ON A WING, WITH FLAIR
If you thought Honda’s tourer was gold, better strap in for ’18, David Booth writes.
Honey, they shrunk the Gold Wing!
Honda has realized the Gold Wing name truly is all powerful; there are more than 265,000 of Honda’s previous generations of land yachts still prowling North American highways and byways, says Bill Savino, Honda of America’s motorcycle product manager. So while the traditional Gold Wing retains its familiar appellation (though officially called the Gold Wing Tour), the stripped-down bagger version (the former F6B) is now called Gold Wing.
Slightly confusing renaming aside, the all-new Gold Wings really are amazing, sharper and more focused, yet still retaining all the traditional comfort and convenience that Honda’s premier tourer is known for. Indeed, while you’ll be reading about all the new Wings’ technical tour de forces, what is most impressive — especially since the rest of motorcycling’s grand touring fleet seems to be growing ever more portly — is how all those technological tour de forces are aimed at making the 2018 Gold Wing more manageable.
The first thing you notice is how outwardly smaller the 2018s are compared with the outgoing 2017s. The fairing, a bulbous affair on the previous model, is decidedly more svelte, the entire motorcycle is shorter and, indeed, the overall impression is of a nine-10ths-scale Gold Wing. The shape is familiar, but the dimensions are dramatically reduced.
But the most incredible news comes when Savino says the 2018 model is more than 36 kilograms lighter than the previous generation. That’s an impressive statistic all by itself, but try this on for context: The mid-level Gold Wing Tour with the hightech DCT transmission weighs 379 kilograms. By comparison, Yamaha’s new Star Venture TC breaks the scale at 438 kilos.
All that weight saving doesn’t come easy, says Colin Miller, a Honda tech spokesman. Every single subsystem has been reengineered for compactness and lighter weight, Miller says. While it’s impressive that the engine shed four kilograms and the chassis another six, what Miller is most proud of is that the Gold Wing no longer has a starter motor. Instead it’s a starter and a generator — essentially the technology used in high-tech automotive hybrids, acting as both starting motor and alternator.
Even more impressive is the bike’s svelte silhouette. It is smaller in every dimension and most impressively in width of the fairing. Despite this, Savino says, the new Wing ’s wind protection is superior to the old. Honda has placed the rider closer to the fairing, which means the onrushing air has less chance to curl over the windscreen and cause turbulence to the rider and passenger. That’s basic aerodynamics.
How did they get the rider closer to the fairing? Well that, as they say, is the trick. First, Savino says, the Gold Wing ’s trademark opposed six was shortened, in part by using a slightly narrower bore and also because the cylinder liners are now thinner — some 29 millimetres.
More subtle is the front suspension. Of course, the Hossackstyle double wishbone system is known for its superior performance, greater rigidity (the previous front telescopic fork was seriously challenged by the Gold Wing ’s weight) and reduced dive during braking. Less apparent is that when the Hossack does respond to bumps, the front wheel rises almost vertically; with a front telescopic fork the front tire, of course, moves backward as well as up. Because the new Wing no longer has to contend with the front wheel hitting the bodywork under full deflection, the engine can be moved further forward and the rider is, again, closer to the front fairing.
Of course, there’s lots more than reduced weight. That smaller engine now features four valves per cylinder operated by the Honda’s Unicam (which started as an off-road technology but is gradually being seen in more of Honda’s street bikes). Banish thoughts of gargantuan increases in power, however. Honda claims about five per cent more maximum top-end horsepower and about the same increase in off-idle torque. But the mid-range, where the 1,833-cubic-centimetre six will spend most of its time, is almost identical to the outgoing model. Any significant increase in performance will come from the aforementioned weight loss, not more power.
More noticeable is the inclusion of Honda’s dual-clutch transmission on the new Gold Wing. Now with seven speeds, its operation remains similar to the operation of the Africa Twin’s DCT. In automatic mode, it shifts through the gears itself; in manual mode, a couple of handlebar-mounted flippers manage the gear-selection process. The big difference is that DCTequipped Wings — only on the Tour model in Canada, though available across the board in the U.S. — get a reverse gear that will let you crawl backwards at 1.2 kilometres an hour. Because the demographic for big tourers is rapidly aging, it will even creep forward (at 1.8 km/h) to allow easy back-and-forth parking.
There are also plenty of new high-tech features. Besides the expected ABS, there are four riding modes — tour, sport, econ and rain — which, on higher-end models, also adjust suspension damping front and rear. Separately there’s an electronic rear-spring adjuster, allowing you to choose from multiple rear preload settings, from single rider with no luggage to two riders with full luggage. Higher-end models also get traction control. There’s even a hill-start assist system.
There’s a new telematics system with fancy automotive-style rotary twiddle nob that provides access to the options on the new 18-centimetre screen. Apple CarPlay is available; Android Auto is not, but plans are afoot to incorporate it. Additionally, there’s a keyless entry system that automatically locks the bike and saddlebags when you walk away but also prevents you from locking the key in said saddlebags.
There’s much more to the new Gold Wing than we have space for here. What you need to know is that the motorcycle that started motorcycling’s touring revolution way back in 1975 is back on top and will be in dealers by early spring. The Gold Wing (nee F6B) starts at $26,999, while the Gold Wing Tour (the one you think of as a Gold Wing) retails, in its base guise, for $30,799.