handles great, flattens bumps, goes really fast by automobile standards (not so much by bike ones anymore). And now that you’ve got ABS and the world’s first motorcycle airbag (on our top-line $27,999 Gold Wing Airbag), you too have more leeway to ride like an ass. The SUVs respect that. Still no cupholders.
You do get everything else, including an Opening Ceremony on the bike’s computer monitor (into which you can program your name if you’re prone to forgetting it) every time you switch on the ignition, a highly advanced GPS navigation system (with its own 181 -page manual), XM radio capability, air-adjustable suspension (with its own onboard compressor), cruise control, kitchen sink, etc... The 80watt six-speaker stereo really does kick out the jams, as the kids say: It was cool to treat the tourists in downtown Solvang, California to Call me Mr. Flintstone! FU make yo bed rock...
The ergonomic triangle has changed very little over the years. Our taller testers love the ’Wing, though my shoulder blades recalled within a couple of hours the deep pain I developed during the Iron Butt Rally (on a GL1500) from grips too far forward for my sawedoff self. Why no adjustable ergos on such a machine? And why no heat from the allegedly heated seat? The committee outdid itself here: Seat heat only wafts rectumward below a certain temperature, and 51 is not it. That’s what the dashboard said on the way home in the dark, and nothing. Yes I checked the fuse.
The boxer-Six is a crown jewel among motorcycle engines, the smoothest bike motor ever devised, but the five-speed tranny still needs to be toed a couple of times on 2-3 and 3-4 upshifts often as not, just like the old GL1500. The heatless heated seat and reluctant gearbox both should’ve been fixed years ago on a $28K motorcycle. Other than those things, when it’s time to truly tour, nothing flies like the Gold Wing!
John Burns
