Guy Allen•24 Jul 2012

REVIEW

First ride: Honda Gold Wing trike

Ever considered venturing into the weird and wonderful world of trikes? Then try sampling the latest Gold Wing-based offering…

The novelty might eventually wear off, but there’s a fair bit of fun to be had causing utter chaos in traffic with the latest transport of delight – in this case a gleaming red Gold Wing trike. Yup, that’s right, someone found a way to make a ’Wing even bigger. Who would have thought it possible?

You pick up on the bumbling mental processes of the car-driver next to you in traffic. First they spot the front end, and they’re thinking, “Gee, that’s a big one.” Then the quick ones notice an abnormality – something deep and reptilian in their psyche rings the alarm bells as they spot the big back end. “What the…?”

You can see the questions forming as their brows (some of which seem to have a worrying Neanderthal aspect) furrow. The list goes: “What the hell is that?” Then, “How much is it?”And of course: “What sort of fruitcake would buy one?”

Sure enough, the bloke who retails them, Geoff Bull at Jeffrey Honda in Victoria, can answer that last question.

“Their biggest market,” he reveals, “is people who, for whatever reason, are finding it a struggle to hold up a big bike.

“They don’t want to give up riding, and this is a way of extending their motorcycling careers.”

Anyone who has seen the Ulysses Club in action will attest to the fact this is a good thing. Staying on the road with their motorcycling mates has literally saved plenty of lives.

UNDER THE PAINT

Designed and manufactured by Champion Trikes in the USA, the kit is a fair bit more than a couple of car wheels tied to a beam axle. Champion, and the local blokes via Jeffrey, will sell you something along those lines, for about $20,000. However, if you add an extra $5000, you get a much more sophisticated independent rear end, plus a modified front, which is what we’ve tested.

Okay, so what’s under the paint? Clearly, up front you have Old Faithful of the touring bike world, Honda’s mighty Gold Wing. A freshened-up version has just been launched, though you can still buy the superseded model shown here.

Powering the lump is the company’s ultra-reliable 1832cc boxer six, which is capable of firing the 400-plus kilo solo assembly at the horizon at anything up to 200km/h. It might be big, but it’s also powerful and quick.

A five-speed transmission and shaft drive complete the powertrain.

It’s at the end of this little lot that the fun starts. Gone is the stock wheel and, instead, a new drive is hooked up to (of all things) a Suzuki truck differential. The individual rear drive shafts are suspended from twin-wishbone assemblies, mounted on motorcycle-style coil over pressurised gas shocks. They’re adjustable for ride height.

Braking is supplied by twin discs running auto-style single-piston calipers. The Honda ABS is removed and the braking is changed over to independent systems front and rear.

The wheels are a very common 15in x 7in sizing, accepting 205/70 tyres. Those dimensions are popular enough to enable an enormous choice of rear rubber. The rims are a Champion-branded alloy design.

As for the panels, you obviously lose the stock panniers. Instead, the flared guards are nicely moulded into the standard bodywork at the front. Out back you get a decent-sized boot. It will hold two XXL full-face helmets with heaps of room to spare, so the trade-off in luggage space is positive.

Up front, the triple trees get swapped for what’s called an EZ-steer system, which adds 4.5 degrees of rake. That in turn shortens the trail and is intended to sharpen up the steering a little. Keep in mind, though, that you also have a longer wheelbase (up from 1690mm to 1841mm) plus that substantial track at the rear.

MOUNT UP

If you can squint and ignore the big back end for a moment, much about the trike is familiar and reassuring. It is, after all, based on one of the best-sorted touring bikes on the planet. So that means you get the good seating, fairing and comprehensive electronics package, including cruise control, sound and satellite navigation.

Then there are the little luxuries like heated seats and grips plus, in case it all goes pear-shaped, the airbag.

There are three rules to handling any trike. One: keep your feet on the footpegs (solo riders have been known to forget this and run over their own foot – painful and embarrassing); two: remember to keep to the centre of your lane; and three: no lane-splitting!

Get the whole plot rolling and the inexperienced will be a little disconcerted by the car-like rocking and rolling you inevitably get from the back-end. Plus you’re steering a three-track vehicle and, as a result, will find it harder to dodge potholes.

One of the first things you notice is that the performance is hardly changed. The ’Wing shrugs off the extra weight with ease. There may be a slight fuel consumption penalty, but I’m guessing it will be slight unless you’re really pushing on.

Point the thing at a corner and you may end up being pleasantly surprised. Though longer than stock, it’s still relatively short by trike standards and, with the EZ-steer system on board, very willing to change direction.

Trikes can have a tendency to understeer in corners, with the front end wash-out becoming worse the more you stick throttle into it. In this area the Gold Wing/Champion combo scores very well. If you really push hard it will start to understeer, but it responds immediately to a little discretion.

That, combined with a really well set-up independent rear end, makes it an exceptionally benign handler. In fact, I’ll stick my neck out and say it’s the pick of the motorcycle-based trikes I’ve so far ridden. Plus, it’s nimble enough to offer an attractive alternative to longer auto-based trikes.

Highway-speed stability seems fine, even when you switch over to the opposite camber to overtake.

Performance and gearing all seem to mesh well and you might end up being surprised at how quick this thing is. Your harder-riding solo mates are likely to get away from time to time, but they won’t be far away. I certainly don’t see it holding up a group ride.

Comfort is as you’d expect from a Gold Wing, with a few extra bumps because of the additional wheels, but overall the ride is very civilised. Something you and the passenger will have to become accustomed to, however, is the car-like tendency to lean a little to the outside of a turn.

While it’s a real shame to lose the ABS, braking is very strong thanks to the high grip offered by those rear tyres. They also make the rig feel secure on wet or slippery surfaces.

TAKE A SEAT

As we’ve already indicated with the kit prices, this is not a cheap exercise. So the big question is, what’s it going to cost for a brand new one off the showroom floor? You might want to take a seat. With a freshly un-wrapped Wing, the kit installed, with all the set-up and colour-matching done, you’re up for $59,000 on the road in Victoria. Given the price of a new Wing, that’s not quite as silly as it first sounds.

As a colleague of mine recently pointed out, knee reconstructions and hip replacements cost plenty, too.

While that price tag is more than enough to scare a lot of people, Geoff reports he’s so far had a couple of sales.

Pricing aside, it’s a well-sorted and finished package that has confidence-inspiring road manners. The final test is whether you walk off after a ride with a grin on your dial. And yes, after a couple of hours playing with it in the hills, I did…

KILLING THE SIDECAR

Motorcycle-based three-wheelers are anything but a new concept – Harley introduced its first Servi-Car in 1932 and it still makes three-wheelers today. However, it seemed to take forever for trikes to catch on in the local market.

Makes like Bontrike and Oztrike really broke the ice from the early 1990s, with their long bespoke frames and VW powerplants. Though relatively expensive at the time (priced from the low thirties and up) they did reasonably well. At the same time, they seemed to take over the miniscule sidecar market and just about kill it off.

Though less expensive to make, sidecars have asymmetric handling and take a lot more experience to ride safely. A trike, by comparison, is relatively instinctive.

Now your three-wheeled choices include the dedicated car-powered designs like Oztrike, Bontrike and Scorpion, plus Can-Am’s sophisticated Spyder. Strictly speaking, the Spyder, with its paired wheels at the front, is a forecar rather than a trike.

Both Harley and Victory currently offer trikes as part of their domestic line-up. H-D has the StreetGlide trike and an Ultra Classic variant, while Victory offers one based on its Vision tourer.

None of the three have been made available here, though Victory did show one at the 2010 Melbourne Motorcycle Expo.

Story courtesy Motorcycle Trader

SPECS: HONDA GOLD WING TRIKE

ENGINE

Type: 1832cc, liquid-cooled, four-valves-per cylinder, four-stroke, horizontally opposed six-cylinder

Bore x stroke: 74mm x 71mm

Compression ratio: 9.8:1

Fuel system: EFI

Max power: N/A

Max torque: N/A

TRANSMISSION

Type: Five speed

Final drive: Shaft

CHASSIS AND RUNNING GEAR

Frame type: Aluminium twin spar

Front suspension: 45mm telescopic fork, non-adjustable

Rear suspension: Twin shocks, adjustable for ride height

Front brake: Twin 296mm discs with three-piston Nissin calipers (no ABS)

Rear brake: Single disc with single-piston caliper (no ABS)

DIMENSIONS AND CAPACITIES

Wet weight: ADR standard (400kg-plus)

Seat height: 740mm

Fuel capacity: 25lt

OTHER STUFF

Price: $59,000*

Bike supplied by: Jeffrey Motorcycle Centre

Warranty: 24 months/unlimited kilometres on bike, 36 months/unlimited kilometres on trike kit

*Rideaway, ex-Victoria

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First ride: Honda Gold Wing trike

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