Australia’s first Gold Wing

This memory was brought about by a friend pointing out an article in OBA 87 about the Honda Gold Wing (Gary’s Flashback P88). The bike pictured was the demo bike from Bennett Honda at Alexandria, in Sydney. I had the pleasure of working there from 1973 to 1978 and have many fond memories of that time. The red Goldwing used for the launch and subsequent magazine articles was an American model as there were no Australian models here at that time. There were a few differences due to different requirements in the

USA. Little things like the front blinker wiring having two wires to them so they came on all the time along with the headlight. This was disconnected for

use here. The speedo was in MPH, by that time of course we were in Km/h. There were a few more idiot lights on the console as well. They used this bike for a while until the first of the Australia models arrived when we were then tasked to swap it over to one of ours.

The first Australia GL to get here was blue but for some reason the powers that be wanted the demo to remain red. The Yankee bike was de registered, the red panelwork was stripped from it and swapped with the new blue bike, the panels off it thrown in a box and left with the US model demo. The motor out of the USA bike was then used for some time as a teaching tool for the dealer mechanics, showing them the workings of the new GLs. Eventually the motor was returned to Alexandria and placed with all the other bits in a corner of the workshop. After some time all the bits were resurrected and the bike went back together.

I made enquiries as to what was to happen to it and was told that if I was interested to make an offer which I did. The offer was accepted and I became the owner of what I believe to be the first Gold Wing that landed in Australia. I went over to Kogarah registry, did the paperwork and rode it home soon after. After some time in my ownership I sold it to a friend of mine and he eventually traded it on a second hand Kawasaki 900 at one of the big dealers in Parramatta. I still have the spare keys to this bike in a tin in the garage with the Bennett Honda tag on them. The photo is of me standing next to what I remember as the replacement bike just as it was finished being assembled and before the panelwork was swapped. I always thought that this bike would be easily tracked down because of the differences in it but with the flood of USA imports it would now just blend in with the crowd.

Bruce Peelgrane

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