Driving report: Honda Gold Wing F6B

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Driving report: Honda Gold Wing F6B

Slimmed down luxury tourer Honda Gold Wing F6B

Plan B

Derived from the opulent luxury tourer Gold Wing 1800, Honda has created the slimmed-down custom variant F6B. Technically almost identical, the wickedly styled “excavator” is astonishingly independent.

This brand manages a balancing act: on the one hand, since 1958, over 60 million copies of the Super Cub and its offshoots have been built.
A small, cheap, indestructible moped. And on the other side of the spectrum, an entirely different icon, the Gold Wing, embodies size and luxury. Since the first Gold Wing in 1975, 550,000 golden wings with longitudinally installed four-cylinder and six-cylinder boxers have rolled off the bands in Japan and the USA. Respect. Now Honda is taking a new direction with the F6B. Quasi plan B.
The current Gold Wing donated the chassis, brakes and drive. It is one of the ultimate touring machines. But there is also a niche that currently only serves Harley, Kawasaki and Victory: the bagger – from English “bag” = bag. Choppy full dressers, i.e. XXL tourers with reduced equipment and wind protection. Come over cool. Now they have a lot of competition. Honda’s six-pack opens up three times as many cylinders.
A.As a car it would be a V12 or at least a powerful V8. The F6B celebrates its premiere in San Diego. That fits in with the launch of the heavy cruiser, as the place is the largest port of the US Navy on the Pacific coast. The unique appearance of the excavator is astonishing in the dry dock. Asao Itaya’s Honda America design team did a great job. Her recipe: Remove everything that is not absolutely necessary. Topcase, plush armchair and backrests? Away with it. Huge disk? It can also be shorter – only needs a windshield wiper for the rare rain in Southern California. Reverse gear, airbag and sat nav? Pah, what a warm shower.

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Driving report: Honda Gold Wing F6B

Slimmed down luxury tourer Honda Gold Wing F6B
Plan B

The thick ship can also be quite angled: it can reach up to 42 degrees without scratching.

Since 118 hp at 5500 rpm move into the background. As usual, only two valves per cylinder ventilate the six combustion chambers, a total of twelve, controlled by a single camshaft. Other engines may be more modern, but this one is still a stunner. A pace of up to 80 miles per hour, around 130 km / h, is comfortable. More speed? Then the wind pressure becomes stronger and the trimmed window becomes noticeable. The driving experience in the curvy California mountains is real feeling. Okay, 1.69 meters wheelbase and almost eight hundredweight do not promise top values ​​in handling.
It is surprising how well balanced this hummingbird wags through the alternating curves. The Bridgestone Exedra 130 and 180 width tires work well. Compared to the already round rolling Gold Wing, the handling seems easier. Easy rider in the sumo class. On country roads as well as in city traffic, where the F6B gets out of hand more violently than the more massive Gold Wing, even in green. Up to 42 degrees of inclination are possible, say the Honda men. Could be true.
Those who take it too enthusiastically can rely on easily controllable ABS brakes. Three-piston pliers bite on all three discs. Together: stepping on the brake pedal activates both front calipers. Okay, just before stopping you have to concentrate again, the kilos are collected again. But snaking through in Los Angeles is really easy. The attached cases are nice and narrow, but full-face helmets don’t fit in. Criticisms? Control lights that can hardly be read in direct sunlight. And the somewhat baroque counter units. But does Arnold Schwarzenegger need touch displays or remote control, for example?
Honda wants to sell 100 copies in Germany. With a unit price of 24,945 euros, this would be around 2.5 million euros in sales. And certainly a big profit. Because in the USA the same motorcycle costs only around 16,250 euros (19,999 dollars plus tax), i.e. a third less.
Subsidizing the prices in North America with those in Europe, however, is what all manufacturers do. In the USA, there is also a “deluxe” version of the F6B with heated grips, a backrest for the pillion passenger and a main stand for $ 1,000 more. Well, Plan B should easily provide plenty of topics to talk about at the 35th “Wing Ding”, the largest Gold Wing meeting in the world.

Six games


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Smooth dragster for intermediate sprints: Honda Gold Wing F6C.

Experimenting with different six-cylinder boxers is a tradition at Honda.

The very first prototype of the later Gold Wing, christened M1, had six cylinders and an immense 1470 cm3 in 1972. A 1000cc four-cylinder boxer then went into series production in 1975. After evolutionary steps with 1,100 and 1,200 cubic meters, the ultimate luxury tourer came in 1988, the Gold Wing GL 1500/6 with the six-cylinder boxer that is still influential today. Exactly this engine powered the shiny chrome road cruiser F6C, known in the USA as F6 Valkyrie from 1997 to 2004. The F6 stood for “Flat Six”, meaning the six-cylinder boxer engine, the “C” stood for “Custom”. With 98 hp, a full 130 Newton meters of torque and great sound, the first power cruiser. A real hot rod on two wheels. In 2001 the completely new 1800 Gold Wing was released, which is still produced today with small technical changes, especially in 2012. And back in Japan since 2009, after all Gold Wings since 1979 have meanwhile been manufactured in the Honda factory in Ohio in the USA. Based on the 1800s, Honda America had a designer designed a new motorcycle with the same engine in 2002. Four radical prototypes were created in the style of a “Batmobile” that has become real. Something bombastic from Japan! The miracle was that in 2003 a limited small series of 1500 copies of the concept bike was actually launched exclusively for the American market, of which only a few machines found their way to Europe. Technically, the front fork stood out with a pulled short arm swing arm. The engine received different camshafts and a revised ignition / injection system in the “rune”.

Technical specifications


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A real "dashboard", almost like in a car: classic round instruments and a lot of plastic dominate the cockpit.

engine
Water-cooled six-cylinder four-stroke boxer engine, crankshaft lying lengthways, one overhead, chain-driven camshaft, two valves per cylinder, bucket tappets, wet sump lubrication, injection, Ø 40 mm, regulated catalytic converter with secondary air system, 1100 W alternator, 12 V / 18 Ah battery, hydraulic actuated multi-plate oil bath clutch, five-speed gearbox, cardan shaft.
Bore x stroke 74.0 x 71.0 mm
Cubic capacity 1832 cm³
Compression ratio 9.8: 1
Rated output 87.0 kW (118 hp) at 5500 rpm
Max. Torque 167 Nm at 4000 rpm

landing gear
Bridge frame made of aluminum, telescopic fork, Ø 45 mm, single-sided swing arm made of aluminum, central spring strut with lever system, adjustable spring base, double disc brake at the front, Ø 296 mm, three-piston floating calipers, disc brake at the rear, Ø 316 mm, three-piston floating caliper, fully integral brake system with ABS.
Cast aluminum wheels 3.50 x 18; 5.00 x 16
130/70 R 18 tires; 180/60 R 16

Dimensions + weights
Wheelbase 1690 mm, steering head angle 61.0 degrees, caster 109 mm, spring travel f / h 140/105 mm, weight with a full tank of 385 kg, load 190 kg, tank capacity 25 liters.
Two year guarantee
Colors black, red
Price 24 590 euros
Additional costs 355 euros

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