Honda GL1800A Gold Wing (ABS) - Long-term Evaluation

One Special Machine

I've never liked Gold Wings. For years they were objects of derision. The characterizations I'd hurl in their direction included too big, too clumsy, too heavy, and the ever popular "it's nothing but a car on two wheels." On top of everything else, they seemed most often bedecked with teddy bears, flags, and identically dressed riders and passengers. A Gold Wing in my garage? Yeah, right.

The motorcycling world, as I know it, came tumbling down around me this past summer. I begrudgingly accepted the 2005 30th Anniversary Honda Gold Wing to ride for my four-state tour out west. Even my wife Kathy, who was flying out to meet me for the ride, wasn't thrilled at the prospect of being perched on the back of a big touring rig. Out of sheer practicality, I ceded the fact that the long Interslab ride from North Carolina to Arizona could actually be somewhat tolerable with a stereo and a windshield.

By the time I arrived at Tuscon International Airport to pick up the world's greatest co-pilot, I had obviously lapsed into full-blown denial. The smiles induced by the high-speed jaunt across the New Mexico desert, exploring Route 66, and the peg-dragging twist-o-rama through the Gila National Forest had to be the result of some sort of delirium, a mirage if you will. This was clearly a condition brought about by the vast expanses and the extreme heat. I couldn't be starting to like this bike. It's too big, too clumsy, too heavy, remember? Two days and countless grins later, I knew the mirage of fondness was actually real. At a gas stop, while unzipping our matching Gold Wing Air-Tek jackets, Kathy looked over at me and said, "So, just what would a Gold Wing cost us?"...

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