2018 Goldwing thoughts and observations
For those of you that have done research on this, you've probably heard most of these comments already. I purchased a 2018 Goldwing DCT about two weeks before going on a ride with several friends from the Metromess in Texas to Seattle. I had some reservations about any more group rides in another thread, but this was planned a while ago, and I wanted to go, so anywho...
My first thoughts on the Goldwing while looking at the one I purchased was the reduced luggage capacity. For a trip this long, there is definitely not much space to pack everything for an almost two week trip, especially if two up. At the time I was looking, I didn't realize the bike already had a Pakit Rak. I wasn't crazy about this initially, but I can say it is an excellent solution for the lack of storage built into the bike. You don't know it's there while riding and it is easy to load and unload the bag. I put a padlock on the hitch and just left that on at night.
The DCT is amazing. I really didn't ride the bike much before I left, but the DCT is excellent. While touring and driving long stretches, you obviously don't appreciate it as much, but in traffic, I absolutely love it. The ability to switch gears with levers is nice, but I found I didn't use it much other than playing with it to try it out. Of course, the cruise control is awesome.
The Apple CarPlay is a nice feature, but buggy as hell, and I never quite figured out what would make it work each and every time. I had to unplug the phone and replug often. It seems you cannot switch back from the bike's gps to the apple carplay gps, as one will drop off. I used both. The Apple Carplay requires a helmet speaker to connect, and if your battery runs out on your helmet, you can't just flip to the bikes gps. You have to stop the bike to set the built in gps. Also, I could not get POI's to show up on the Honda GPS. I had a very difficult time to get siri to understand what I was saying through my helmet mic, but it did work a few times. Listening to texts while driving is nice, but answering, again, was difficult.
The SPORT Mode is incredible. I generally just left the bike in TOUR mode, but occassionally when feeling froggy would put the bike in SPORT mode and let the big cat eat. This bike has all the power I need and proved a lot of fun if you want to get the adrenaline going.
It was great to have an electric windshield again. One of the best features available on a bike, IMO.
The bike I bought came with grip puppies on it, so the heated grips worked, but it took a while to feel them, but that not a mark against Honda. I like the grip puppies, so I will accept the delay in heat. This bike came with a corbin fire and ice seat, and the heated part worked well. We were lucky enough to have cool to cold weather, so no comments on the cooling function yet.
The bike also has the Rivco highway pegs, and these work really well.
The sound of this bike is different, it almost sounds like it's working harder, but that is the sound of the DCT I'm sure. I checked the oil and wasn't using any up at all. This thing is Honda smooth. I like the front suspension. I thought this bike cornered great in all the twisties we rode. I was very confident with the front end.
Some of the guys I was with called it a scooter. One day, one asked me how it was running, and I told him if he could keep up with it, he would know.
All in all, I am very pleased with the bike. I rode about 2400 miles and felt great at the end of the trip.
