Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/128639
• 0 Gold Wing 2 0 0 1 Honda GL 180 ~~WBikes l By K IT PALMER t's been over four years in the making , but the hig hly antic ipated , new gen er ation Gold Wing is finally here , a nd not a moment too soon. No m at ter h o w go o d the p revious G o ld Wings wer e , t he bikes' a p pe aranc e and pe rformanc e were getting a little sta le . Afte r a ll, t he basic Gol d Wing de s ig n a nd s t yling haven't changed mu c h si nce th e early 1980s, and th is be c ame s tr iki ngly clea r after BMW rel e a se d (last year) its all -new , futuris tic- look ing K 12 00 LT, a bike t h a t s e riousl y th re aten e d Honda 's stra n glehold in the luxury touring market. But Honda already knew , back in 1996 , th at it was time to bu ild an a llnew Go ld Wing ; a sportier, lighter and mo re exciting Go ld Wing with increa sed power, bett e r handling and m o re youthfu l styling. But the trick was to do all of thes e things without lo s ing any of the vi rt ue s tha t made th e Gold Wing famo us a nd the leade r of th e lux ury to uring class s ince the first Gold Wing GLI 0 00 rolled off the assem bly line in 19 7 5. In order to do th is , thoug h, Ho nda engineers realize d tha t t h is meant starting fro m s c ratc h , whi c h is exactly what they e nded up do ing . Ma sanori Ao ki, project leader for a number of h igh -p e rfo rma n c e Hon d a motorcycles (including th e CBR250RR, CBR400RR and th e CB R6 00 F3 ) wa s chosen to lead the new Go ld Wing pro ject. Honda felt t h a t h is s p o rt b ike background and in- de pth m otorcycl e knowledge would be useful tools in developing a new , sportier Gold Wing . "We set ou t to ke ep 80 pe rc en t of the Go ld Wing's touring c a pa bility ," Aoki s a id . "T ha t' s a vital fou nd ation . My jo b [was] to add more fun fa cto r to the machine , to build a Go ld Wing with the kind of accele ra t ion a nd han dling people normally a ssoci ate with sporting machines. Eve n the sound is important. It's anothe r reason you ride a motorcycl e inste ad of a car." Before getting to wo rk on the new Wing , Honda a ls o a tten d ed many organized road rides a cross the coun try , absorbed the scenes and talked to many touring riders and Go ld Wing owners , and asked them what they wanted o ut of a touring ma ch ine . "T h e traditi on al Go ld Win g c u stome rs we ' ve talked wit h hav e be en amaz ingly happy with t he m oto rc ycle," s aid Gary Christopher, Honda 's sen ior man ag er , m o t o rc y cl e press and mo t orsports. "T he c h a nge s they'd like to see us make have been surpa ssingly s impl e . Thin g s like a lo we r s e a t height, less we ight, new colors or a ddi ng a CD pl aye r. "We [also] began noticing a s ig nificant number of younger c o u pl e s people in their late 20s to mid 30s who really liked th e le ve l of a menities th e Gold Wing p rovides, but wanted a m ot orcycl e that em bodied a you nger, more perfo rma nce-oriented image." Wh a t Aok i a nd hi s sta ff ca me up wi th is outlin ed in the follo wi ng page s . As you will see, th e all- new Gold Wing is just that - a ll new. I 18 N OV EM BER 15, 2 000· cue I Lff3@ LfEJf1rx fXJ [CfJ[jiJ@ WODCfJ(J il(JIJ&S (§J@(JJL ENG INE The 1832cc liquid-cooled horizontallyopposed six-cylinder engine is nearly 2.5 ' pounds lighter than the previous design. Low, forward engine placement and solid engine mounting is designed to improve road handling characte ristics and low-speed maneuverability. Electronic CPU provides two digital 3-D fuel injection ma ps for ea ch cylinde r and one digital 3- D ign it ion map for each cylinder, creati ng idea l fuel mixtur e a nd spar k adv anc e settings for increase d rideability. . Uniq ue knock -cont ro l ' sensors m onitor ign it io n adva nce to improv e per- fonnance throughout the enti re rpm range . Parallel two-valve cylinder head design utilizes direct , shimunder-bucket valve actuation and requires no 600-mile service; the first valve clearance inspection is at 32,000 miles. Silent-type camshaft chains with automatic adjusters. A 6.9-liter airbox supplies a large volume of cool, clean air to the engine. CPU - c on tr o ll ed , closed -loop em iss ion co ntrol syste m utilizes two oxygen se nsors to consta ntly deliver a pre- The new Go ld Wing offers a total of c ise ai r/fuel mi xture , 147 liters of storage spa c e. while two exha ust catalyzers furth e r red uce Hydraulic d am pers p rev ent the s ide emissions o f ca r bon d o ors f rom flop p in g open. mon oxide , hy d roca rbons and nitrogen oxides. Rotary Air Control Valve (RACY) provides auto-c hoke function and maintains precise idle control under widely varying engine loads a nd ope rati ng te m pera tures . Sidemounted radiators improve cooling efficiency. Two 40m m-diameter throttle bodies deliver air to six, specially designed Keihin 50-psi high-pressure fuel injectors. Fuel is delivered through four nozzle tips in eac h injector, producing an atomized fuel mixture that is highly combustible, for opt imum effi cie ncy and po wer. e n e ... s High-pressure-formed, sintered-iron Nickalloy crankshaft bearing ca ps provide quiet engine operation throughout the engine's operating temper ature range . To improve h and l ing an d rid er com fort, the motor is p o sitioned farth er f orward in the fram e.