Honda’s gargantuan Gold Wing is truly the cruise ship of the motorcycle world. You don’t hop on it, you board it – and the view from the bridge, as you survey the ocean of bitumen stretched out before you, can’t help but evoke feelings of power and command.
It’s no frigate, that’s for sure, but what it lacks in manoeuvrability it more than makes up for with sheer, unadulterated luxury. It’s the Queen Mary 2 on wheels. Not convinced? Read on…
The ’08 Wing’s list of appointments reads like a luxury car brochure. To start with, the standard bike comes with an AM/FM four-speaker stereo system, electronic cruise control and electronically adjustable suspension (preload on the rear shock).
Then there are the heated handlebar grips, and the independently-operated electrically heated rider and pillion seats. There’s also a rider to pillion intercom system – provided you buy helmets to suit – and there’s even a reverse gear.
That’s right, it’s got reverse – simply engage neutral, hit the reverse button, and then press the starter button to crank the bike backwards using the starter motor. With a claimed dry weight of 369kg, or 381kg for the ABS and airbag-equipped Luxury-spec model pictured here, it’s kinda handy!
In addition to the aforementioned safety gear, the Luxury version sports a multi-disc CD stacker (with MP3 adapter), pannier bags (to unpack or pack the bike’s integrated panniers and top box in seconds), driving lights (not yet fitted to our test machine) and satellite navigation.
The sat-nav is superb, and comes with a full-colour display, a super-fast processor, optional voice commands and an incredibly intuitive menu system. For safety’s sake, you can’t use the menu system while you’re on the move, but you can adjust the volume of the voice commands or zoom in or out via handlebar controls.
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