HONDA'S NEW FLIGHT

Kazuho Nakai, the second engineer on the new Gold Wing project, explains: “We wanted to give the Gold Wing customer a more premium experience. We wanted to appeal to younger riders and make it sportier.” But Nakai’s description only hints at the balancing act that Honda has whenever it comes out with an all-new Gold Wing—a balancing act that Bill Savino, product planner at American Honda, says became so intense that Honda seriously considered giving this new motorcycle a different name.

That’s surprising because this 2018 machine, an 1,833cc, flat-sixcylinder touring bike with integral saddlebags, sure looks like a Gold Wing. Yes, it has a fancy new front suspension, a modern and zoomy LED headlight, tauter lines, and no place for an ignition key, but if a time traveler showed you a hologram of it and told you it was a bike from the future, about all a motorcyclist could say is: “Cool. They’re still making Gold Wings.”

It’s been in the works for a while; Nakai said the project began four years ago,