HONDA The Power of Dreams

In September 2005, Honda announced that it had developed the world’s first airbag system for mass-produced motorcycles. At the same time, it also announced that the system would be available on the Gold Wing (GL1800) to be launched in the U.S. in 2006.

Although this was the world’s first mass-produced motorcycle equipped with an airbag, basic research had begun in 1990, 16 years before the announcement.

In developing the system, Honda analyzed data on accidents resulting in rider death or injury. This data showed that in Japan, the U.S., and Europe, most of these accidents were frontal collisions, and most injuries occured after the rider fell from the motorcycle and struck other objects such as another vehicle or the road.

This indicated that absorbing the kinetic energy of the rider in a frontal collision with an airbag would reduce the speed at which the rider falls from the front of the motorcycle, thereby reducing injury caused by impact with another vehicle or the road.

To verify the effectiveness of the system under various collision conditions, a highly accurate computer simulation was required to evaluate the amount of injury to the occupant(s) (dummies). Honda also focused on building technology to establish the environment to verify the data.

In order to gather opinions from a wide range of researchers around the world, Honda had presented the findings of its research on motorcycle airbags at international technical conferences from an early stage.

For example, in April 2000, Honda announced the technical outline of its advanced safety research vehicle (ASV-2), which included a Gold Wing (GL1500) equipped with a motorcycle airbag being researched and developed.

In this way, Honda was announcing its technologies while gathering a wide range of opinions for further advancement.

In 2000, Honda completed the world’s first all-weather vehicle-to-vehicle omni-directional crash test facility at Honda R&D. This state-of-the-art facility has had a profound effect on the development of motorcycle airbags.

After 16 years of persistent research and development, the motorcycle airbag system was finally completed, ready for deployment on production motorcycles.

The Gold Wing (GL1800) equipped with an airbag was launched in North America and Europe in 2006.

In Japan, it was launched as a separate model in June 2007.

Since being fully revamped in 2018, the Gold Wing (GL1800) has continues to be available with an airbag.