The Very Different Experiences of Riding a Harley and a Honda
My Friend Tim has an Iron Butt. That is to say he recently completed the Iron Butt Associations’s Bun Burner 1500 – riding 1500 miles in less than 36 hours – on a trip from Maryland to Omaha. I thought perhaps he was a little crazy. I wouldn’t dream of making such a trip or perhaps I would only dream of making such a trip and not actually do it. But when he arrived and showed off his new Honda Gold Wing to me it made a lot more sense. This is a bike made for crossing continents.
We decided to go for a ride the next day in Iowa’s Loess Hills; across the Missouri River to Glenwood, a jog through town, and then North on the scenic Byway. On my 1200 cc Sportster Forty-Eight the Byway is a perfect ride. The speed limit hangs around 45 with gentle curves and rolling hills, which is a sweet spot for both my bike and riding style. But after riding near 70 mph on Highway 34 and twenty more minutes of bliss my right hand started going numb from the vibration plus my back was getting hammered from the occasional road buckle. So I decided to stop at a gas station for a pit stop.
Tim was generous enough to offer switching bikes for the ride back. I must admit that I was both excited and fairly nervous. Nothing tests a friendship like dumping your friend’s $20,000 motorcycle on its side. But I’ve always enjoyed the idea of trying all different kinds of motorcycles. I started on dirt bikes, owned a dual-sport for a short while, and had a sport bike for years. I recently rented a V-Rod from Riders Share and I look forward to trying as many bikes as I can in the future.
Before starting out, Tim gave me an introduction to his motorcycle. It has a huge TFT display with large spaces for the speedometer and tachometer, gas gauge, gear indicator, and a host of other data. Front and center is the navigation screen which can switch to show you all of your available apps (it has Apple Carplay!). Tim said it can even read you your text messages to your Bluetooth helmet while you ride. The Gold Wing has four ride modes: Sport, Tour, Rain, and Economy. It also has approximately 10,000 buttons.
I showed Tim all the bells and whistles on my bike. It has a speedometer. Also, a small LCD that has a clock, time, trip mileage, and gear selector / RPM. Not even a gas gauge. That’s about it.
With some trepidation I slowly waddled the bike backwards with my toes as I couldn’t even flatfoot the bike. As Tim had assured me, once I got moving the bulk of the bike seemed to disappear and the riding was fantastic. The bike is surprisingly nimble and quiet. You ride as if sitting on a cloud in a quiet bubble of windless solitude. It eats up corners and miles like nobody’s business. I feared stoplights because I didn’t want to have to keep the bike upright and because I just wanted to keep riding. On occasion I wondered what that horrendously loud noise was coming from behind me and realized it was my buddy Tim on my bike, Vance and Hines pipes roaring.
We quickly made it back through Glenwood and blasted out on to Highway 34. I was way more confident on the Gold Wing going 70 mph than I ever have been on my bike going anywhere above 60. The trip back to the house seemed to go by much faster than the ride to the gas station. It was over way too quickly.
I tried to think of an analogy to try and explain the difference between riding the two bikes and the best I could come up with was a football one. My bike is like a fullback. Old school. You don’t find them on a lot of teams anymore because they are going out of style. They are low to the ground, stout, tough, and a maybe a little unstable. When you need one yard they are your go to player. A Gold Wing on the other hand is like a left tackle. Huge but surprisingly nimble on their feet. They may not be the quickest but they can play all game long without getting tired. The best ones don’t really even get noticed but just keep getting the job done play after play.
Not the greatest analogy perhaps but bottom line the two bikes couldn’t be much more different. They aren’t quite opposites but they are different in almost every imaginable way. The Forty-Eight is an old school, air-cooled, loud, vibrating V-Twin cruiser with forward controls that you have to hold on to for dear life like a bucking bronco least you get left behind. The Gold Wing is a gadget laden, refined, flat-six monster made to cruise across states without you taking much notice of the miles going by while you listen to the radio. Oh and carves corners like the dancing hippo-ballerinas from Fantasia.
So would I buy a Gold Wing? Probably not anytime soon. It was a sweet ride but I don’t have a spare $20,000 laying around and I’m not planning on testing the fortitude of my backside anytime soon. But it does make me think about how long I will keep hanging on to my Harley. It’s a great bike for commuting and I love looking at it in my garage every single time I go out there. Some day though I’ll need a little more cushion under me and maybe want to go a few more miles than my 2.1 gallon tank can sustain. When I do, I’ll be thinking fondly of the time I rode a Honda Gold Wing.
Mid-Life Thesis 