2012 Gold Wing - Speculation, Rumor and Hearsay

[Rincewind]

With the closing of the Marysville, Ohio, Gold Wing plant in 2009, many riders were anticipating a new Gold Wing for 2011 chock-full of new innovations and originating from the Japanese Honda plant.

A few months ago, the local dealer here told my dad (a long-time Wing rider) that no, there will not be any 2011 Gold Wings and that he'd have to keep riding is 2007 for now.  Many people were thinking that this lag was to give Honda time to fine-tune a new market-leader.  After all, BMW has its new 6-cylinder 1600 powerplant in the wings to go into a K1200 Lite-Truck replacement.  Surely Honda is spending some good R&D money to stay competitive in the full dresser market.

Fast forward to Rider magazine of this month.  They have an editorial in the beginning that breaks it down.  Honda's America plant produced enough Gold Wings in 2009 to carry over their anticipated demand for 2-years, 2010 and 2011.   After shut-down, Honda reclaimed all of the tooling, parts, and equipment and relocated them to their Japanese plant.  This may mean that for 2012 Honda will start producing essentially the same bike in Japan as they were making in the US!  They did speculate on a Dual-Clutch set-up and some other feature changes, but essentially the article prepared us for a 2012 Gold Wing that could still be the same GL1800 that has been made since 2001!

[sammyseaman]

Rumor? Dual-clutch, airbags and some sort of stability control. Also it'll weigh well over 900#'s

[Rincewind]

Rumor? Dual-clutch, airbags and some sort of stability control. Also it'll weigh well over 900#'s

C'mon, that's way too sporty for a Gold Wing!  

[sammyseaman]

I'm not sure they'd wanna do much to change/update the Wing. It's a niche market and they've pretty much owned it for 30 years or so. Also if they got too fancy-shmancy the price would be insane.... even for a Honda.

[atadaskew]

All I felt my Wing 18 needed was an electrically adjustable windshield and better quality suspension.

[tomek]

You owned GoldWing ?

I`d rather drive Dodge Omni.

[1KPerDay]

1. 5-10 degrees more lean angle
2. actual quality suspension with useful travel. Lose the silly anti-dive.
3... TV? Air conditioning? Cupholders?  

[schmii]

Ice Cream Maker.

[atadaskew]

You owned GoldWing ?

I`d rather drive Dodge Omni.

Goldwing good.  Dodge Omni bad.

[Giaka]

3... Cupholders?  

 

[atadaskew]

2. actual quality suspension with useful travel. Lose the silly anti-dive.

That was the most surprising part for me.  My old 1200 Wing had better suspension than the 1800 and much better than the awful stuff on my Valk Interstate.
It would have been understandable if it was a budget bike, but the Wing is their flagship.

[ANZAC]

  to Honda for closing the US plant.  The flip side is the new bike won't be made in China.

[chornbe]

  to Honda for closing the US plant.  

A Japanese company, headquartered in Japan, during a world-economic mess in the making, decides to contract and shrink back its tentacles a little bit, and I'm sure reduced a metric buttload of costs.

And that's bad?

GM and Ford divest themselves of some of their offshore entanglements and people cheer.

[JReazor]

You owned GoldWing ?

I`d rather drive Dodge Omni.

Make is a GLH and I'd almost agree with you. I think it's only about twice the weight of a Wing.

[atadaskew]

  to Honda for closing the US plant.  The flip side is the new bike won't be made in China.

I'm wondering if one reason they closed the plant is that the workers lost their quality mojo.
I know four doods with late model Wings who had numerous QC issues.  Things that earlier in the production run weren't there.
Maybe this made the decision easier?

[kendenton]

Make is a GLH and I'd almost agree with you. I think it's only about twice the weight of a Wing.

Or better yet, a GLHS.  

[atadaskew]

Or better yet, a GLHS.  

Sounds awfully close to the Suzuki GLaHdiuS

[ANZAC]

I'm wondering if one reason they closed the plant is that the workers lost their quality mojo.
I know four doods with late model Wings who had numerous QC issues.  Things that earlier in the production run weren't there.
Maybe this made the decision easier?

That's a hard one to say for sure but we lost jobs here in the US.  I believe that we can make things better here in America - now if we can get the CEO's to stop sourcing everthing overseas  

[Oilhed]

I'm still waiting for the Gold Wing "Lite", same thing just less chrome bits and no trunk.

[1KPerDay]

The topcase is the best part. You can lose the sidebags if you like. I guess the goldwing lite is the ST13. It's still 700 pounds though.