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Goldwing

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If you follow the four-wheeled world at all, you will know that there has been a massive recall for vehicles equipped with Takata airbags. The recall affects roughly 34 million vehicles in the United States, at last count, though more seem to be added each week, my own four-wheeler included.

The size of the recall is due mostly to the fact that Takata makes the majority of vehicle airbag systems, and their design is fairly universal. In fact, it’s so universal that Takata even powers the airbags found on the Honda Gold Wing, which brings us to this story.

For the same reason that millions of cars are being recalled, American Honda is recalling 2,701 Honda Gold Wing motorcycles that were equipped with an airbag feature.

Honda has issued a recall with the NHTSA because of a fault with the master cylinder on the Honda Goldwing. Affecting 2001-2010 & 2012 models, the secondary master cylinder for the Goldwing’s combined braking system could have a fault that causes the rear brake to engage and drag.

Because this could destabilize the motorcycle, and poses a potential fire danger from heat caused by excessive friciton, Honda is recalling all 126,000 Goldwings the issue could potentially affect.

There must be a new rule in the tourer market segment where “all new bikes” consist of minor revisions to existing machines, as Honda has apparently taken a page out of Harley-Davidson’s playbook, and done an exciting upgrade to the 2012 Honda Goldwing. While rumors were overly-hyped that an all-new Goldwing would be making an American appearance, it appears instead that the Honda engineers have gone on to further improve upon their design of the legendary touring motorcycle.

No longer built in America at Honda’s now defunct Marysville, Ohio plant, the Japanese produced 2012 Honda Goldwing comes with a slightly larger price tag, but boasts some improvements to justify the cost. Revamped bodywork, larger capacity luggage pieces, improved built-in GPS with iPod/MP3 player support, and revised suspension complete the changes for the new Goldwing. It’s hard to impress sport bike guys with a big bike like the Honda Goldwing, but if you’re interested in buying the gold standard (no pun intended) of motorcycle touring, things just got a bit more appealing we imagine.

Honda Motorcycles has announced that it is closing its Marysville, OH manufacturing plant, home of the Honda Goldwing production line. Over 1 million Goldwings have gone through Marysville since it opened in 1979, and Goldwing owners will likely be distraught that production is being moved back to the mothership in Japan.

Since we only have two Goldwing readers on A&R (Sup Graddy!), the real important news from this announcement is that all Honda motorcycles destined for the United States from this point forward will be imports, in what can only be a move by Honda to reduce production costs on the popular motorcycle.