A Year on the Wing!

So, I lied! Which is to say, my self-imposed ban on writing about my 2001 Gold Wing is now at an end. This is a result of many requests from people who seem to think that my opinion is worth considering; flattery will get results.
My 2001 Wing now has just about 22,000 miles on it. In what follows I will describe my general impressions of the bike, problems I have encountered, and the accessories that I have added. For the accessories I will comment briefly on the installation procedures, and my evaluation of their performance and/or utility.
Impressions
I have surprisingly little to add to my comments posted more than a year ago. That is, my impressions of this bike posted after only about 400 miles in the saddle are still, for me, spot on. It is a touring bike without peer; it is reliable, comfortable, and awesomely powerful, it handles superbly, and as an added bonus, it looks good.
For those of you presently riding GL-1500’s and considering a change to the GL-1800, I specifically direct your attention to the final section of my comments referenced above. In that section I emphasize the fact that this is not simply another iteration of the venerable Wing, but a whole new kind of bike, a bike with a very different demeanor. It is certainly possible that for some riders the GL-1500 will better serve their needs, and better fit their riding styles.
Problems
The initial defects of the GL-1800 have been the subject of endless discussion, not to mention a lot of whining. In my opinion, considering the fact that this is a totally new and highly complex machine, the initial defects in the GL-1800 are minimal. Having said that, what have I encountered?
There have been two official Honda recalls; one recall replaced the kill switch and the other the timing gear. I did not encounter any problems with either one, but had the replacements done.
My speedometer has been replaced twice. The speedometer problem is related to heat. In direct sunlight, the faceplate of the speedometer will "bow" up and impact the needle. The result is a sticking needle, which can be both annoying and dangerous. Until it is repaired, you get good at using the tachometer to determine how fast you are going. The first replacement involved swapping out the entire instrument cluster. That solved the problem briefly, but then it reoccurred. A side effect of replacing the speedometer was that the odometer went back to zero; I had a bike with more than 6,000 miles on it, that claimed, on the odometer, to have 0 miles. Yes, I do have a record of the "lost" mileage and I certainly do plan to disclose that when I trade or sell the bike.
Back to the speedometer, at the time the first unit was replaced, Honda had not worked out a solution to this problem, so they just replaced the bad speedometer with another one just like the one that failed. It worked for a few thousand miles, like the first one, and then failed, like the first one. Why are we not surprised? Sometimes you have to wonder how Honda became so wildly successful!
By the time of the second replacement, Honda had developed a fix that did not require replacing the entire instrument cluster, and purports to permanently fix the problem. This repair, which does not necessitate swapping out the speedometer, was completed about 8,000 miles ago, and I have had no further problems. This problem is corrected on the 2002 models. If you have a 2001 model with this problem, be advised that the fix is a pretty major project; so be somewhat patient with your local dealer when you take your bike in for the repair.
My radio had the infamous "mute problem," and was replaced under warrantee. That is, when a CB transmission was detected the radio muted as it should. The problem was, when the CB activity was complete, the radio did not clear the mute condition. You had to stop and turn off the bike to correct the problem. That can be somewhat inconvenient while touring! The muting problem only affected very early units, and has been corrected.
I am now on my third set of tires. There have been a lot of complaints about the tire life on the GL-1800. What happens is, by the time you get to 8-10,000 miles, the front tire will be badly "cupped." There has been a lot of "tips" from people who say to use this tire pressure, or that tire pressure, and you will not see cupping so quickly. Hey, the OEM Bridgestone’s are going to cup, deal with it! I presume help is on the way. Other manufactures now supply tires for the GL-1800. In my case, as a former Valkyrie owner, I thought that 8,000 miles was remarkable tire life. But, most of the riders of the new Wing came to it from the GL-1500, where outrageous tire life, like 15-20,000 miles, was the norm. These people are VERY upset. Frankly, I don’t get it. I didn’t see anything in the paper work I got with my bike that promised how long the tires would last; it’s a completely new bike; the tires are new, and they have different characteristics. Furthermore, I have owned bikes where 2,000 miles was good tire life, and, as noted above, I owned two Valkyries that routinely trashed tires in less than 8,000 miles.
There have been many reports that the GL-1800 has a tendency to overheat. And, there is a potential problem, but nowhere near as serious a problem as you may tend to believe if you read some of the hysterical comments that appear on the WEB. In my opinion Honda made an engineering error in the design of the GL-1800 cooling system. To explain the problem, the following discussion:
In typical Wing fashion, the GL-1800 has two radiators, each with a cooling fan. Under normal riding conditions the fans do not activate; air is gathered in at the front of the bike and directed through the radiators and out both sides of the bike, through the fairing side-vents. The idea is to direct the heat out to the side of the bike and around and away from the rider. Now, enter the Honda engineers who, unfortunately, over-designed the cooling system: (1) the fans will not activate at speeds in excess of about 15 mph; (2) the cooling fans attempt to reverse the normal airflow pattern of the bike. That is, the fans, when operating, draw air in from the fairing side-vents, through the radiators, and force it forward, toward the front of the bike. Why? Well, apparently the Honda engineers decided that when stopped or when riding very slowly the heat blast coming from the side-vents of the fairing would rise up and make the rider uncomfortable; bless their little pocket-protector-covered hearts for that. Unfortunately, this also builds a failure mode into the cooling system, and some people delight in trying to demonstrate it. For example, if you take a GL-1800 to an asphalt parking lot on a day when the temperature is in triple digits, and ride it around in circles at 14 mph in low gear, the fans will come on and establish a near-zero air flow condition over the radiators; the bike will overheat. Duh!
By the way, the above conditions are also pretty much the riding conditions for "drill teams" using GL-1800’s (yeah, you could probably teach a rhinoceros to tap dance, but why in the world would you want to?).
So, is this really a problem? In my experience here in Southern Utah, where we have a lot of summer days with triple digit temperatures, and frequently the second digit is not zero, it has NOT been a problem for me. NO, I have not done the 14 mph parking lot experiment; YES, I believe if I did, the bike would overheat.
Before I leave this section, let me comment generally on the complaints about the GL-1800 you can find on most any Wing WEB site that has a bulletin board. To interpret those complaints, I think it is well to remember that a majority of the present GL-1800 owners previously had GL-1500 SE’s. In my opinion, in many respects the most recent GL-1500 SE’s were thoroughly mediocre motorcycles. But, one thing is beyond question; they had virtually NO technical flaws. Unfortunately, many of the people who traded in their Gl-1500’s for GL-1800’s expected the same technical perfection. I think that is asking a lot in the initial years of a completely new design. Yeah, Honda made some mistakes, but the GL-1800 is a remarkable machine, a seminal achievement in the motorcycle industry, widely acknowledged to be the finest and most flexible touring bike every built. Furthermore, Honda does appear to be working to fix the few problems that do exist, albeit at a glacially slow pace in some cases. In any case, in my opinion, GL-1800 owners, as a group, have been far too reluctant to praise the GL-1800 what it is, and far too eager to whine about what it is not. In this regard, we would all be happier if we learned from our Harley brethren who rejoice in the total experience afforded them by their ride, and excuse its deficiencies as a small price to pay in return.
Accessories
Many years ago, I happened upon some remarks made by an official of the Gillette Safety Razor Company. In those remarks, he admitted that the Gillette Company actually lost money selling their razors; the profit was in selling the blades. So, the GL-1800 is the Razor, and the Hondaline Accessories are the blades. The major failure in this analogy is that Honda is NOT losing money on the bike.
When the GL-1800 was introduced, Honda proudly proclaimed that they had "held the line" on price; the 2001 GL-1800 had essentially the same suggested retail price as the 2000 GL-1500SE. While this statement is technically true, it is very misleading. In point of actual fact, a GL-1800 equipped comparably to the 2000 GL-1500SE is MUCH more expensive. How much more expensive is difficult to say. But, I think it is fair to say that a decently equipped GL-1800 is going to cost at least $20,000, and likely more.
Honda also made a related advertising claim that needs scrutiny. In Honda’s introductory advertising blitz we find grudging admission that there could be a lot of things you may wish to add to your new bike. But, we are assured that those accessories are simply "plug and play." That is, buy it, plug it in to the connectors supplied, and ride away. Yeah, and the lark is on the wing (bad pun intended). While it is true that Honda has included the connectors and wiring required for a vast number of accessories, what they fail to tell you is how hard it is to get to many of them. So, having bitched about Honda’s marketing strategies, on to my accessories.
CB Radio and CD Player
I have included these together because it is logical to do so. You have to remove many of the same plastic parts to perform the installation of either the CD or the CB, so it would be best to install them both at once if you are planning to add both. Of the two, the CB radio is the most difficult installation. There is no good reason for that other than Honda saved a few pence on cabling. The multi-pin CB connector supplied with the bike is at the front of the bike, and to route the cable from the CB to the bike’s sound system, you need to take off the so-called "shelter." If Honda had brought the required connections back to the wiring bundle under the seat, like they did for the CD player, the CB installation would have been much easier.
I have no idea what your local Honda dealer would charge you to install these two, but I do know that if you elect to do it yourself you best have the service manual handy, a friend to help, and a full day available; a couple of six packs wouldn’t hurt either.
The Honda instructions included with these kits, while terse, are complete and clear, but they make frequent reference to instructions given in the "official" GL-1800 Service Manual. You can do both installations, including the antenna kit installation, without completely removing the trunk (a royal pain in the a**), but doing that will cause you to have to do some rather tricky maneuvering with your hole saw, and increase the chances of making some VERY expensive mistakes.
Done correctly, the resulting installation of both units beneath the floor of the trunk is very neat and space-efficient; a very nice piece of engineering!
Now, to the evaluation of these two units.
CB Radio Kit – (Hondaline: P/N 08E95-MCA-100 (CB), PN 08E96-MCA-100 (Antenna))
First of all, the cost of both of these is somewhere between outrageous and obscene. But let’s just deal with that and go on; if you want a CB that is integrated with the bike’s system, this is the only game in town.
If you have followed any of the GL-1800 Bulletin Boards, you know that the original version of the CB had some major failings that have just recently been corrected.
The first major complaint was that the squelch had to be set at 20 (out of 20) to keep the radio quiet. Honda’s first two reactions to this complaint were really "cute."
Reaction (1) "Golly, gee, we never realized that the squelch had to be set so high."
Yeah, right! One would imagine that the Honda engineers tried to use this CB before it was sold. And, if they did, you would think that they would have noticed that the squelch had to "maxed" out to keep the radio quiet.
Furthermore, before the 2001 GL-1800, I had a Valkyrie Interstate with basically this same Hondaline CB, manufactured by Clarion. Guess what? I always had to set the squelch at 20 (out of 20) to make it useful.
Reaction (2) "It’s not our fault. We are presently in a period of high sunspot activity."
Actually, that’s true. But, the implication that the high sun spot activity set in just as the first GL-1800 rolled off the assembly line is not!
The second major complaint was that the modulation of the CB was very low. When I first installed a CB on my 2001 Wing and went riding with a herd of GL-1500SE riders, their unanimous opinion was that my transmission was clear, but very faint. That is, they had to turn up the volume on their units much higher to receive my transmission than to receive the transmissions from the GL-1500SE’s in the group. I am not certain if Honda ever had an "official" reaction to this complaint. I do know that owners that complained loud enough and long enough about this problem got Honda to do a warrantee replacement of the radio. The early reports of such replacements were not encouraging. Users had the same problems with the new units as with the old, mainly, I suspect, because the new units were the same as the old units. Could Honda have been just buying a little time?
Now, the good news: the original radio can be modified to work quite well. The instructions for the modification, developed and documented by John Lazzeroni of J&M Audio, have been posted on a lot of Bulletin Boards. I have modified several radios using these instructions. While the posted instructions are clear and accurate, and the results are as promised, there are some dangers in the procedure if you are careless. How do you suppose I know that?
The other piece of good news is that Honda has quietly addressed the problem; no they did not send out a notice to all the owners of the bad units and offer to replace them. But, if you order a new CB from Honda now, or get a warrantee replacement now, while it will look just like the old radio, and may even have a very early date of manufacture, it will have a small green dot on it, and it will work, as it should!
As a result of a series of strange circumstances, I have had both the old (no green dot) and the new (with the green dot) radios installed in my bike. I modified the original radio as per the instructions referenced above, and it worked very well; it now lives happily in another bike. The one presently in my bike is of the green dot persuasion, and it works just fine, too. The modulation strength, while still not great, is improved enough so that the GL-1500SE owners don’t bitch, and the normal squelch setting is about 12 (of 20). Interestingly enough, the date of manufacture on my green dot model was about the same as my original radio. You don’t suppose there is a troop of Elves at the Honda factory modifying returned radios by using the instructions posted on the Internet?
CD Player (Hondaline: P/N 08A06-MCA-A00)
I know that we can all agree that no CD changer is worth more than $1000. But having said that, if there ever was a CD player worth more than $1000, this would be the one. It is full-featured, fast, and the sound is great. I have had CD players on bikes before, but I have never had one that worked a well as this one. It is simply amazing; it does not skip, even on very rough roads and over bad cattle guards, a local hazard here in the southwest. There is nothing on my Gl-1800 that I have enjoyed as much; I use it all the time. Indicative of this, I recently discovered that I don’t even know how to use my FM radio very well.
Yes, there have been some reports of mechanism failure; I have not had that happen to me. I would observe that this player holds 6 discs in a unit about the size of a single disc unit. That means that space is at a premium in there. DO NOT use discs with homemade labels stuck on them, like the ones you make on your very own grubby little home computer; keep the unit and its environment clean, keep your discs clean, and treat this player like the precision device that it is, and my guess is that it will give you years of trouble-free service.
Rear Speakers (Electrical Connection: P/N 03107)
These speakers are much cheaper than the Hondaline equivalents, and, not surprisingly, they are not as good. Specifically, they are somewhat less efficient than the genuine Honda speakers, and a bit more prone to distortion if you crank up the volume too far. But, the installation is straightforward, the directions are adequate, and the quality acceptable.
Another alternative to the Honda rear speakers, which, by the way, are identical to the front speakers, is the kit from J&M Audio. The J&M kit is slightly less expensive than the Honda kit, and much more expensive than the kit from The Electrical Connection. I have had no experience with the J&M speakers.
Turn Signal Conversion Kit (Electrical Connection: P/N 01312)
This kit is both neat and cheap (circa $20), and "cheap," is not a word that pops up very often when talking about motorcycle toys. The purpose of this kit is to make the turn signal portion of the tail light assembly show red when the turn signal is not active. In practice, this only works at night. During the day, it is pretty hard to tell that the kit is installed.
The installation is straightforward even though the instructions suck. You have to remove the two tail light assemblies, and drill a hole in each to mount a small red LED. I made a paper template to locate the LED’s within the taillight assemblies to insure that they were in exact mirror-image orientation. To complete the installation, you have to make electrical connections by "clipping" into the appropriate wires. The idea here, and it is a cute one, is that the red LED will be active when the turn signal is not active; it gives you two more red lights behind that are visible at night. Unfortunately, the incomplete instructions leave you to you own resources to determine where to drill the holes to mount the LED’s, and to determine the correct wires to connect to. The good news is if you call Electrical Connection you will get courteous and knowledgeable assistance.
One of the most difficult operations in this installation is removing all the little plastic bits and pieces that result from drilling the mounting holes in the taillight assemblies.
One of the neatest aspects of this kit comes into play when you use the emergency flashers. When you do, the amber segment of the taillight flashes alternately amber and red.
Let me add some anecdotal information about this feature. Several months ago I went on a ride with a large number of other bikes, almost all of which were Harleys. Now, as any Honda owner knows, when you ride with the Harley dudes, your bike becomes "invisible." That is, your bike can be the biggest, shiniest, fastest and most impressive machine in the group, but none of the Harley folk will seem able to see it; it is one of life’s great mysteries. Of course, if you walk away and surreptitiously observe what happens when they can no longer see you, your bike will draw a crowd of riders looking at it, poking and touching things, and talking among themselves.
With that as a preamble, my point: during this ride, which was for an area high school, we had to ride around the football field during halftime, and while doing that, I used my emergency flashers with the "trick" alternate red-amber flashing. The Harley folk were profoundly impressed, and several of them asked how it was done. Now that is a rave review!
Heated Grips (Hondaline: P/N 08T50-MCA-100)
One of the first things you notice about this kit is that the instructions run to nine pages. Actually, it is not all that difficult an installation, but it does have its scary moments. First, of course, you need to remove the stock grips. Honda suggests you use spray contact cleaner to get the grips loose. Well, do so if you wish, but you will need to do a lot of spraying, and good luck repairing your wax job after that stuff mists all over your bike. My suggestion is to get a nice sharp box knife, and CAREFULLY slit the old grip and peel it off. Then, spray the contact cleaner on a rag, distant from the bike, and clean off the old adhesive. The right grip, the throttle grip, requires a little more care. As you probably know, that grip is glued to a plastic sleeve that rotates on the handle bar to activate the throttle. Honda suggests you completely remove the throttle sleeve. Well, do so if you wish, but that is not a lot of fun. My suggestion is to cut this grip off just like the left one. But, be VERY careful. If you cut that plastic throttle sleeve, you will have a pretty expensive and inconvenient repair to make.
Be very fastidious when you clean away the old adhesive.
To install the new grips, the instructions advise the liberal application of "Honda Bond A" to the inside of the new grip and suggest you spray both the inside of the grip and the handle bar with contact cleaner. After which, you should be able to slide the new grip into place. Well, I have no idea what "Honda Bond A" actually is, and I never did try to find any. I did purchase some after-market grip cement, spread some on the bar and put some inside the new grip, lined the wire up, placed a spacer around the handlebar (a cable tie of the right width) to stop the grip the correct distance from the switch consoles, and slid the grip on. The only caution here is you need to have everything ready because you have about 20-30 seconds after you apply the grip cement to get the grip where you want it; that is, get your ducks in order and push the grip into place smoothly and quickly, and all will be well. Do the same on both sides. Be certain to quickly get that spacer off and clean off the excess grip cement immediately after you get each grip in place.
I should add that there are many who advocate the use of hair spray for grip cement. I have used hair spray in the past, and it works very well. But, since I am no longer married I don’t have ready access to "free" hair spray. And, believe me, the cost of a little grip cement is much less than the total cost of that "free" hair spray.
Once the grips are in place, the wiring is pretty straightforward.
By the way, you don’t really have to remove the top shelter from the bike to do this installation, as the instructions suggest. However, that does make many operations, particularly the wire routing, more convenient.
One problem that I had was locating that Honda-promised, natural-colored 3-pin connector that powers the grips. All I can say is look very carefully in that "rat’s nest" of stuff behind the right fairing speaker; trust me, it is back there somewhere! Another problem is getting the heater control to mount flush with the lower-right fairing surface. There are some very heavy and stiff cables already in the space that you need for the back part of the heater control. You will have to spend some time pushing them out of the way.
Finally, a cosmetic disappointment: the heater control is not backlit. All of the controls (fog lamps, flashers, suspension controls and headlight adjuster) on the left side-panel of the fairing are backlit. And, while the grip heater control knob attractively mirrors the headlight adjustment control in physical form, it is not backlit and the lettering is in a slightly different font. For shame big red, the devil is in the details!
So, enough bitching! These heated grips are truly wonderful. Folks, there is no reason to have painfully cold hands or to use those gloves that are so big and cumbersome that you can’t safely operate your controls. Just use normal gloves, crank up the grip heat, and enjoy; these are highly recommended.
Fog Lamps (Hondaline: P/N 08V31-MCA-100)
First of all, Honda must have known that most people would purchase this kit. Esthetically, those "blind eyes" in the front of your beautiful new GL-1800 are intolerable. And, these lights actually do make the front of your bike a bit more visible at night, which is a safety feature (use that on the wife). In actual fact, the headlights on the GL-1800 are superb and you really don’t need the additional lighting either to be seen or for good night vision. And, if it’s foggy, should you really be riding your motorcycle? The important thing, really, is that they improve the appearance of the bike a lot, and that is well worth the investment, even if you never turn them on, which I rarely do!
This kit is easy to install, although removing the blanks from the front cowl neatly will take time and a deft touch with a grinding wheel of some sort. The components are of the highest quality, the directions are clear and concise, all the parts fit perfectly, and everything works as advertised. And, the button that activates these lights mounts attractively in the left fairing side panel, and it is backlit like the other controls in that cluster.
Trunk Spoiler (Hondaline: P/N 08F64-MCA-100)
Initially, I was not going to put this on my bike. However, due to a bizarre set of circumstances, a friend had an extra spoiler (free!), and he gave it to me. It started life as illusion red, but a trip to an automotive paint shop and $25 corrected that. My reticence about the spoiler installation was that I thought the trunk line of the GL-1800 was superb, and I didn’t want to break it up. That could be a result of that fact that my previous bike was a Valkyrie Interstate, and "superb" was not an adjective normally associated with the lines of the trunk on that bike.
As far as the installation is concerned, once you get over worrying about what it would cost if you drilled holes in the wrong places on the top of your beautiful trunk lid (they give you a template), the spoiler is easy to install, and it works as advertised.
And, I was wrong! The spoiler does improve the appearance of the rear of the bike, and the added brake light is VERY much a safety feature. By the way, the lights in the spoiler are NOT on at anytime except when the brakes are applied. There are several after market devices that allow you to change this; always on but dim, and flashing at high intensity during braking.
Corbin Master Touring Saddle (Corbin: P/N HGL 18)
Corbin seats mirror my experience with women: difficult to get used to, very expensive initially, and generally high maintenance items.
The pros and cons of Corbin seats have been debated endlessly on motorcycle bulletin boards for years. To many, the Corbin style of "firm" is translated as "hard." And, this seat follows that tradition. I find it VERY comfortable after many hours in the saddle; the backrest is truly wonderful. There is, however one important caveat, and it concerns the passenger seat. The passenger section of the stock GL-1800 seat is superb. I frankly don’t think it can be improved upon, and Corbin didn’t. So, before you go out and pay well over $1000 for this seat, be very certain that your co-rider, if you have one, approves the change.
The seat, covered entirely with leather and containing heaters, both for the operator and the passenger, is firm as noted above. The seat heaters are amazing. The operator and passenger heaters are individually switched. The switches have a "high," "low," and "off" positions, and when the seat heaters are powered, the switches glow with a soft red light. If you select high heat, it better be a pretty cold day, or you will "toast your buns." If I would have had this seat and the heated grips discussed previously when I lived in Minnesota, I would likely have purchased snow tires for my bike. I have ridden with the temperature in the 30’s and been perfectly comfortable.
Leather is both good and bad, as anyone who has ever had leather automobile seating knows. Leather tends to "breathe" better than vinyl, but it also needs a great deal more care, especially in an open environment like that of a bike seat.
Generally, the Corbin workmanship is adequate, but not remarkable. The underside of the seat is sloppy in appearance, but not visible once the seat is mounted. The seat on my bike does not fit up to the tank as well as it should, but it is not a problem serious enough to seek a replacement. And, I have seen seats manufactured more recently than mine that fit more closely to the tank. As one of my favorite adages goes, "you can always recognize the pioneers by the arrows in their backs." The passenger backrest does correct the unsightly gap that existed between stock passenger backrest and the trunk lid.
The installation is very simple, and the instructions are clear and concise. The seat can be installed in about an hour.   Finally, be advised that Corbin has a very bad reputation in the area of customer service. I have not had any "issues" with them, but reports indicate that others have: just a word of caution.
Custom Paint
At the urging of a friend, a friend who takes motorcycle customizing VERY seriously, I had all that generic gray plastic on the bottom of the bike painted black so that it was esthetically in harmony with the rest of the bike; pictures of this have already been posted. I am very pleased with the result, and many people have made favorable comments.
Miscellany
Yes, I have added some other small things not discussed here, like KuryAkyn pegs and some chrome covers here and there. These things are minor matters of taste, and are not included in this discussion, which is already much too long.
I have also removed the Honda logo from the fairing and the trunk. I like the "cleaner" appearance, and it makes polishing much easier. These logos are simply stuck on with double-faced tape. After removal, you will have work fairly hard to remove the last traces of adhesive. I would also like to remove the logos on the side covers but they are somewhat more firmly attached, and if you do remove them you will have to fill some small holes.
Summary Comment
The GL-1800 may not be perfect, but in the arena of touring motorcycles, it is pretty far ahead of whatever is in second place. It rides like a sport bike, it travels like a touring bike; it is fast and powerful, it is beautiful, and it is reliable. It will be my ride until something better comes along, and this bike makes the production of something better VERY difficult. But, a Valkyrie-style cruiser based on the new 1800 CC motor, . . .