Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

eRIDING IMPRESSION e 1992 G Ll500SE Honda Gold Wing ~~ said, " I th ink it 's ugl y." Oh well , lik e th ey say, you can 't please all of th e people all of the tim e. T he 1992 Aspen cade and Interstate mod els are available in either meta llic blue or candy apple red. However, tack on an extra $200 to th e pri ce tag for the red models. Despite bein g a mirror -ima ge of i15 predecessor, the SE ha s man y features still worth mentioning. It 's powered by a super-smoo th and pow erful OHC o pposed-six, liq uidcoo led, I520cc moto r, wi th a five-speed transm issio n (incl u d ing ove rdr ive, act ua lly a very tall fifth gear) and sha ftdr ive. The on ly thing abo ut the SE's motor that isn 't smooth is its shifting , wh ich we all agreed was no tchy. Reverse, ho wever , doesn ' t rea lly have anyth ing to do with the tra nsmission , as it ru ns off the electr ic starter motor. T o engage reverse, the tra nsmission m ust be put in to neutral, Roll on down the highway- in style By Kit Palmer P h ot os by Nate Rauba onda certain ly set the sta nda rd in the motorcycle touring market wh en they bu ilt the first Gold Wing motorcycle in 1975, a 1000cc to ur in g bike that featured waterco o l in g , . sha ft dri ve and non traditional fuel-tan k location. Since the n , Honda has up graded the popu lar Gold Win g in leaps' a nd boun ds, resu lting in the near -perfect touring mot or cycle, evident wit h irs latest Gold Win g crea tio n - the G Ll500SE (Specia l Edition ). Ob viousl y, the SE didn't evolve over ni ght. It co mes from a 100lg line of Gold Win gs, based o n the first GLlOOO Gold Win g which featured an opposed four-cylinder engine. It wasn 't until five years later in 1980 when Honda upped th e ant e to II0Occ, and it was the same year when the Gold Wing came stock with full bod ywork and in tegra ted luggage bags. Un like previous Gold Wings that were bu ilt and assembled in J apan , the 1980/ '81 models were the first to roll off a new assembly line on Ameri can soil, in Marysv ille , Ohio. Nineteen eighty-four saw the next major change to the Gold Wing with yet ano the r all-new and larger engi ne, this tim e a 1200cc powerplan t wi th fuel-injection, Other new features that year included an electroni c cruise control and digital instrumentation. Perhaps the biggest change to the Gold Wing occurred in 1988, when it appeared on the showroom Doors as a nearly all-new motorcycle. It featured an even bigger 1500cc, six-cy li nder motor - still based on the origina l oppos ed four-cylinder layout - and it had reverse. The chassis, which included an air -adjustabl e rear sus pension , via an in-board air. compressor, was all-new, and th e Gold Wing also featured the most sop histica ted stereo and cruise co ntrol system ever seen o n a prod uction 'motorcycle. In celebration of the 10th anniversary of the Ohio plant, in 1991 Honda H 10 The Dunlop tires provid e a smooth ride and past perfonnance reveals that, when properly inflated and under a normal load, should last anywhere between 1518,000 miles before new rubber is needed. introduced th e Special Editi on 10th Anniversary Gold Wing, wh ich featured new colors and a few su btle, mostly cosmetic changes. Honda 's latest top- of-th e-line Gold Wing still bears th e Special Editi on (SE) designation an d fea tures no maj or technical changes from the '91 SE. . Ho nda a lso offers two other versions of the .Go ld Win g - the Aspen cade and the Interstate: Both the Aspencade a nd the Intersta te ar e similar to the SE model but offer fewer sta nda rd features. The major differen ces between th e SE and the Aspencade are coloring, slig htly different styling and a different stereo system. Compared to the SE and Aspencade, the Interstate does not have cruise control, nor a cassette player (t hough it does have an AM/FM stereo), a q uick-adjust windscreen, reverse, an on-boa rd air compressor a nd self-cance ling turn signals. T he trade-o ff, however, is that the Interstate, at a claimed 760 pounds (dry), is nearl y 50 pounds lighter than the SE a n d 40 p ounds less than th e Aspe nca de, plus it carries a sig ni ficantly smaller price tag. The SE has a suggested retail price of $14,199, the Aspencade $12,099, and the Interstat e $9199. The only difference between the 1991 E and the '92 model is color. A syrnbol ic gold-on-gold two-tone co lo r scheme was featured on the '91 10th Anniversary model , but the '92 SE is offered in two-tone metallic teal, a bluish-green color that, throughout our time with the SE, brought mixed reviews from onlookers. Some said th ey hated it, wh ile most said they " loved " it. In fact, man y people went out of their way to express their opinions. While at h is house, there was a knock at a tester's front door, The teenager at the doorstep said he saw the bike parked o ut in front and asked, " Is that your bike?" Then he added, " I just wanted to say that I thin k it looks nea t, th e color's bi tch in.' " A few days later, a perso n driv in g a car p ulled up alo ngs ide the same tester on the freeway during ru sh hour, rolled dow n h is windo w and holl ered , " Is that factory paint? I love it." H e the n went on to yell ou t how he used to ow n a Gold Wing and wished he had never sold it. T hen there was a lad y wh o flat o ut then a hand-operated lever, located on the left side of the chassis, is pulled out, then up. Once th e lever is in the up positio n, you press th e starter button and the bi ke begins to creep backwards . The mot or surges a bit from slow to very slow and back, but it gets the job done nicely and effor tlessly. Thanks to th e Gold Wing's vibration -less motor, long 66.9-inch wheelbase, and shaft driv e, it cruises down the highway as smoo thly as a sail boat o n a glassy lake . It powers up to 65 mph in a matter of seconds, and o n those long open highways, the cruise control co mes in handy. All the cruise contro l buttons are located a thumb-length away from the rider 's right hand on the handlebar and are simple to operate. However, our test unit's cruise control didn 't feel as smooth as it, perh ap s, co uld have. It surged noticeably on modera te hilly and bumpy terrain, som etimes by as much as 5 mph . Plus, when the pow er came on to accelerate back up to the rid er 's prescribed speed setting, the power wou ld so metimes co me on too strong ly an d abruptly for our tastes. We mos tly used the cruise control to give our righ t wri sts a short break. T he huge fairing does an excellent job keep in g wind blast from pounding the rider to death. Plus, the SE ha s a sma ll vent o n the lower half of the windscreen , which , wh en opened, does an admirable job of reducing wind turbulence. On cold da ys, th ere ar e vents on the fairing lowers th at ac t as "heaters." They direct a stream of warm air off the hot cylinders and onto the rider's

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