Four decades of Goldwing and its getting an upgrade
Thanks to some new patents filed by Honda Motorcycles that were found by Motorcycle News we now have an idea of what the 2018 Goldwing upgrades might look like.
There is little doubt that the Goldwing needed an upgrade to compete with the competition, having been out there for four decades and not really redone since the GL1800 came out in 2001.
There hasn't been an official announcement so far but lets have a quick look at the patents and what they mean for the bike.
Two of the patents are for new front end options. The first uses a pair of wishbones attached to a girder with bearings that allow the front wheel to steer.
That assembly would be attached via a simple linkage to a single-sprung active shock under the handlebars allowing the rider to steer the bike.
The second front end patent is for a similar system with a shock under the handlebars and a lower wishbone, but it has a vertical member that goes behind the front wheel with a link that connects that member to the hub of the front wheel.
The advantage here is that braking forces will be absorbed into the frame of the bike rather than into the rider’s arms through a telescopic fork pushing into the handlebars.