Fifty years ago, in October 1974, at a motorcycle show in Cologne, Germany, Honda unveiled an all-new model destined to change the face of the sport and launch a new segment of motorcycling in America. The GL1000 Gold Wing had shaft drive, a 1,000 cc liquid-cooled, flat four-cylinder engine, an underseat gas tank, triple disc brakes, and the potential to be an exceptional long-haul touring bike.
With that first GL1000, however, you had to use your imagination to see all that potential. The first Gold Wing was intended to be what we would today call a sport-naked bike, a new flagship performance machine for Honda that would go one step bigger than the CB750 that created a stir when Honda released it. The original Gold Wing carried no fairing or luggage.
Over the years, the Gold Wing evolved into the luxury touring motorcycle by which others were measured. The engine grew two more cylinders, becoming a silky six. Precise fuel injection replaced finicky carbs, and the factory added ever more bells and whistles to entertain and coddle long-haul touring riders. The Wing was the first model to offer an air bag and, maybe more useful, a reverse gear, causing anyone who had ever parked one head first in a downward-sloping parking spot to yell, “It’s about time!”
Today, the Gold Wing is on its sixth generation and comes with advanced features including a double-wishbone front suspension and an optional dual-clutch transmission. Through the entire evolution of the model, uncounted riders have bought, ridden, and cherished Gold Wings. I tracked down one owner of each generation and asked them about their bikes. Here’s what they had to say.
The first generation, 1974-79 GL1000
Albert Catelani, who owns a 1978 GL1000, knows a good thing when he sees it — and hangs onto it. “I bought it in ’78 from a family friend when it was one year old and I’ve had it ever since,” he says. “It has a little over 63,000 miles on it now and runs today as well as it ever did.”
That purchase might have been a life saver. “I bought it when I was 21,” he says, “and I’m glad I did because I knew it was a big, heavy bike and I wasn’t going to be able to do anything stupid on it. I probably survived motorcycles because of that.”
The GL1000 was a bombshell in its day, according to Catelani. “It’s probably the smoothest, most comfortable touring bike ever made to that point. For its time, a flat-four, overhead-cam, water-cooled, shaft-drive combination had never been seen before. It was considered a huge bike when it first came out, but today it looks kind of cute next to a modern one. I was very much into touring in my early years and that absolutely fit the bill. All of my buddies were on air-cooled BMWs and I got a lot of grief, but I kept up with them.”
Catelani still sees his GL1000 as a touring bike, not a relic. “I wouldn’t go up the Haul Road to Alaska with it but if you’re on pavement it’s a hard bike to beat. I live in the San Francisco Bay area and if I were going to ride to Key West, I’d have a hard time talking myself out of taking it.”
He’d make it, too, if his Wing’s service history is any indication. “In the 40 years I’ve owned it, it let me down only one time and that was an anomaly. I was eastbound on Highway 50 in Nevada, riding two up at 70 mph when the U-joint in the driveline came apart. I put in a new driveshaft by the light of a motel doorway and that’s the same one that’s in it today.”
Summing up the Gold Wing’s place in motorcycling history, Catelani says, “The Gold Wing opened up a whole new market here in the States. It wasn’t a bike that Europeans or the Japanese would be particularly interested in. It was made for America’s wide-open roads and that suited the American touring rider perfectly. Honda found a niche in the market that hadn’t been filled by anybody else and provided a solution that spoke to that segment. And they had much higher build quality and reliability than the British or American makes had.”
The second generation, 1979-83 GL1100
There’s nothing like a bike with a backstory — and a name. Dan Fox bought his 1981 GL1100 from an elderly couple in his wife’s hometown of Henrietta, Oklahoma. “It was an actual barn find,” he says. “It hadn’t been started for three or four years. After buying it in Henrietta, we just named it that.”
Once Henrieta was installed in her new home, Fox says, “I rebuilt the carbs, replaced everything on it that could fail, and got it going. I’ve been fixing it up ever since.” Right out of the barn, Henrietta had a Vetter fairing, saddlebags, and trunk, “but I took all that off. To me it’s too much of an old man’s bike when they have all that stuff on there. I just like a naked bike.”
The naked Gold Wings of the model’s early years had a charm all their own. “Those bikes had a low center of gravity and they were very easy to ride,” Fox says. “The weight has never been an issue and I’ve never dropped the bike. It’s actually easy to get up on the centerstand.” There’s no lack of comfort, either. “My wife won’t ride anything else because nothing else is as comfortable for her.”
Out on the road, the GL1100 exhibits the traits that Gold Wings are known for. “You can just settle into it and ride it for hours and never get tired. It’s very reliable and predictable. I wouldn’t be afraid to take that bike anywhere. It starts right up every time.” As well as he gets along with Henrietta, she has a few quirks Fox isn’t fond of. “There are times I feel it’s a little underpowered, especially when the wife and I are on it. I don’t like the gearing, either. It could have taller gears. And it’s not that easy to tune up.”
Of all the Gold Wings, Fox likes the GL1100 most for its simple lines. “It’s the best in terms of styling,” he says. “It’s all about styling for me. I like a bike that has that vintage, classic look. You have the best of both worlds, the best of touring and the best of vintage street bike looks.”
The third generation, 1983-87 GL1200
Just as not every sport bike finds its way to a track day, not every touring bike is used to cross several state lines in a day. Some are used as daily riders with the occasional long weekend thrown in. “I bought mine with 36,000 miles on it and put on another 6,000 myself,” says Jim Wellemeyer about his 1987 GL1200. “I didn’t do any long trips, mostly local rides, and a couple of 300-mile rides or so.”
It’s easy to think of a Gold Wing and imagine it loaded with every conceivable luxury, but not all GL1200s came with kitchen sinks. “Mine was an Interstate but pretty much bare bones, without a radio or anything else on it.” And despite many Wing owners’ qualms about their bikes’ weight, Welllemeyer had no complaints. “It wasn’t near as heavy as the newer Gold Wings so it moved down the road pretty good. I never felt like the weight was an issue for me. We rode it in the mountains near Denver a few times, and it handled really well up there,” he says. “It was a comfortable bike, and for its size it had good power.”
By the time Wellemeyer’s GL1200 rolled off the assembly line, that assembly line was located in the United States, at Honda’s plant in Marysville, Ohio, where Gold Wings were built for decades. The change in origin didn’t change the legendary reputation for reliability. The bike let him down only once.
“The cause was the electronic ignition module,” Wellemeyer says. “If I’d pull up to a stoplight it would die. I found a replacement for it and it solved the problem.”
Though his GL1200 is gone, Wellemeyer now has a 1975 Gold Wing and a Valkyrie to keep himself occupied. “I’ve ridden some newer Wings,” he says, but they didn’t appeal to him. “As the Gold Wings got bigger and fatter, I didn’t like them so much.”
The fourth generation, 1987-2000 GL1500
Greg Weaver is a longtime mechanic at an Oregon Honda dealer who has not only ridden but also worked on every generation of Gold Wing since the GL1000. He recently traded up to a GL1800 from the 1988 GL1500 he had for 19 years and 70,000 miles.
The GL1500, he says, was “very comfortable. It had good ergonomics, a cushy ride, and adequate power. It handled amazingly well. A lot of people couldn’t believe how well that thing would corner. The input required to turn it was so light, you just thought about going around a corner and it went. It was low-maintenance, too. With hydraulic valves, only two carbs, and shaft drive, it was fairly easy to work on.”
The GL1500 was the first six-cylinder Wing, and the added displacement came with added weight. “It was huge. It showed its size in parking lots,” Weaver says. “They’re not heavy when they’re straight up and down but once they start leaning they get heavy quick.” Weaver singles out the linked brakes (“not all that fantastic”) and the mediocre lighting for criticism, but saves his harshest scorn for rear-tire changes.
“We charge two hours to do a rear tire. The manual wants you to tip the whole saddlebag/trunk/tail section out of the way — well, that’s crazy. I always swung the exhaust out, but getting the rear wheel out of there between the saddlebag and the caliper was a tight fit. The 1500, as far as I’m concerned, was the worst of all the Wings to change the rear tire on. In fact, it was the worst Honda to change the rear tire on.”
Overall, though, Weaver’s appraisal of the GL1500 is kind. “It was just a big old comfortable bike that handled really well and did nothing exceptionally good or bad.”
The fifth generation, 2001-17 GL1800
Honda built the Gold Wing for touring riders, but your definition of touring probably falls short of Michael Smeyers’ definition. He rode his 2004 GL1800 in the 2005 Iron Butt Rally. “It was essentially Denver to Key West, back to Denver, then to Maine and back to Denver,” he says. “It was more than 10,300 miles.”
His previous bike was a BMW K1100LT. “The Wing was smoother, quieter, and more comfortable,” he says, “the first bike I had owned that I didn’t have to modify ergonomically to make myself comfortable enough to do 1,000-mile days. I could fuel it, turn the key, and just ride away.”
Smeyers’ bike had an auxiliary fuel cell, an accessory beloved by long-distance riders. “I liked that I could ride 350 to 400 miles and get off the bike and still feel good.”
His biggest gripe about the GL1800 will be familiar to Gold Wing owners everywhere. “It was the weight. With me on the bike, it was 1,150 pounds. That’s just a lot of weight. I dropped it in New Brunswick, and in Maine, and I dropped it in my driveway. It always fell away from me, never toward me, and in trying to save it I usually ended up sprawled on top of it. And it was never without an audience. Once it’s moving, you don’t feel any of the weight. But if you’re going slowly, like in a Safeway parking lot, it requires your full attention.” Despite its mass, “it hustled along pretty good. The feelers on the bottom of the footpegs were ground off.”
The GL1800’s power to impress manifests itself in surprising ways. “I go riding with some friends of mine,” Smeyers says, “and one of them is a 20-year-old with a Honda CBR600 F4 sport bike. One time he said, ‘You should really ride my bike to see what a sport bike is like.’ I said, ‘OK, do you mind riding the GL?’ He said, ‘Sure, but it’s not really my kind of bike.’ After 50 miles we traded back and he said, ‘I understand now why people buy these. I totally get it.'”
The sixth generation, 2018-present GL1800
I’ve owned two Gold Wings, a GL1200 and a GL1800. Oddly, for as much as I rode it, all I remember with any certainty about the 1200 is that it was blue. I remember a lot more about the 1800, most of it related to the bike’s mass and weight, which is why I eventually sold it. After that, I moved on to smaller, lighter bikes. I thought I was done with Gold Wings until 2019, when Honda offered me a 2018 GL1800 with DCT to test for an automotive website. How could I say no?
The sixth-generation Gold Wing felt lighter than my old fifth-generation GL1800 (it was, by almost 100 pounds) and while still not light by any means it was easier to push around. It magically shed another hundred pounds once under way, and handled like one of the hippo ballerinas in “Fantasia” — hefty, but light on its feet. The seating position might as well have been built specifically for me, and the optional backrest added hours to every day’s riding comfort.
The biggest surprise was the DCT, which was wildly better than I had imagined. With 125 horsepower and 125 foot-pounds of torque at my disposal, I put the bike in Drive mode and left it there, letting the DCT pick the right gear for every occasion, which it did flawlessly. (I tried Sport mode once on a twisty road and scared myself so badly I never tried it again.) The double-wishbone front end was a revelation, too — smooth, stable under braking, and scalpel-precise in corners.
After an 800-mile round trip from my home to a tiny town in Nevada to meet up with a bunch of Iron Butt Association buddies, I felt like I could grab a bite, do some laundry, and go right back. I put 2,300 miles on the bike in all and loved every one of them. I have never ridden a more comfortable motorcycle and I probably never will again.
Still, not all was bliss. As the day wore on and I wore out, the weight came back with a vengeance. The on-board nav system was clunky to use and more than once sent me the wrong way. The audio system lacked the plugs to connect hardwired helmet speakers like I had on my old 1800, and Honda didn’t sell, and therefore didn’t provide, the Bluetooth helmet comm necessary to use helmet speakers. Since I don’t own a comm system, and the external speakers were overwhelmed by wind noise, I listened to my own thoughts.
But those were minor issues, shoved into the background by the bike’s competence and convenience and almost physics-defying brilliance in every other way. You can find fault with its price, or size, or weight, or the perception that Gold Wings are for old, paunchy riders whose best days are behind them (holding up my hand over here), but you’ll have a hard time convincing me that the latest iteration in the line’s 50-year history isn’t the best yet.
