Tour de Force: Riding 50 Years of Honda Gold Wings

Updated: March 17, 2025

It started life known as Project 371. Its designers nicknamed it the king of kings. Cycle World called it a behemoth. Fans labeled it a magic carpet; naysayers, a couch on wheels. To most of us, it’s the Honda Gold Wing.

What’s in a name? Millions of miles, decades of innovation, the pride of Japan’s largest motorcycle manufacturer, and maybe a bit of magic. Not only did the Gold Wing change the touring category forever, to many, it is the touring category.

The Gold Wing’s significance to Honda is highlighted by the part it played in developing new approaches to product development, forever changing the way the company operates. Its significance to motorcyclists has been just as deeply affecting. For riders, it transformed the touring experience; for their pillions, whose experience Honda paid equal attention, the transformation was greater still. Few motorcycles have inspired such devotion in its fans. With good reason—at least in the opinion of dozens of Cycle World testers. We’ve named it to our annual Ten Best Bikes list a record 25 times.

2025 marks the 50th anniversary of the Gold Wing’s introduction. To celebrate, Honda invited me to the Barber Motorsports Park complex for some laps around the track and a tour of the museum. From there, I had the chance to ride several models in the 2025 lineup over two days, en route to Daytona Bike Week where Honda had a special presentation in the Gold Wing’s honor.

So, what’s in a name?

“In many ways, the GL is typically Honda, because from them we expect the latest in technical innovations and new ideas.” —Cycle World’s review of the 1975 Honda GL1000 Gold Wing, April 1975

The GL1000 may be one of the first—certainly the most significant—Honda motorcycle to wear the Honda badge without wearing it like an artist’s signature.

Well, if not the signature of an artist, certainly the signature of an engineer. Because Soichiro Honda, the founder of Honda Motor Company, was more than anything, an engineer. His persistent pursuit of innovation made him a visionary and gave the company that bears his name the same distinction. Honda engineered opportunity. The company created all-new categories, dashed preconceptions, and built an empire out of clean sheet designs. It’s no surprise that Mr. Honda’s office was at Honda’s Research and Development Center, where he could guide development at every level.

The motorcycle that would become the GL1000 Gold Wing was not spared his scrutiny. From the outset, he was dubious about the prospect of such a large-displacement, liquid-cooled motorcycle, instead favoring a 750cc design. Honda engineers, perhaps to placate the boss, developed a 750cc and 1000cc engine in unison. Mr. Honda retired in 1973, two years before the GL’s release, having had little influence over its development.

It was a great turning point in the company’s history. No longer would Honda be propelled by one man’s personal vision. But the Honda name, spelled in silhouetted chrome letters across the gas tank of every model, would carry on his legacy. There’s a Japanese belief called Kotodama, which holds that words and names can hold mystical power. Whatever magic the Honda name carried was extended to the Gold Wing—to its conceptualization, development, and eventual success.

“Large-displacement motorcycles often raise the most dust at introduction time, and in the last few years we’ve seen the birth of the now famous Z1 Kawasaki 900, BMW’s R90S, the exotic Benelli 750 Six, the Laverda Three and this year…even a rotary from Suzuki. All this while the biggie, Honda, sat contentedly on the sidelines watching sales of its 750 Four, a design six years old, rise above the hundred thousand mark. Honda may have been sitting, but it certainly wasn’t resting. Now it has a whirlwind of its own. In the works for some time now, in many configurations, has been a large machine designed to upstage, but not replace, the 750 Four.” —Cycle World’s review of the 1975 Honda GL1000 Gold Wing, April 1975

Upon his retirement, Mr. Honda placed the company reins in the steady hands of Kiyoshi Kawashima, who’d famously acted as team manager at Honda’s international racing debut at the Isle of Man in 1959.

To better leverage the expertise of Honda’s team of engineers and designers, Kawashima developed the LPL (Large Project Leader) system. The GL1000, known inside Honda as Project 371, was the first model developed under this new direction, and Hisaho Nozue became the first LPL, responsible for steering project leaders (e.g., engine PL, suspension PL, electronics PL) from a bird’s-eye view. The LPL system proved so effective that it’s still used today.

Peering into the past, through obscuring layers of history, it’s often been supposed the Gold Wing was to be the successor of the CB750. But hindsight is 20/100. The GL1000 was never meant to succeed any other motorcycle, let alone a sportbike. It was to be the first of its kind, a success only in as much as destiny ordained.

Lee Edmunds, who worked in various capacities at American Honda over his three-decades-long career, says, “Coming up through Honda, I’d always been told that the GL1000 came out as a sportbike, and it was the customer who defined what the model ultimately became. There’s some truth to that. But the GL1000 was always designed to be a touring bike.”

Nozue’s touring bike featured a 999cc horizontally opposed four with SOHC, liquid-cooling (a first for a Honda motorcycle), and shaft final drive. It used a triple-disc-brake setup. Its fuel tank was located under the seat to keep the center of gravity low. It had neither fairing nor panniers.

“Remember that the GL is a tourer, and it is out on the open stretches that this opposed Four is impressive. Smoothness and silence reign supreme.” —Cycle World’s review of the 1975 Honda GL1000 Gold Wing, April 1975

When Honda invited me to attend the Gold Wing’s 50th anniversary event, I was most excited to have the opportunity to ride a first-year GL1000 around the track at Barber Motorsports Park.

The example Honda procured for our sampling was mostly unrestored, resplendent in Candy Blue Green. There’s little about the GL to suggest that it was the beginning of one of motorcycling’s most significant models of the past half-century. Chrome accents disguise the mufflers finished in primitive black stovepipe paint. The switch gear vaguely recalls the buttons on granny’s old Osterizer blender. And when seen head-on, the GL is shaped like a pear, nature’s least sexy fruit. But it’s hardly the “behemoth” (“bigger and heavier than anything many will ever want to handle”) Cycle World declared in its first road test. It may be a bit stodgy compared to a CB750, for example, but by today’s standards, it’s almost petite. If Triumph will pardon the comparison, it’s far more Bonneville T120-sized than Rocket 3-sized.

After the old GL was properly warmed up, I twisted the grip and the muffler exhaled a fizzy vroom. From the sound, you’d know it was a Honda before even laying eyes on it. And from the smell of the exhaust fumes, you’d know it was at least a couple of decades old.

I was given just two laps to test it. Pulling out of pit lane, the first thing I noticed was that those lay-down cylinders left little room for my toes to find the shifter—even though there were two fewer cylinders than on any other Gold Wing I’d ever ridden. While I expected it to be a plodding, ill-handling “behemoth,” it wasn’t. Sure, the brakes were mediocre, and its power delivery was underwhelming, but there was no doubt that this was the cradle of Gold Wing civilization. Its trademark silky-smooth engine operation was a dominant trait from the very beginning. What this 50-year-old naked bike shares in common with today’s Gold Wing leaves a stronger impression than what it doesn’t.

“And yet, you just know this is a machine designed for Americans and the American market; for many the clamoring and waiting will be over. Their motorcycle has arrived.” —Cycle World’s review of the 1975 Honda GL1000 Gold Wing, April 1975

Despite being “born naked,” as EIC Hoyer is fond of saying, when the GL1000 Gold Wing was unveiled at the 1974 US Dealer Show in Las Vegas, it sported a fairing. The fairing would be available as part of the Hondaline accessory catalog, manufactured in the US by Craig Vetter. As part of the deal, Honda gave Vetter permission to produce GL-specific bracketry to enable fitment of his own Windjammer III fairings. The Windjammer was much larger, offering more protection than the Honda design, and quickly proved the rider’s preference. Honda took notice.

For the second-generation GL, Honda wouldn’t leave so much cash on the table for the aftermarket to grab. Under Kawashima’s guidance, Honda implemented a new development approach called SED (Sales-Engineering-Development). Prior to its implementation, product development and engineering occurred in Japan with little direct influence from the markets to which it geared its products. That all changed after Honda sent a young engineer named Ikuo Shimizu to the US. By connecting with American customers, he gained an invaluable understanding of market needs. Shimizu eventually proposed this type of hyper-local market research to Honda’s formal development process, thus putting in the “S” of SED.

To this day, the SED system works by transferring employees with, say, a background in engineering, to the sales department, and then sending them to far-flung countries to engage with the market at the ground level. At the 50th anniversary event, I spoke with several Japanese associates currently based at American Honda’s headquarters who’ve worked around the world. The SED system, though demanding, has become a large part of Honda’s culture.

“The SED model,” Edmunds says, “defined all these processes for Honda, and that information ultimately led into the Interstate in 1980—a fully fledged touring bike.”

In other words, the 1980 GL1100 Gold Wing Interstate was essentially a factory-made version of the Gold Wing US customers had been building since the outset. With a Windjammer-esque fairing designed in-house at Honda, as well as panniers and a top trunk, the Interstate established the Gold Wing’s silhouette as we’ve come to know it—a silhouette dominated by that tall windscreen and the La-Z-Boy poised atop the rear fender.

“The Wing is a veritable living room on wheels, with a La-Z-Boy of a seat and a better entertainment system than I’ve got at home.” —Cycle World’s review of the 2001 Honda GL1800 Gold Wing, February 2001

When the Interstate was released, it changed the look of touring motorcycles forever—and so much more. The Interstate—and every subsequent Gold Wing model—set the standard of touring motorcycle comfort. But when people say the Gold Wing is like a couch on wheels, I suspect it’s supposed to be meant derisively. I’m not so sure I see it that way.

From Barber, I took the 2025 Gold Wing on a two-day ride to Daytona and the start of Bike Week. The first day, we left Birmingham for Apalachicola on the Gulf coast; the next, we rode to Daytona Beach. Never have I ridden a longer stretch of flat, straight roads. On most motorcycles, it would have been tedious at best, agonizingly uncomfortable at worst.

Other than a niggling trapezius strain (welcome to 40, Richards), I couldn’t have been too much more comfortable on two wheels. I never once took notice of the seat. The engine whispered beneath me, sending not a trace of vibrations to the pegs, seat, or bars. The ample wind protection and smooth aerodynamics made for a quiet ride. It was so quiet that when I tapped into Apple CarPlay to talk to my family back home, I could discern the quiet voice of my three-year-old daughter. Across long distances, even over stretches of frustratingly monotonous roads, riding a Gold Wing is the most serene experience on two wheels. I’ll take the couch on wheels any day. And when serenity wasn’t the goal, I could rely on the 1833cc six-cylinder engine for intoxicating, insistent propulsion.

Even though the Gold Wing Tour weighs a claimed 845 pounds (wet), it rides much lighter, thanks to its flat-six engine configuration and the underseat gas tank. The way the weight disappears is like magic. I say magic because having tested an 844-pound motorcycle—the new Indian Chieftain PowerPlus—not a week earlier, I know that significant heft is difficult to disguise. Perhaps there’s something to Kotodama, the magic in the Honda name, after all.

Magic or effort, that is. Over the years, Honda engineers concentrated on moving the engine toward the front wheel. Unlike the ‘75′s four-cylinder engine, which was positioned so far back in the chassis that it left little room for the shift lever, successive generations, particularly the 2001 GL1800 and the 2018 GL1800, moved the engine forward on their way to sportier handling. The Hossack-style front-end of the current generation is inherently anti-dive, meaning as the suspension compresses, the wheel moves more upward on a vertical axis compared to a telescopic fork, enabling Honda to, again, move the engine further forward.

Through five decades of evolution, Honda engineers have doggedly pursued progression. After the GL1100 Interstate’s development under the guidance of SED, the Gold Wing continued to keep pace with the tastes of the market. In 1982, the GL1100 Gold Wing Aspencade featured a standard stereo, an optional CB radio, and an air compressor for adjusting its air suspension. In 1984, the GL1200 received fuel injection, cruise control, and auto-leveling rear suspension. Four years later, the GL1500 debuted with a six-cylinder engine and a reverse gear. In 2001, in the midst of the fervor over sportbikes, the GL1800 debuted, made sportier than ever by the use of a trick twin-spar aluminum frame. In-dash navigation and an industry-first airbag were added in 2006. The latest generation, introduced In 2018, rewrote the rulebook again, dropping over 80 pounds, and adding the Hossack-style front-end, modern rider aids, and an optional dual-clutch transmission (DCT).

“Take the GL’s 1520cc engine, for instance. It is the most complicated and automotive-like powerplant ever stuffed into a motorcycle, yet its performance seems perfectly suited to the needs of America’s touring riders. With only a 5500-rpm redline, it’s an unusually low-revver tuned to produce tremendous torque at low engine speeds; but at the same time, it is exceptionally light-flywheeled, so it revs with lightning quickness.” —Cycle World’s review of the 1988 GL1500 Gold Wing, May 1988

The adoption of the six-cylinder engine remains one of the great moments in Gold Wing history. It does not, as legend has it, owe to the influence of Shoichiro Irimajiri, the engineer famous for the six-cylinder RC166 that took Mike Hailwood to two 250 World Championships. Before Kawashima succeeded Mr. Honda, Irimajiri was indeed developing a prototype using a flat-six engine. Known as the M1, it had a 1470cc engine with liquid-cooling and even a shaft final drive. Little wonder that the M1 has for years been mistaken as the Gold Wing’s progenitor—even by Honda’s own marketing department. In reality, the M1 was merely a research project, never intended for production. It had no bearing on the development of the GL1000. Nozue, in fact, knew little more than of the M1′s existence.

By moving to the six-cylinder layout, Honda was able to eliminate the large flywheel that the four-cylinder used to quell the feel of power pulses. As engine displacement increased in the 1100 and 1200, it would have been increasingly difficult to keep the engine smooth. The six’s three boxer pairs, phased 120 degrees apart, provided even firing intervals while smoothing out the vibration of power pulses because of the small rotation of the crankshaft between one cylinder firing and the next.

When Cycle World put a 2018 Gold Wing Tour on the dyno, it produced 97.85 hp at 5500 rpm and 108.41 lb.ft. of torque at—wait for it—1210 rpm. Peak torque at 1210 rpm? It sounds mad, doesn’t it? I can tell you how much I appreciated it when the monotony of straight-road touring threatened my sanity. Whenever I got too bored, I just cracked open the throttle and let the Gold Wing sing: instant, addicting forward motion. The flat-six is praised for its amazing vibe-free running, but its low-rpm performance deserves a great deal of praise as well.

Indeed, over the years, the Gold Wing’s performance emphasis has been on lowering workable engine rpm. The challenge is that longer combustion time at low rpm can lead to detonation. Honda has found a way around this, as Kevin Cameron points out in a recent episode of the Cycle World Podcast.

“In the sixth-generation model, Honda went to four valves,” Cameron says. “They had the valve area to bring the torque down to ungodly low revolutions—like 850 rpm. The notion of opening the throttle at 850 rpm on anything other than a diesel truck just seems like an invitation for knock. This is something they’ve had to give just as much attention to as any hop-up operation trying to win the Daytona 200—but it’s going in a different direction.”

One of the secrets to Honda’s magic may be that the nature of the Gold Wing invites a single-minded approach to development, just as if it were a race-replica sportbike. The Gold Wing, like a sportbike, is uncompromising. It has one purpose. It’s not a hyphenated motorcycle like an adventure-tourer or sport-tourer, which have to straddle two different worlds. The Gold Wing is a Tourer. Period. So, as a CBR1000RR-R Fireblade SP is built for one thing, so too is the Gold Wing.

Whereas a sportbike’s merit can be measured by the cold objectivity of a stopwatch, no purely analytical tool exists to measure the merit of a long-distance tourer. Which is why Honda relies so heavily on SED to direct its development.

“When the game is American touring, there’s absolutely nothing better or, for that matter, even as good as a Honda Gold Wing Limited Edition. It really couldn’t be any other way, though. In this particular game, Honda has an unfair advantage. It wrote the rules.” —Cycle World’s review of the 1985 GL1200 Gold Wing Limited Edition, April 1985

After two days of riding, we arrived in Daytona, where Honda had organized a celebration of the 50th anniversary, complete with a display of milestone models in the Gold Wing’s evolution. It was very cool to see the evolution in three dimensions. I was immediately struck by how much more physically imposing the previous-generation GL1800 was compared to the current model. The sixth-gen is downright lithe, the cylinder heads projecting beyond the bodywork, where it’s the other way around on the previous version. At its introduction seven years ago, Honda made clear it was trying to appeal to a younger demographic, a task it still is apparently intent on.

Naoki Terada, who works closely with Yuichiro Ishii, American Honda’s vice president of powersports, asked me how Honda could continue to attract younger buyers to the Gold Wing.

The latest model has done much of the work already, I opined. At the same time, Honda can’t ignore the older demographic that’s been the Gold Wing’s core. Who else but older riders has the time and financial wherewithal to actually go on long-distance tours? Millennials may be the next generation of Gold Wing riders, but we’re not there yet—we’re too busy raising kids and paying our mortgages to be able to take a Gold Wing on a Four Corners US Tour.

While the 2025 Gold Wing is a marvel in a lot of ways, its technology package is no longer cutting edge. A touchscreen display, adaptive cruise control, and semi-active suspension would further enhance the capability of Honda’s ultimate tourer. Honda doesn’t need me to tell it that.

Before he became VP of powersports in the US, Ishii-san oversaw the development of the 50th Anniversary Gold Wing model. “Frankly speaking, the Gold Wing, we know, is not the most advanced model in the market now,” he says. “But definitely with the next model change, we will try to bring back this kind of position in the market. Also, as a company, we’ve become a bit conservative. Our main priority was Asian markets where the volume is huge. It’s time for us to catch up on advanced technologies and also focus on the big bike segments.”

When Cycle World reviewed the GL1000, we said, “In many ways, the GL is typically Honda, because from them we expect the latest in technical innovations and new ideas.” Fifty years later, that’s still what we expect from Honda. Honda expects it from itself even more.

“We are trying to reposition the strengths of our brand by using advanced technology,” Ishii-san says. “For example, we recently announced a concept model, the V3 with e-compressor. This is brand new, a first in the industry. We can’t tell you exactly what’s coming, but there are many projects under the table.”

“Consider its name. The wing, of course, is Honda’s corporate emblem and how wonderful and perceptive, for don’t motorcycles allow us the nearest thing to winged freedom? So to build something called a Gold Wing clearly signified what Honda thought of this product. It was to set the gold standard for motorcycles.” —Cycle World’s Review of the 1995 GL1500 Gold Wing SE, November 1994

Before riding the GL1000 around the track, I spent the afternoon wandering the nautiloid levels of the Barber museum, which houses the world’s largest collection of motorcycles. Numbered among the collection’s rare and significant motorcycles are a score of legendary Honda models: the NR750, the CBR900RR, the CBX, the VFR750 Interceptor, the RC30.

Seeing these legendary motorcycles all in one place alluded to the way Honda’s development has not always progressed linearly from one achievement to the next. The CB750, Honda’s groundbreaking superbike, one would have guessed, would be the antecedent to its first fully faired sportbike. But it wasn’t. Instead the V-4-powered Interceptor came on the scene. The Interceptor, in turn, was usurped by the inline-four-again CBR900RR, leaving the VFR line to wither into sport-touring anonymity and eventual death. Honda’s product development grew like a tree. Branches were pruned, whole limbs chopped off, fruit left to rot on the tree. But not the Gold Wing’s branch. That branch has borne an abundance of fruit, pear-shaped at first, but a good keeper.

“The Gold Wing is our flagship model,” Ishii-san says. “With the American customer we built this model together. So we want to continue, and we also need to work hard so the next-generation Gold Wing is also supported by the US customer.”

Gold Wing has all the magic of Soichiro Honda’s name. Honda horsepower. Honda fit and finish. Honda reliability. Fifty years on, the Gold Wing name carries the power of not just one man, but of many: Kawashima, Nozue, Shimizu, and hundreds of others—including, of late, Tarada and Ishii. May that power propel it to another 50 years—with rider and pillion in supreme comfort.

Helmet: Arai Contour-X

Jacket: Aether Mulholland

Boots: Danner Moto GTX

Gloves: Lee Parks Design DeerTours

Jeans: Tobacco Motorwear Indigo Selvedge Riding Jeans

by Bruno dePrato

Original Publication: March 7, 2025

The 2025 Honda GL1800 Gold Wing celebrates the 50th anniversary of this landmark model’s beginnings as an unfaired GT in 1975. “Gold Wing” today is a touring dynasty, but in Cycle World’s first test of the original four-cylinder GL1000, the name Gold Wing was used, in passing, only one time.

The name is now synonymous with luxury touring thanks to Honda’s unrelenting evolution of the platform—and also the company’s partnership with the American rider. What does that mean? Honda clearly observed how the bike was being used by American buyers, especially in the early days, and what accessories were being added to the bike. Product development noted the full fairings, cupholders, luggage, and more. Honda leaned into these observations to make the Wing what it’s become today.

What’s not widely known is that the GL1000 Gold Wing was extracted from a prototype that chief project engineer and legendary Grand Prix engine designer Soichiro Irimajiri conceived to be the ultimate refinement of the grand touring motorcycle. It was code-named M1 and powered by an opposed six-cylinder engine. That it was a six was not a coincidence, as Irimajiri’s most famous racing engine design was the 250 Six known as the RC166. The Gold Wing prototype was kept rigorously secret and in fact the unveiling of the Honda Gold Wing caught the motorcycling world by complete surprise.

Perhaps in a move to leave something for the future or to make room for the forthcoming CBX1000 inline-six, the production GL1000 was powered by an opposite-four displacing 999cc and delivered a claimed 80 hp at a mere 7,500 rpm with plenty of torque across the rev range. The adoption of the opposed-six in the Wing would come as a major evolutionary step in 1988 when it became the GL1500, yet an even more luxurious grand tourer further refined in every detail. This was followed by the aluminum twin-spar-framed GL1800 in 2001, a lighter and sportier title than the model it replaced.

Today we continue to enjoy the GL1800 launched in 2018 with leaner styling, lighter claimed weight, and additional infotainment options. Notable changes included the Hossack-style double wishbone front suspension, four valves per cylinder (still using SOHC heads and 1,833cc), and the broadest, most profound torque curve yet with 100 lb.-ft. at 1,000 rpm as measured on the CW dyno.

For 2025 the only technical change is that Apple CarPlay and Android Auto may now be used wirelessly.

Transmission choices are a six-speed manual and the latest seven-speed DCT automatic. The seven-speed DCT transmission also adjusts its response according to the riding modes for optimal response and efficiency. Riders also have the choice of manually shifting the DCT transmission.

Honda’s Gold Wing electronic suite is state of the rate ensuring maximum safety and riding pleasure. An electronically controlled throttle offers four riding modes that also adjust the suspension settings accordingly. ABS and traction control are standard as you would expect from a top-shelf tourer. Cruise control is standard as well.

The 2025 edition of the GL1800 Gold Wing comes in standard and Tour editions.

The standard, top-trunkless “bagger-style” 50th Anniversary Gold Wing starts at $25,200 for the six-speed manual, and $26,200 with DCT.

For model year 2025, most Gold Wing versions also come with two free commemorative gifts: a coffee-table book covering the model’s rich history, and a tabletop 3D 1:12-scale model, with a 1975 bike on one side and a 2025 motorcycle on the other.

The Tour edition is richer, though the basic technology is exactly the same. The Tour edition comes in its own 50th anniversary celebrating color schemes and graphics, its standard equipment includes a rider airbag, suede-leather trimmed seat, upgraded audio quality at speed, and hill start assist. The rider has at their disposal on the left footboard a pedal shifter to operate the DCT transmission in manual mode, while the passenger has their own audio tuning system.

Honda’s Gold Wing 50th Anniversary editions are full featured, affirming 50 years of a very special grand touring motorcycle.

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