When it comes to luxury, quality and comfort, not many tourers can rival the Gold Wing
Boon Siew Honda has officially launched the 2021 Honda GL 1800 Gold Wing, which will be available via the company’s BigWing dealerships across Malaysia. For our market, the big tourer is offered solely in Pearl Glare White, with a starting price of RM210,888 excluding of road tax, insurance, and registration.
For this model year, the Gold Wing comes with improvements on usability and comfort, coupled with increased carrying capacity, improved pillion comfort and an upgrade to the infotainment system.
First up is the top box, whose volume has been increased by 11 litres to 61 litres to provide ample luggage capacity for weekend trips. Both rider and pillion now benefit from a new suede/synthetic leather seat cover, while the angle of the pillion back rest is set at 24.5 degrees from 17 degrees previously, resulting in a more relaxed seating.
The infotainment system gets a couple of new additions, namely lightweight speakers, which Honda says offer “vivid sound quality”, as well as Android Auto. These new features complement readily available creature comforts such Smart Key, Apple CarPlay and Bluetooth.
On the more technical side of things, the GL 1800 Gold Wing is driven by Honda’s liquid-cooled, 1,833 cc, 4-stroke, flat six-cylinder engine delivering a peak power of 126 PS at 5,500 rpm and a peak torque of 170 Nm at 4,500 rpm. The engine is mated with a seven-speed dual clutch transmission that offers Automatic and Manual settings.
The former has pre-programmed shift patterns which constantly read vehicle speed, gear selected and engine rpm to decide when a shift should occur, while the latter does gear changes using the paddle-shift style triggers on the left handlebar. There is also a ‘creep’ forward and back function.
There are four riding modes – Tour, Sport, Econ and Rain. As the base setting, Tour gives a direct 100% opening ratio between throttle grip and throttle body butterfly, with default damping and front/rear brake force distribution, while Sport delivers strong acceleration, with firmer damping and rear brake lever pressure.
Econ mode offers maximum fuel economy and easy cruising, and Rain turns the dial down to suit wet and slippery conditions and offers soft suspension damping.
Other riding aids equipped on the GL 1800 Gold Wing include Hill Start Assist (HSA), Honda Selectable Torque Control (HSTC) and ISG (Integrated Starter Generator). A Dual Combined Brake System (D-CBS) optimises the distribution of braking force to the front and rear wheels, in combination with an ABS system.
