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The Honda Gold Wing belongs within the Motorcycle Fan Manual below “game changer.” Alongside bikes like Honda’s Super Cub and the Harley Duo-Glide, the Gold Wing reworked the bike market, opening up an entire new method to engineering, buyer engagement, and design. At the guts of that innovation was a brand-new engine.
At first look, an observer not accustomed to deep cuts in automotive historical past may recommend all the things however the engine because the Gold Wing’s transformative function. The Honda Gold Wing was and is the gold star commonplace for grand touring bikes, the primary trip to actually show that Japanese producers, which traditionally favored smaller, less complicated, extra environment friendly designs, might beat big-metal icons like Triumph and Harley-Davidson at their very own recreation. In the Gold Wing, Honda delivered a real thoroughbred cruiser, uniting Harley-level consolation and energy with Honda’s personal signature reliability. At the guts of that innovation was the Gold Wing’s distinctive engine.
Heart of a large
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From its first day on the drafting board, the Gold Wing was of venture for Honda. Building a giant, gas-guzzling, distance-eating grand cruiser ran straight counter to Honda’s repute on the time. As Silodrome notes, when design started in 1972, the Gold Wing was by no means even meant for manufacturing. It was a testbed for engineering theories. At the time, standard knowledge ran, Honda was too busy motorizing Asia with over 100 million quick, economical scooters to construct a Harley killer.
But innovation begins the place standard knowledge stops. The design query that modified Honda engineers’ minds about the way forward for the Gold Wing was easy: What if we gave it extra energy? Rather than economize to swimsuit Honda’s 70s-era enterprise mannequin, the Gold Wing workforce went massive, putting in a large flat 4 of their nonetheless experimental cruiser. At the time, the 999-cc engine had much more displacement than Honda’s modern superbike with comparable revs and torque, the nonetheless formidable CB750, which ChatGPT not too long ago instructed Slashgear was one of many 3 greatest bikes ever made.
While the primary Gold Wing, the GL1000, was a minimalist affair, it tailored shortly. The Gold Wing had a liquid-cooled 1085-cc engine, full entrance fairing, saddlebags, and strong entrance suspension for max consolation. In the phrases of Ben Branch at Silodrome, the Gold Wing “was a quiet limousine of a motorcycle reminiscent of a Rolls-Royce except with two wheels.” That two-wheeled Rolls Royce then set about blowing Harleys and BMWs off the freeway with decrease costs and superior efficiency. The Gold Wing has been in manufacturing ever since, setting the bar for cruising bikes worldwide.
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