Let me tell you about the brakes. LBS to be specific. I really liked the way the brakes worked on the bike. I'm not used to stomping on the rear, but I had to whilst riding the tubby HD Road King previously mentioned. This Honda though, has two substantial 296mm front discs and a single, but larger, 316mm on the rear. The front lever activates the front and partial rear, whilst the rear activates the rear and partial front.

Actually it's far more complicated and technical than that, boring too. Hey, it works. I really didn't break my sportbike habit and typically used front only. Lever pressure was always two or three fingers only with remarkably little nose-dive. Whilst playing silly buggers on this bike, I never panicked about stopping on time and I am silly most of the time. For shits and giggles, I stomped the rear only: guess what happened? Nothing. It just stopped, really quickly. Linked Braking System? Absolutely made for this bike.

The Goldwing looks pretty normal, chassis wise. Being a sporty guy, I'm used to seeing a nice slab of aluminum. This bike is no exception. Nice beam frame holding everything together, super tight and flex free. It hasn't always been that way with the Wing, I'm told, and I'm glad to see technology trickling down to all of the motorcycling genres. Single sided swinger as well. Matches the 996 I got from Ducati NA. Have to get on your hands and knee's to see this one though. But rear tire changers will thank you for it too. Rake is steeper from 30 degrees on the oldie to 29.25 on the new. Trail has been reduced too by 2mm. Not big numbers, but definitely in the right direction for precise steering.

Suspension hangs from the hard parts pretty good, but I did experience nasty feedback through the bike on hard edge asphalt seams. After adjusting the air preload, it felt a little better. Compression damping does seem a little harsh for a luxo tourer and I experienced a little "chatter" up front occasionally. My sportbike manners were showing and maybe I was pushing this bike harder than I should of, old habits die hard I suppose. The best compromise seemed to be with position 8 of 25, on the LCD preload readout. The bike feels very flickable and around town traffic is surprisingly easy to navigate considering the GL is bigger than that Geo Metro you just passed. Handling started to feel less tippy the more I rode. I understand that the prior versions of this bike were far more top heavy, I couldn't really imagine it.