Honda Goldwing 1800

When you're belting across the Extraterrestrial Highway in Nevada with the cruise control set on 80 (mph), with Powderfinger's My Happiness belting loud and reasonably clear from the stereo, it's hard to imagine things getting a hell of a lot better that day. And they didn't. Nor did they need to.

The platform for this minor state of bliss was Honda's latest 1800 GoldWing which - alongside Harley-Davidson's Electraglide series - is one of the two mainstays of American motorcycle touring. Hang on, isn't Honda Japanese? Well, yes and no in this case. The first 1975 model was designed and built in Japan, but somewhere along the way the development and production has shifted to the company's Ohio plant. These days, it is very much an American bike.

Wot's this thing called, love?
Let's go back to basics. The first Wing was a boxer four of 1000cc capacity. It grew to 1100 for 1981, 1200 for 1985 and then took the monster leap to a 1500 boxer six for 1990. This year's jump to 1800 sees the first complete overhaul of the design in 11 years, though there have been the inevitable tweaks along the way.

Since we're on the subject of the powerplant, we may as well stick with it. It's a mix of high and low tech - for example it runs the company's own fuel-injection (the best in the business), but gets by with two valves a cylinder employing ye olde single overhead cam. Honda reckons the shim under bucket valve lash adjustment is good for 52,000km service intervals on a unit that hits redline at a lazy 6000rpm.

Max power is a claimed 118 horses, which is a fair bit for a tourer, but then again it's got a lot of tourer to shunt about - 363 kilos claimed dry weight, probably pushing 400 when gassed up for the road. Drive is via a five-speed box and shaft located in a single-sided rear end.

The chassis is effectively a clean sheet of paper when compared to the old. This time the engine has been pushed further forward in the chassis, the main member of which is a twin-spar alloy job. Brakes have been upgraded to a version of the three-piston items you'll find on the ST1100A. They're linked and include ABS.

When it comes to the ancillaries, this could take a while. First you score the cruise control and stereo considered essential for this class. The latter has radio as standard, only. You need to buy the headsets to use the intercom, while the CB radio and six-CD stacker are add-ons. There's also remote adjustment of the air-assisted rear suspension preload (with memory for two pre-set positions), an electric reverse gear as per the previous model (different switches this time), manually adjusted windscreen, remote locking for the bags on the key fob, a variety of display options in the LCD areas of the dash and more lights than the average mardi gras.

On the last aspect, the four headlamps in the sharp end do a terrific job.

All aboard
Getting on this machine for the first time (or even the 20th) reminds me of a Chris Beattie comment when he first encountered a Glide. It was something along the lines of: "You don't so much sit on the bike as step aboard and walk to your seat." Amen. This is touring American style and there's plenty of it.

For anyone who's ridden a 1500 Wing, you'll be genuinely surprised at the steering and general handling. This is a much sharper device, with a lot less flexing and general crashing of bodywork through bumps that you may have experienced on the earlier model. By far the most useful aspect is that it's lost that vague or remote feel in the steering enjoyed by all the 1500s - the one that tended to spook a lot of riders, me included.

We experienced a slight wandering from the handlebars under throttle at very low speeds.

You'll never mistake it for a sport bike and it still takes a certain act of faith to chuck it hard into a turn. If you do, you'll be rewarded with surprisingly civil manners, good bump control and the tendency to feel nice and solid even when the footpegs are being dragged along the tarmac.

There's one odd proviso on the bump control, which is that big road shocks got sent straight through to the pillion's spine and could sometimes be painful, without throwing the Wing off-course. Careful suspension rear preload adjustment (the factory guide is a good place to start) minimized it, though we learned to dodge the nastier looking holes.

Braking is strong, with better feel than previously. This particular linked set-up brings in the front too early if you're using the foot pedal for low-speed manouvres and could use something closer to the current Blackbird's 'tune' in this area.

Performance is healthy. We got 210kmh on the speedo, two-up with all the luggage. Acceleration is fine, though the low-revving power plant often requires a hook back to fourth gear for decent over-taking grunt from 100kmh (2600rpm). Like the 1500s, it feels indecently fast given what it is.

The injection is a nice upgrade and delivers a faultless throttle response. In combination with the cruise control, it also provides exceptional fuel economy. We regularly got better than 16km/lt, cruising fully loaded at 120-130kmh - which gives a healthy range from the 25 litre tank. The worst we got was 12km/lt and the best a shade over 17.

Clutch and gearbox are entirely predictable. We can also vouch for the unit's hot weather performance - it was doing a lot better than the humans in the 47-degree temperatures we hit near Las Vegas.

Stormy weather
Despite Digby the Grumpy's off-the-wall theories elsewhere in this issue, you are anything but out of the reach of the elements on a Wing, though you suffer a lot less from them. An example is in that 47C heat. I've ridden a naked bike in the same area and conditions, and actually suffered worse from the direct stove-hot wind blast.

Coverage is very good, though riders my height (189cm) and taller will want the optional higher screen, which adds a welcome couple of inches to move the wind spill away from your helmet.

Cross-winds usually don't upset the bike until they reach gale force, but will drown out the sound from the speakers. And yes you can get wet, as an all-too-entertaining run - through one of the wildest thunderstorms I've ever experienced - proved a long way beyond doubt. If it's just a shower, you'll probably get away without the waterproofs.

Controls for the stereo are easy enough to work out, and the stock speakers are good (in still conditions) for anything up to 120kmh. The pillion could use their own volume control for the rear set. We got to try the six-stacker CD player, which sits under the floor in the topbox, or 'trunk' in yank-speak, and highly recommend it, despite the $2000 sticker price. It's a well-thought-out unit that doesn't intrude into the luggage space.

Speaking of which, there's room for a decent-sized bag in each pannier, plus two full-size Shoei helmet shells (the largest available) in the topbox. It's all waterproof and the panniers are airtight to the point where they take a fair bit of persuasion to close. A neat touch is a warning display on the dash that flashes up if the luggage isn't properly closed.

Seating is very good - enough to make some very long days in the saddle much less of a trial than they should have been. The rider seat in particular is an improvement over the last 1500 items I sampled.

What's the point?
It depends on what your idea of traveling is, I guess. Our version in the 12-ish days we had the bike was to take a healthy credit card, point the handlebars towards Disneyland and then just make it up from there. Along the way we copped a pretty fair mix of straight and boring roads, and scratcher's delight.

Sure the ability to instantly turn into a Blade would be welcome. As it was a holiday and we were in deep relaxation mode, the Wing worked just fine.

The $40,000 price tag is enough to make you take a deep breath and is about the same in the USA (for the same-spec bike - there is a 'lower' model). It's somewhere above the vague territory of its competitors (BMW's better equipped K1200LT and H-D's Glide) though a very different motorcycle to either of them.

Yankland by Wing was a good enough experience to inspire the purchase of my own heavyweight tourer (a Valkyrie Interstate). If it can encourage that sort of action, the GoldWing has to have a lot going for it.

Traveler's tips
With the exchange rate the way it is, traveling in the USA is probably cheaper than much of Europe, but still expensive by our standards. For example a twin-share middle to lower range hotel will cost US$100-plus per night in LA or San Francisco. Food works out to around one and a half times local cost, though the serves tend to be big, while petrol is about the same or slightly cheaper.

Theme parks - Disney, Universal and the like - sting you for around US$60-65 per head (ouch!) though they try pretty hard to give value for money. There are some lesser-known bargains, such as the Getty Museum (free, unless you're parking a car) in LA, particularly if harum-scarum rides aren't compulsory.

Hire bikes are readily found, if pricey. It's important you carry your insurance/registration documents with you in case you're hauled up by plod. If you are nabbed for speeding, the approach that you're used to kmh and not mph has been known to work - though we're not guaranteeing it.

Anyone used to the speed camera behind every rock approach of local revenue-raisers will be pleasantly surprised by the west coast. Cops were about, but you had to be doing something pretty outlandish to attract their attention.

By far the biggest danger is forgetting which side of the road you should be on. Every time I've ridden in a 'wrong side of the road' country, I've stuffed up at some stage. So it can pay to train your pillion to yell at you. The biggest danger time is when you absent-mindedly turn out onto the street from a driveway.

The Australian-produced Lonely Planet guide book range is highly-recommended. We used the California & Nevada book, along with the general USA guide (around $35-40 each) to great effect. If all else fails, it gives you something to read for the long plane trip over there.

Another good buy is Rand McNally's The Road Atlas & Trip Planner, which is a bargain at US$6.95 over there. It covers the entire USA, Canada and Mexico and is about the size of your average magazine. The maps miss some details, which can usually be filled in by the free tourist offerings you'll come across along the way.

If my experience is anything to go by, it is well worth getting off the main tourist routes and into the B roads. Most seem to be good quality, with surprisingly few other users even in peak holiday season, and the locals tend to be a lot friendlier.

Distances will catch even an Australian out. We covered over 4000km, effectively doing a loop from Los Angeles to the Grand Canyon (northern Arizona) via Las Vegas. We then cut across Nevada to San Francisco (not to be missed) and then back to LA via Highway 1 (ditto). Look on a map and it seems to cover a very small patch of the country - so try not to get too ambitious with the travel plans.

We booked only one night in a motel before we left - the first on the ground - and had no difficulty making it up from there as we went along, despite the fact it was summer holidays.

If all else fails, there's a laugh or two in the place names. For example, Randy Mall, Chuck-A-Rama Buffet and, my all time favourite from San Francisco, Beach Towel Babylon Boulevard.

Story: Guy Allen