2012 Suspension Upgrade to GL1800

[RoadSurfer]

Maybe I should post this question to the GL1800 Riders Forum, but I'm hoping some of you guys know the details. I'm at Americade now and just had a nice conversation with Becky at the Honda demo tent as they are getting ready for the demo rides tomorrow. I told her of my history with my 2004 Wing and my interest in the F6B. In particular I told her about how I found the suspension of my Wing to deteriorate after about 20,000 miles.

She told me something that has somehow eluded me until today, probably because after I traded my Wing in (for a used S2000 sports car) in 2009, I stopped paying attention to the bike's evolution. She told me that in 2012 Honda revamped and upgraded the Wing's suspension dramatically. I don't know the specifics of what that upgrade amounted to but I'm hoping it may have been such that the sort of eventual deterioration I experienced with my '04 model - making for a very harsh ride - is now much less likely in both the current Wing and the F6B.

Any insights or commentary to throw some light on what that 2012 upgrade amounted to would be greatly appreciated.

[srt8-in-largo]

Are you aware that the 2012+ are different from the 2001 - 2010?

They shut the lines down in 2010, moved production to Japan, skipped model year 2011, and freshened the platform for 2012. I can't tell you about suspension changes... but I bet a couple of guys here can.

BigDawg?

[RoadSurfer]

Yeah, that's also what Becky told me. I'd known about the termination of assembly at Marysville but I hadn't realized that qualitative changes were made when production resumed in Japan. I have my doubts that any changes to the suspension components were miraculously wonderful, ... but I'm hoping for at least a major step forward. 😉

[srt8-in-largo]

I'm stumped RS; I thought that only cosmetics were changed... the shape of the rear tail lights and stuff like that.

[opas ride]

A couple of recent biker mags indicated some changes had been made in the front suspension of the F6B due to the lighter weight and distribution of such on the bike..???? I for one would not really know, as I have never owned a GW, and have only read about some front fork issues after several thousands of miles on a bike that was generally ridden with a heavy load or two-up a lot....Some have said Honda did upgrade, slightly, the forks on 2012 Wings and later, but I have no clue as to whether that is fact or fiction!!!

[srt8-in-largo]

Hmm

[Big Dawg]

Maybe I should post this question to the GL1800 Riders Forum, but I'm hoping some of you guys know the details. I'm at Americade now and just had a nice conversation with Becky at the Honda demo tent as they are getting ready for the demo rides tomorrow. I told her of my history with my 2004 Wing and my interest in the F6B. In particular I told her about how I found the suspension of my Wing to deteriorate after about 20,000 miles.

She told me something that has somehow eluded me until today, probably because after I traded my Wing in (for a used S2000 sports car) in 2009, I stopped paying attention to the bike's evolution. She told me that in 2012 Honda revamped and upgraded the Wing's suspension dramatically. I don't know the specifics of what that upgrade amounted to but I'm hoping it may have been such that the sort of eventual deterioration I experienced with my '04 model - making for a very harsh ride - is now much less likely in both the current Wing and the F6B.

Any insights or commentary to throw some light on what that 2012 upgrade amounted to would be greatly appreciated.

Becky's statement is a little far fetched. The Upgrades are far from dramatic, No one can tell any difference in the front fork internals, other than a part number change. The rear shock does have slightly improved dampening, but is still isn't as good as the Penski aftermarket shock. I am a traxxion dealer so I have had all of the components apart and inspected them personally,so it is first hand information.

[Wmorgan2k]

I honestly can say with all my wings the suspension is really hit or miss on these. I had a 2013 F6B that was just spot on and glass smooth, my 15 however has the bouncy front end like the springs are to soft. My 01 wasn't bad but ate up tires (bad cupping) as did my 2010 cupped the tries badly around 5k miles.

My 2014 wing was terrible, i even posted a video on youtube awhile back of the same phone, mount, road and showed a side by side video of how bad the Wing was as it bounced and vibrated on the same stretch of road and my F6B was rock solid smooth. The sad part is if you measure static sag on these they sag almost 50% of the suspension travel with the just with the weight of the bike, with only 4.5" of travel to start with that doesn't leave much to work with so you end up on the lowerend of the spring without much to work with. Add that to that silly anti dive setup and it makes for an awful ride sometimes. How they thought it a good idea when you hit the rear brake to LOCK the left fork tube will never make sense to me...

Eventually after about $6000 worth of experimentation (tires, progressive, no antidive) I finally settled on Traxxion, after a bad install that ruined my forks I towed the bike to Traxxions shop in GA and had them redo the entire thing. I couldn't be happier but now I'm out about $6k. I'm going to ride the bike for a long time so I don't mind but it still should be better from the factory.

Now the bounce on my B isn't as bad it's still annoying, I've already had Honda replace the entire front rim and tire on my B which improved it but didn't cure it. My next step is some Traxxion springs, if that doesn't do then the full monty will go on my B as well.

Its an amazing machine when it works right but Honda has some front end issues on many of there models they need to sort out. I bought a new VFR as well a while back and it did it so bad I traded it on after 3 days and bought a CB1000R for the adjustable suspension. I've since given up on sport bikes for awhile and now have all the GL1800's and enjoy them immensly, well as soon as the front end of the B is sorted I will LOL. Funny the Valkyrie is absolutely perfect in the suspension department, go figure...

[RoadSurfer]

Fascinating, W, and very much in tune with the conclusions I regretfully reached after my GL1800 ownership (AND the Traxxion changeover I did to it). I'm afraid it all adds up to enough to discourage me from moving to the F6B. Many thanks.

I demo road an F6B on Tuesday at Americade. It was,mass usual, a pretty tame ride, but it did tend to give me tow conclusions: (1) at least on that particular demo bike, the suspension felt pretty good, but (2) there's just no hiding that still massive weight (about 200 lbs over my current sport-touring BMW K1200GT).

[Nibelunge]

Hi,

can´t compare with a 12GT neither a GTL1600. It´s another story. The engine sucks and makes clearly the difference. All other is "better" on BMW , of course.

However, I had 2010 GW and now F6B. There is a consistent difference in handling and general feeling of the bike. Without having lost the character of a heavy bike, it drives quite smoother, goes into corners surprisingly well and brakes much better.

I have no idea if there are any improvements in suspension; following user saying there aren´t any visble ones, but the bike is easy. Really easy. Maybe the Brigestone tires help, they are top, I would say sporty, fact is that main issue now is the limited ground clearance.

In my case it makes me afraid of going close to the limit. Had two severe scratches on the pegs with foot lift, which dismissed me a lot. A pitty as the bike really causes plenty of fun.

I had GTL, GT1600, RT LC, Triumph Trophy (still in garage) , etc...and tend to have fun on twisty roads. I know what a GT can do...but the smoothnes of the F6 is incredible.

Best regards
Alex