Honda Goldwing 1800. Furtled and fumbled.

[scdan4]

I've wanted a wing for ages, something about the Liberace excessiveness really appeals. Life's moved me 25  M4 motorway junctions from my friends,  all of them heavily trafficked and policed, and that's putting a crimp on me playing "bike with my friends "

I've had all sorts of bikes but never a super full fat tourer. Seems like the appropriate time. 

The Honda goldwing is the long term champion. For the millennium it had a generation change and honda took it very seriously. Aluminium frame by their top designer, flat 6 engine located deliberately low down. Abs, cruise control. Reverse gear, Fake leather seats and a CD player. Not generally cheap though. And maybe does have vague line dancing associations.

Ta daa. The cheapest gl1800 in the country for quite some time. Been stood outside uncovered for most of the year, MOT expired, moss growing on it.  Bartered it down a good bit from cheapish to cheap enough, insured it, booked a MOT, strapped on and fucked off full commitment style. Most adventurous thing I've done in ages.

No brakes until lots of squeezing and stamping, no indicators as the switch just flapped about, everything just stuck/crusty/jerky. It's huge. Tyres are flatish and it's tramlining horribly on the shitty road surface. And I'm concentrating very hard, it's been a while since I did any miles on a weighty bike. And it weighs 350ish kg.

30 minutes later I'm sat on the motorway on cruise control in a blast of heated air with my visor up grinning like a Cheshire cat. It's ridiculous, it's hilarious. 

Left it with the MOT man and picked it up today 

 

Schwing for the Wing 😁

It's a bit crusty ...

 

 

 

 

But I don't care as it sounds like a Porsche when you rev it. Although it looks like a generation 6 accord dashboard was the starting point 

 

Everything needs going over . I have no idea what the extras do 

 

Stickers to come off around the place but not sure if the tank regiment is ironic?

Picked it up from the garage and the mot man was doing Friday afternoon wheelies 😄

Got it home the longest way I had time for which involved through town Friday afternoon traffic and it was fine. Wide, but surprisingly controllable, I even did some gentle filtering.

So yeah - check out my wing , it's a-mezz-in😊

[Barry Cade]

That is awesome! Is that your vid on You Tube? got it earmarked for watching later..  I (whisper) really want a Goldwing too, but the older 1500, preferably in light blue.. Dunno why, just do!

[Semi-C]

Props for taking up the captaincy of such an imposing vessel, full commitment indeed.

[junkyarddog]

I've always liked them.

Well done,and best of luck with your new purchase. 

@Yoeddynz Put one of those engines into a Hillman Imp 😁

[chaseracer]

350 fat ones?  That's more than half a 2CV...

Top bombimg, sir!

[scdan4]

43 minutes ago, Barry Cade said:

That is awesome! Is that your vid on You Tube? got it earmarked for watching later..  I (whisper) really want a Goldwing too, but the older 1500, preferably in light blue.. Dunno why, just do!

Not me on the tube, no. 

Might as well do it, only here once and all that  👍🙂

[wuvvum]

These are rather silly, but I do like them.  They toned down the styling a bit for the 1.8 though - the older 1.5s were almost comically over the top, which for a bike like this is no bad thing.

[outlaw118]

First ever bike I had a (pillion) ride on, I must have been about 14, so 1983/4? 

Was at a show of some description with the olds, and myself and @Nev whined a lot until we were given the fee to have a ride.

Big fat armchair, nice noise, I've never forgotten it.

[hairnet]

madness

id love a spin on one but the weight puts me off (im a wimp)

 

[Schaefft]

I don't have a bike license but even I want a Goldwing. Nice job on getting this one back on the road!

[Barry Cade]

2 hours ago, scdan4 said:

Not me on the tube, no. 

Might as well do it, only here once and all that  👍🙂

 

[hairnet]

[scdan4]

I'm loving the wing. By far the best thing I've bought for a while. Keep looking at it and grinning.

Had some spring sun yesterday so took it out for a longish loop down the coast and motorway in the sunshine and see how it was.

Tyres needed 20 psi front and 15 psi in the rear adding to get them to be correct - no wonder it was handling like a pig. It's transformed the handling from 'really quite frightening' to 'this is a bit of all right'

Having had a bit of a prod I'm seriously impressed with the packaging and engineering of this bike. It really was a big deal for honda, so lots of effort went in to making it handle well (as the previous one had the reputation for being a bit wallowey). 

The black thing under the seat is the fuel tank, under that is (hiding behind the frame) the (massive, single sided) swing arm that mounts into the centre of that huge ally frame casting in the middle. That's got a beam frame straight to the headstock and is the centre of pivot for the (single shock) swingarm, just like a fireblade. Under the frame beam at riders ankle level is the gearbox, the engine shaped like a wide low suitcase in front of that. Crank height about the same as the yellow reflector on the forks, about the same height as the swingarm pivot point. 

All of that weight is at axle height, down by the riders ankles. It makes the bike remarkably stable and non tippy despite the obvious weight. I'm liking it, it's really quite fun to ride. Engine is 6 cylinder smooth and just whooshes the whole lot effortlessly away on demand with a great 6 cylinder sound, almost any gear any speed.

I've had loads of bikes that handle way worse than this. I think this is easier to ride than a big gs... It's not even that wide, and the mirrors are the widest bit, followed by your hands so it's really easy to judge gaps. It's a nice bike to ride.

Gave it a good prod.

Centre stand completely seized up. Squirted oil, hit with hammer, still seized 

Plenty of nice clean oil.

Plenty of storage - that's 2 large size full face helmets in the boot. That's genuinely useful.

Lots and lots of shonky wiring , there's been a good few bits added and removed and I'm fairly hopeful none of the Honda stuff is too hacked about . Getting rid of the crap is high on the to do list 

 

Someone has taken out the cd player which is a bit of an arse, leaving a little extra cubby 

And the radio has no reception which I'm sure is linked. 

Most disappointing, but expected and accepted as inevitable 

Little bit of fork oil getting out. I hate doing fork seals, one of me least favourite jobs. Calipers may as well get some love while I'm there. Discs are a bit thin, might be the 68k old originals.

Gave every single switch and lever a dosing in switch cleaner and a good waggle which has sorted most of them, and wiped the whole cockpit over with soap and water. Looks a lot better for it imo.

 

 

[BorniteIdentity]

On 21/02/2025 at 22:37, Schaefft said:

I don't have a bike license but even I want a Goldwing. Nice job on getting this one back on the road!

My friend did his DAS last year (in the space of two weeks) JUST so he could have a Goldwing. I need to pull my finger out and do mine this Spring - but I can't have a Goldie because there's simply not enough space in my entire road for such a spaceship.

[Fabergé Greggs]

Great work! Would love to try one on day, though I think I should probably start small* on an ST1100 first 

[Sham]

I've been looking lustfully at ST1300's recently, these big Honda's are exceptional value.

[wuvvum]

1 hour ago, Fabergé Greggs said:

Great work! Would love to try one on day, though I think I should probably start small* on an ST1100 first 

Get a ST1100 in white, every driver over a certain age will instinctively move out of your way on the motorway.

[hairnet]

had that for while when i had an ex police one

with white helmet at the time EVERYBODY MOVES and slows down  

[Spiny Norman]

Not really a  bike guy, never had a licence. Last two wheeler I rode was my mate's Honda CB250RS about 40 years ago, but that looks superb!
That's a flat 6 in there, right? Porsche mpg figures too? 😛

[N Dentressangle]

Cool bikes - so much more so than campy HD's, if you ask me.

Well done for reviving it.

[Cavcraft]

Do these have a dummy tank then like the originals? Such a lot of bike for the money, iirc they were made in America.

[yes oui si]

These sound great with a bit of exhaust cuntery. 

[MrBig]

What a fantastic beast! The dashboard looks like it from a car 

Enjoy!

[scdan4]

The fork oil seal on the left hand fork had popped and thrown oil all over the brakes and tyre. Pretty much like every other bike I've bought, ever.  "Fork seals need doing? Tyres fucked? Chain and sprocket shagged? Just sell it to Dan 😁 "

Step one is getting the bike supported while you take the front off. Easy on something like this, pop it on the main stand with weight on the back and a chock under the engine. I'll just get that main stand moving.

About 4 hours of being careful and oiling, tapping and waggling saw the stand (which looks like I found it on the beach) no longer attached to the bike. Fucker. This isn't even the job I want to do 😁

Cleaned it all up with a wire brush. Those inset bushes in the ears are meant to be the moving bit but are absolutely solid.

Left them soaking in shelf find fluid 

 

Snapped bolt hidden away behind the exhaust so can't get a drill to it currently but could if I took the exhaust off...

But no. Opening a whole Can of worms there.

The Centre stand can wait, I'll sort it in the winter 

Nice sturdy engine bars bolted to the frame proved perfect axle stand points 

 

And in much less time than it took to not fix the centre stand the front fell off 

Brakes given a look at and all pistons were exercised out and cleaned down with brake cleaner and a toothbrush, as was the whole area - fork oil was over everything. The discs were also cleaned off and measured at 4mm, still some way from the wear limit of 3.5mm so they stay.

According to the internet if the anti dive dooby gets cruddy it will blow the fork seal 

Fork seal's definitely blown and It's certainly pretty cruddy in there, as are the stantions 

Plenty of oily wet n dry cleaned them up but will have to keep them oily or it will be back. Bike now living inside will surely help it stay shiny longer 

Postie brought a seal driver set (love me some new tools) and some non oiled decent brand brake pads.

 

Put the seal driver to good use 

And then added something like 3/4 of a litre of fork oil to get it 128mm from fork top. (That feels like a lot, sure it used to be 2 forks for a litre, but perhaps I remember wrong)

Put it all back together and headed out for a test lap of the block 

Which resulted in the mirror glass coming out over some bumps. It's mainly there but mostly broken so I'll need a new one of them. I found out why, a bit of plastic missing, which I think is it objecting to being asked to move when I adjusted the mirror to suit me. 

The mirrors on this thing are amazing, when attached. Other than that the test ride was uneventful and the fork seal stayed good

Went for a longer ride. Brakes are now much much better than before and far more confidence inspiring. Suspension keeps the oil in and is.... Quite shit really. Crashes through potholes and bumps. The internet says that they are like when worn but there's easy ways to improve it with different springs and fluid. It can all wait till the winter because it's sunny and I bought this to ride it.

Its ok to ride. Big and heavy which works well when it's flowing, less so when you're creeping uphill round a bend. Narrow, bad road surfaced junctions take some planning and I used reverse twice today just to move the lump round so it's very much not a gimmick.

 

[scdan4]

On 24/02/2025 at 14:29, Spiny Norman said:

That's a flat 6 in there, right? Porsche mpg figures too? 😛

It's a flat 6 yes. Seems to be not horrendous so far. Would guess at 40mpg

On 24/02/2025 at 17:43, Cavcraft said:

Do these have a dummy tank then like the originals? Such a lot of bike for the money, iirc they were made in America.

Yes it's a dummy tank. It's got a filler under a flap in roughly the normal place but that's just a neck leading to a tank under the seat. Honda of the USA manufacturing loud and proud on the frame sticker 

On 24/02/2025 at 20:55, yes oui si said:

These sound great with a bit of exhaust cuntery. 

It sounds amazing. Somewhere between a Porsche and a motor launch. Burbley, woofly and lovely. Not loud but audible, and there's good induction noise when you accelerate too 

[N Dentressangle]

Nice work - I've only had the pleasure* of doing fork seals once or twice, and found it a hateful job. They were one good reason for going for a BMW with a weird telelever front end.

Bike's looking good. Living inside and getting a bit of TLC will sort it out.

[scdan4]

Been gently getting on with this. Got to grips with the size, mostly and am beginning to relax with it. Jumping between this and the scooter repeatedly this week was a bit of a mind fuck but I think I've got it now 😆. The scooter feels like a crisp packet in a gust of wind compared to this.

It's good fun lining it up through the bends, responding eagerly to a push on the bars through the bends. On a trip to Bristol ring road the sunshine, dry road, eager drivers and gloriously sounding grunty engine had me giggling, seeing how brave I was and momentarily wondering about knee sliders. (I quickly remembered my age and went and got a cup of tea 😁). The tyres and suspension are pretty shagged so a sorted one could be a right goer. 

And exactly as I bought it for it sat on the M4, mainly on 50 or 70 cruise control, I was comfy, warm and having a ball. Motorbikes are horrible on motorways in my experience. Noisy, cramped, wind batter, boring with a temptation, and potential to double the speed to liven it up abit.  On the wing I'm sat back with my visor up, it's a much nicer experience 

Suspension 'upgrade' spacer, which takes the violence out of the 'not great when new, much worse when older " anti dive.

That'll get us through to winter just fine 

It rattled horribly going over bumps and stuff so I took it to pieces and put it back together more carefully than the last guy with replacement fasteners where needed. 

Slim hips under a frumpy dress

Got rid of the additional shonky wiring and lots of bling tat,

600 square floor tile. All slapping and rattling away or preventing panels from closing properly. It's not even all of it, there's still stuff in the nose and behind the left pannier.  It's had some fancy light show on it at some point, a few of these in the light housings

Replaced the broken wing mirror.

Replaced the blown front headlight and bulb. They're held in a little black holder thing that looks easy to lose in a carpark bulb change. 

 

Goes down in there somewhere 

Put it back together better than it came apart. Radio now works 😀 but the speakers (4 x 10 cm) need replaced. I've put in a new feed to a new USB socket in the left fairing box which I've wired through a relay on the switched live that was powering the previous mess. And taped it all down good so it doesn't rattle.

Glued tabs onto the rear part of the front mudguard which had been snapped off. Drilled and tapped and now the front disc covers are held tight to the mudguard. No more rattling from there 

If you've not used qbond you should try some. It's very good for this sort of thing 

Left fairing leg warmer was missing it's grill 

China provided a new one for reasonable pennies 

And back together, as said with all fixing points containing a working fixing and with miles less wires and tat.  Needs a road test 

Yep, new headlight bulb works  and there are far fewer rattles, which of course makes it feel a good deal smoother as well. Luxury* cruiser

Got it onto some fun roads and it was a delight. So much grunt from pull away, 6 cylinder silky mechanical vibes down by my feet. Push the bar away and it rolls into the turn, give it some throttle and it tightens the turn and drives through and away. Plan your route and use the bars and throttle to follow it, great smooth flowing riding and a great smooth engine. 

Honeymoon period is still all good.