Honda Gold Wing Long Term Update #10: Does This Bike Make Me Look Old?
Tuesday June 23, 2009
Don't lie to me: does the Honda Gold Wing make me look old? As I discuss in Long Term Update #10, there's something about Honda's über tourer that convinces friends, acquaintances, and complete strangers that I'm decades older than my biological age.
Does riding a 'Wing automatically mean you're a Geritol-popping, prune juice-drinking octogenarian, or can (relative) youth and Gold Wings peacefully coexist? Read my musings in Gold Wing Update #10, and let me know if you think the GL is really an age-specific motorcycle.
Related:
- Honda Gold Wing Long Term Photo Gallery
- Honda Gold Wing Update #9: Dusting off the 'Wing
- Honda Gold Wing Update #8: iPod + Gold Wing = Infinite Touring Possibilities?
- Honda Gold Wing Update #7: Hittin' the Open Road
- Honda Gold Wing Update #6: About that Tire...
- Honda Gold Wing Update #5: My (Feeble) Attempts at Hypermiling the 'Wing
- Honda Gold Wing Update #4: Washing the 'Wing
- Honda Gold Wing Update #3: Riding the 'Wing Like a Sportbike
- Honda Gold Wing Update #2: Jason's First Impressions
- Honda Gold Wing Update #1: Welcome the 'Wing!
Photo © Basem Wasef; click for Honda Gold Wing Update #10
Comments
I’m going to be in trouble from the younger wingers, but the typical demographic I always see is old smug chubby couples on their Goldwings with matching everything down to the helmets with microphones. Usually there’s a teddy bear attached somewhere on the bike too. To answer your question then Basem, it’s a yes! It makes you look old.
I actually only know one person that owns a GL and he rides it like a sport bike. He’s also a rail thin marathoner. So maybe my image is skewed.
But come to think of it, there was a couple in my MSF class that fit Pete’s description. However, they were turning theirs into a trike, and that’s a whole different machine.
When I go to rallies or rides for charities etc, or when I see the Goldwing clubs, this is 95% of the Wing riders I see. I know there are exceptions, like my neighbor and his brother, but overall this is what I see. Many folks I know have individually have called them “old men bikes”. I’m older myself and so can say this without being called an ageist. Even when I had my Roadstar, I saw a demographic of old guys with trimmed white beards, pretending to be badass. I didn’t like being one of those either. Now I’ve broken away and am a senior on a street-fighter. The girls look interested when I pull into the coffee shops, until I remove my full-faced helmet, then they go…Oh!
I have ridden since 1972,curently riding a 1996 Yamaha Royal Star 1300.Whether Wing, Cruiser, Sport Bike, Dirt or Other…RIDE!!
Yes, I have wrinkles & cracks in my face BUT
there all from the SMILE thats been on my face for 37yrs. To paraphrase Eric Clapton
“RIDE THE ONE YOUR WITH” Enjoy the RIDE”
Jacko
Jacko is right for sure. It’s just that the Goldwing will still make Basem look old?
Hello just got my 09 wing an love it. Im 35 been wanting one for a few years now, however did my research with H-d bagger and bmw (no way on H-d) bmw a little too high for my stance 5″6. the wing is unbeliveable everybory should own one, had harleys, choppers, old hondas, dirt bikes, goldwing is something to experince.
Bought my first GW (GL1000) in 1976 and dressed it (I was 21); bought my next in 1981 already dressed (GL1100 Interstate model) when I was 26. Didn’t have a bike for years (touring the world as an Air Force officer). Tried a cruiser in 1996 and didn’t like the handling, so stayed away from bikes again until 2005. Tried a friend’s GL1800 thinking I’d return to Nirvana, but the bike is simply too big and the weight distribution didn’t feel right — it wasn’t the great bikes of the early years. WRT age, I loved GWs in my 20s and always felt they were the best bikes on the road. Its about style, not age.
Cheers,
Mike
hi everybody from a soggy cornwall england.
i am 69 yrs old and ride a wing 1800,and dont feel old when riding it,in fact we (my wife and i)often ride with other bikers younger than our kids,on they’re harleys.
have a nice day,
melv