Goldwing
Sun, 23/05/2010 - 19:21
Big bloody boats but every time I see one I smile. Gonna get one some day with all the bling! Kitsch maybe, but who cares?!!
Sun, 23/05/2010 - 20:30
#2
Re: Goldwing
Another secret Goldwing fancier here.
They're by no means all pose: owners seem to like to get about a bit. I'd stopped recently to admire the view in the middle of nowhere, having seen hardly another bike all day, when a convoy of GWs (and a few BMWs) rolled up. Not only were the 'Wings blinged to the max, but they were towing matching trailers, too. On top of that one of the bikes was playing what can only be described as fairground organ music over its stereo...
Fired off a photo on a long lens before they disappeared just to prove to myself later that I hadn't dreamt the whole thing, but I didn't manage to capture the glory of the whole wagon train. Anyway, hats off to 'em. What a cool way to travel.
Sun, 23/05/2010 - 21:40
#3
Re: Goldwing
Nice pic Rocca (where was it?) - maybe some others will out themselves on here now!
Mon, 24/05/2010 - 21:07
#4
Re: Goldwing
(where was it?)
A cairn field overlooking Loch Loyne. Small piles of memorial rocks left in that timeless landscape underline the transience of all human things......the point being somewhat bludgeoned home by the fleeting appearance on the scene of some cartoon fantasy motorcycles. Could the ephemeral nature of humankind be better summed up than in the shape of a fully-accessorised Honda Goldwing? MCN is doubtless already lining up a bunch of philosophers to give us the answer in a group test...
Anyway, I can't think of many finer ways of living for today than going out, buying a new 'Wing and riding it to the horizon - though at £22k you'd have to think that one life-changing consequence of ownership could be a spell in debtors' prison. Still, that would give you plenty of time to read the manual and find out what all those buttons do.
There are no motorcycles in this photo:
Mon, 24/05/2010 - 22:33
#5
Re: Goldwing
Another nice pic, Rocca, thanks. I live in Scotland so will make a point of heading up there as soon as I've signed the HP agreement on the 'Wing. I will take a tent, some animal snares and a Ray Mears manual and try and hold out long enough for the Finance company to give up on me.
Might even leave some clothes by the side of the loch and do a Reggie Perrin . . .
It must have been a bit surreal watching a glittering convoy approach like some latter-day vikings. You'd be glad you had your camera with you, though I suspect you always do.
Thu, 09/09/2010 - 10:59
#6
Re: Goldwing
Playlord, a little (golden coloured) bird tells me that Honda UK have officially imported a batch of GL1800 Gold Wings originally intended for the US market and are offering them for about £5k under the new list price (that's still about £16,500 - but probably not a huge shout away from the cost of the BMW 6 when it goes on sale). Have a look on Bike Trader...
It's hard to see how BMW could match the 'Wing as a statement of some kind of "ultimate"...and you'd have to suspect whoever came up with the Honda's design (especially dash and controls) of having an endearingly keen sense of humour.
I think I probably do need to own one.
(Or at least a timeshare in one. Any interest?)
Here's a reminder of the view from the bridge:
Thu, 09/09/2010 - 21:24
#7
Re: Goldwing
Was that Goldwing or Gullwing? Or both?
Thu, 09/09/2010 - 21:26
#8
Re: Goldwing
Thanks Rocca - I think I probably need to own one too - timeshare appeals to me, especially the fun you could have in me delivering it to you then you back to me :)
Thu, 09/09/2010 - 21:28
#9
Re: Goldwing
By the way, Rocca, every time I read MCN, they say the 1500 is more popular with hard-wired Wing fans than the 1800. Any thoughts?
Fri, 10/09/2010 - 13:49
#10
Re: Goldwing
By the way, Rocca, every time I read MCN, they say the 1500 is more popular with hard-wired Wing fans than the 1800. Any thoughts?
Might be just an MCN thing. I doubt the 'Wing meets with much favour among their more sportsbike-oriented journos, though there's a reasonable video test by their man at the end of the link below. In fact the bike seems to upset a section of the wider biking community, although owners who I've spoken to over the years have always seemed to love 'em. If there is any preference, it's probably something to do with the GL1800 still being seen as relatively new. Things move slowly on planet Gold Wing and the 1500 must've been one of Honda's longest-running models ever (well over 10 years, I believe).
The 1800's looks are slightly less "bling" that those of the 1500 to my mind (but we are talking by infinitesimal degrees of ostentation here!), and you can't help feeling that if someone's gone to all the trouble of building an 1800cc six cylinder motorcycle then it would be rather rude to pass it by in favour of one with "only" 1500cc. There are a couple of very low mileage nearly-new 1800s in my local Honda dealer's shop at the moment with the latest spec (including the airbag!) and I really should keep away, but it's a bit like fighting against the irresistible gravitational pull of a black hole. Not that I'm saying that the bike is of nearly equivalent mass, you understand...
This answer might not be found in any textbook of psychiatry, but I've long suspected the correct response to arriving at one's own personal ground zero through debt/ despair/ illness/ divorce (or combination thereof) probably ought to be: buy a Gold Wing and ride away. The only trouble is that these islands are a bit small for them. The bike cries out for big widescreen horizons: days spent eating up the Great Plains of the US midwest, cruising the Pacific Coast Highway, or just popping down to Sicily, instead of Dominos, for a decent pizza.
Here's that link. Warning: this video presentation is not suitable for sat nav allergy sufferers. Meaning you, Silvercub.
Fri, 10/09/2010 - 14:27
#11
Re: Goldwing
Great stuff Rocca. I'd have thought MCN would have been able to afford a lapel mic.
I hope you get your Wing without any of the 'personal ground zero' issues attached, and continue to entertain us with such fine writing.
Fri, 10/09/2010 - 15:44
#12
Re: Goldwing
I must confess to suffering from irresistible gravitational pull but will steer clear of the vid., as instructed. Dark matter indeed.
I would have thought that Canada offers the necessary space and horizon. Snow would surely not be an issue (a couple of ski-type outriggers stowed in the capacious panniers and heated everything else).
Make new friends in the gannet colony (a winch might help here).
Turn up the volume on the CD player to attract passing whales (no, i'm not doing any 'mating' gags).
But don't for one minute imagine that rocca and playlord will disappear into the sunset. They will be visible from the very satellites that guide their progress.....
Fri, 10/09/2010 - 23:06
#13
Re: Goldwing
I'm not suffering that gravitational pull to the extent that I can't escape but I could yet easily. I once went on the Ducati Centopassi challenge. There was a norwegian guy on a Goldwing and he had as much fun as anyone round the Alpine passes - the bike certainly handles ...
Mon, 13/09/2010 - 01:17
#14
Re: Goldwing
I had a GL1800 for 4 years (2003-2007) and I sold it after I got my FJR1300 (worst mistake I ever did)!
Any how, when I sold it in Fall 2007, it had over 100,000 trouble free US miles on it. It handled great and after the initial sticker shock, it is a very cheap bike to own (I miss getting 15,000 miles on a set of motorcycle tires)!
The bike took Cassie and I on over 30,000 miles of daughter-father rides across North America that both of will never forget.
The GL1800 is a GREAT bike and I am sure the next Goldwing will be even better.
Best regards from Texas,
Aggie85
Mon, 13/09/2010 - 10:23
#15
Re: Goldwing
Sonnet 18(00), With Apologies to the Bard
Shall I compare thee to a Fireblade?
Thou art more lardy, from another template:
Rough winds do shake the Ducati Multistrade,
And Super Tenner's release is all too late:
Sometime too bright the paint of new bikes shines,
While older in their gold complexion dimm'd;
And every faired from unfaired sometime declines,
By design, or fashion's changing course, retrimm'd;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that bulk thou showest;
Nor shall Harley brag thou wander'st in their shade,
When infernal lines over time they growest;
So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,
Goldwing lives on, and this gives wood to thee.
Mon, 13/09/2010 - 13:56
#16
Re: Goldwing
Sonnet 18(00), With Apologies to the Bard
Shall I compare thee to a Fireblade?
Thou art more lardy, from another template:
Rough winds do shake the Ducati Multistrade,
And Super Tenner's release is all too late:
Sometime too bright the paint of new bikes shines,
While older in their gold complexion dimm'd;
And every faired from unfaired sometime declines,
By design, or fashion's changing course, retrimm'd;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that bulk thou showest;
Nor shall Harley brag thou wander'st in their shade,
When infernal lines over time they growest;
So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,
Goldwing lives on, and this gives wood to thee.
Mon, 18/10/2010 - 10:06
#17
Re: Goldwing
or just popping down to Sicily, instead of Dominos, for a decent pizza.
Inspired by your suggestion and in a brazen attempt to garner silverbrownie points, I spent a delightful week in Sicily. Temples, Roman villas, volcanoes, you know the sort of thing.
But not a pizza to be had outside resorts and tourist hotspots. Below is a typical rustic menu - 'could I interest signore in one of the side dishes?'
Not a Goldwing to be seen. Nor a Super Tenner. One M*lt*str*d* (or does that count as 4?), six big (is there any other size?) GSs, ridden sluggishly between coffee- and mutual admiration- breaks. Loads of Transalps, hundreds of midweight naked inline 4s, gazillions of scooters. I was putting together a dossier, until silverbrownie chucked the camera into the Med......
God forbid you should ever approach Ground Zero. But if you ever do, don't point the Goldwing Sicily-wards. They're having enough problems with earthquakes and landslides as it is.
Mon, 18/10/2010 - 11:10
#18
Re: Goldwing
Did you get to Taormina? Another Bardic digression: I once spent an evening there at the open air Greek ampitheatre, watching Richard III being performed in Italian as the sun set... A perfect synthesis of classic cultures, or a bit of a train wreck eased only by a couple of bottles of Syrah? It's hard to say (or remember too clearly, if I'm honest...). There used to be a lovely rustic pizzeria called Mama Rosa's on one of the town's streets, though admittedly most of the fare thereabouts was high-ticket nosh based around an overabundance of swordfish...
The place has all the hallmarks of an advanced civilisation, though: sun, sea, scooters, siesta, passegiata, gelato....what more could you ask for?
Mon, 18/10/2010 - 12:33
#19
Re: Goldwing
I did and she's still there.
Mist and rain during our brief stay so never saw Ash on Etna.
You should probably peruse the rustic menu above in a bit more detail if you want to get the hang of the sicilian dialect.
.JPG "mamarosa (2).JPG")
Wed, 20/10/2010 - 10:47
#20
Re: Goldwing
Thanks, allegedly, to a certain well known local crime faction, the bitumen used on Sicilian roads is cheap, nasty stuff and so slippery in the wet you could learn to skate on it. Ash has visited Etna on a few press trips including the not over-torqued Honda CBF600, which in Palermo would spin up the back tyre in third gear simply by twisting the throttle. There were no knee down shots...
You're patronising too-posh restaurants Mr Silvercub, pizza in Italy is considered something of a peasants' dish so isn't offered by the better quality establishments
Wed, 20/10/2010 - 15:27
#21
Re: Goldwing
'Knee down shots' and 'local crime factions' probably shouldn't be used in the same para!
Actually we only ate at local trattoria and if you squint at the menu you might be able to see how cheap the dishes were (in this case Modica, rather than Modena). I'm drooling even now at the memory.
I thought that pizza evolved as street food, rather than something eaten at home. However, as I was intimidated by traffic on the outskirts of Palermo, allegedly the home of the pizza, what do I know?
Sorry boys, well off topic now!
Just try riding one, you'll smile even more! That engine is glorious, sounds like a 911, creamier than gold top and heaving with torque. People forget, they might be big but Gold Wings are fast too.