Honda GL 1800 GOLDWING avec AIRBAG 2008 — Specifications

Who would have bet, twenty years ago, that a production motorcycle would end up receiving an airbag before certain city cars? And yet Honda broke through that barrier in 2007, and it was on the 2008 GL 1800 Goldwing that this technology became available to the public. Not a show concept, not a promise for later, but a genuinely operational airbag on the liner from Hamamatsu. The manufacturer had started working on the subject in the 90s, then learned the hard way on a Goldwing 1500, before passing through a Silverwing prototype in 2004. The road was long, the result is here.

The principle doesn't come out of an obscure laboratory. Four duplicated sensors are distributed across the two 45 mm fork tubes, at the precise spot where the deceleration of a frontal impact reads best. An electronic control unit continuously monitors this information, processes it independently to prevent a faulty sensor from driving the decision on its own, and triggers inflation when the curve exceeds the threshold. The cushion, tucked into a housing on top of the tank, deploys in about 0.15 seconds, held back by two straps that prevent it from flying off. Its shape isn't a designer's whim, it guides the rider forward rather than letting them topple to the side.

Beneath this safety engineering, the tourer remains faithful to its reputation. The 1832 cc flat-six delivers 118 horsepower at 5500 rpm and above all 166.7 Nm of torque available from 4000 rpm, served by a shaft drive and a five-speed gearbox. Honda didn't chase an excess of power, it preferred smoothness, and that choice is justified when you read the scales: 417 kg fully fuelled, 363 kg dry. With its 740 mm seat height and 25-litre tank, the GL remains surprisingly planted at low speeds, and pushes up to 200 km/h without ever giving the feeling of straining. The aluminium Diamond-type twin-spar frame, the long-travel fork with 140 mm of travel and the Pro-Arm single-sided swingarm with Pro-Link shock absorber soak up Parisian cobblestones as well as endless motorway ribbons.

At 29,900 euros, the airbag version adds about 2000 euros to the bill on a base already well above 26,000 euros. Twelve percent more for an unprecedented technology, the pill goes down without bitterness when you look at what's on the other side. The BMW K 1200 LT plays in the same league in terms of comfort and finish, the Harley Electra Glide banks on a different emotion, more American, more raw. Neither of them offers this equipment. Honda thus positions itself as a solitary pioneer, and the price positioning, however high it may be, remains consistent with that ambition.

It remains to identify the customer. The track rider will pass it by without regret, the urbanite will find the beast too bulky for tight parking spots. The true intended recipient is the long-haul tourer, the one who swallows 800 kilometres a day with passenger, luggage and sometimes a trailer. For him, the airbag isn't a marketing gadget, it's an additional insurance on a machine whose mass makes any swerve unmanageable above 30 km/h. The pioneer's flair comes at a price, Honda has set it, and the debate deserves to be had with full awareness.