With its well-balanced riding comfort and sportiness, Honda’s grand tourer model Gold Wing has gained good reputation for decades. In the 2018 Gold Wing GL1800, in addition to bringing the comfort and sportiness to a new height, a target was set to provide the rider with more performance benefits by offering selectable ride modes to adjust to various riding conditions such as the sport ride, the riding on suburban road, in rain, etc. To achieve the target, various factors such as the engine power response have to be altered. When the number of factors to alter increases, it is not easy for the rider to combine such factors and adjust to the riding conditions and rider needs. Accordingly developed in this model is world’s industry first (according to Honda’s research) new system for the motorcycle to allow the rider to select a ride mode for each condition by the integrated control of five factors (engine power response, characteristic of driving force, gear shift timing, suspension damping, front/rear brake force distribution). The newly-developed system provides the riding performance that allows the rider to control the motorcycle as the rider wants in various conditions.
Article of Honda R&D Technical Review Vol.30 No.2 (38 - 46)