Honda's Gold Wing, completely reworked from the ground up for 1988, sports. 152Occ, horizontelfy-opposecl, liquid-cooled, six-cylinder engine.
Honda's newest custom cruiser. the Shadow VLX. is powered by a 583cc.
liquid-cooled V-twin; physically. the bike is as large as most 11oos.
The NX125. like all the new NX models. will be marketed as an entrylevel street bike and will come with electric start.
1988 Honda street bikes
da's Shadow line (the 800 and Il00cc
models), and Honda's remaining
custom cruiser, the Magna 750.
Models. made in 1987 that have
been dropped from production fm1988 include the 250 and 450cc
Rebels, the TL200R Reflex and, as .
mentioned, the entire XL line.
Honda's marketing theme for 1988
is, "Come ride with us," and the
Japanese manufacturer has introduced the Hawk GT and the NX
series - bikes that do not fit into
existing market niches - to make
Honda motorcycles more "accessible" to entry-level riders. The new
models are designed to provide firsttime buyers with ease of purchase,
ease of ownership and ease of use.
Honda hopes the Hawk GT will
open a new model category. It is
basically a sporty machine designed
for general, all-around versatility -
Hawk GT, Gold Wing
highlight Honda lineup
The unique, all-new Hawk GT and a
completely redesigned Gold Wing highlight
American Honda's lineup of 1988 street
bikes. Other all-new models indude the NX
6
series (three dual-sport models
which replace the XL line), the
VTR 250cc Interceptor and the
Shadow VLX, a 600cc custom
cruiser.
Returning for 1988, basically
unchanged, are the sport bikes which
took the motoryde market by storm
in 1987, the 600 and lOOOcc Hurricanes. Also back, with moderate
changes, are the remainder of Hon-
commuting, Sunday afternoon rides
in the country, and running down
to the corner drugstore.
It is fitted with an OHC, 647a:.
liquid-cooled, 52° V-twin with three
valves per cyl-inder and Honda's
'offset dual-pin crankshaft. The
powerplant_is fed by twin, 36.5mm
constant velocity carburetors, and
the lower end boasts a five-speed
transmission. The engine is housed
in a twin spar, rectangular section
aluminum frame.
The Hawk's front fork has 4lmm
stanchion tubes, and the bike is
.suspended in the rear by a DeCarbontype single shock with sevenposition spring preload. A state-ofthe-art, single-sided "Pro-Arm"
aluminum swingarm with quickchange rear wheel rounds out the
rear suspension setup.
Disc brakes with twin-piston
