One of the problems with a Goldwing is that if you ‘drop’ it, you will need a crane to get it upright again.
It might be great for cruising on American highways, but pretty unmanageable on typical British country roads.
When I bought the Indian I tried three Triumphs, a Guzzi 1400 and even a full dress Harley but I never considered a Goldwing, not even a Valkyrie.
Yep. You use counter steering much more with the GSA than with a sports bike and of course having those wide bars make it much more effective. It is a smoother style but you can tip them into corners quickly if you want. Mind you it takes a bit of getting used to as you are so high up, the distance your head travels through when getting on a decent angle of lean is initially quite scary! If I want to get from A to B quickly on twisty bumpy roads (i.e. the average B road 
) I would take the GSA every time.
I found this GSA and I just gelled from the start. At one point I had a 1200GS when it was first introduced after the 1150s and it took me a year to get the suspension sorted.
Whoever that is, he is braver than I am. My VFR1200 is pretty heavy, but nothing compared to that beast.
Bet he’s glad he has a reverse gear parking it in that position.
I’ve got an old 1100 GS that I use for summer touring (around 5k or so; Russia last year, Azerbaijan 2018, lap around the Baltic in 2017 etc). I think it’s one of the best bikes I’ve owned (and I’ve owned >50 over the last 40 years) for just riding distances. On any uneven surface it’s faster from point to point than a sports bike would be.
I don’t see myself changing this bike in a hurry.
Picture is of it in Azerbaijan about 30 miles from the border with Iran. We didn’t have decent electronic mapping (we used open source maps in our bike GPS units because the manufacturers didn’t sell maps for Georgia/Armenia/Russia/Azerbaijan etc.)
This is after about 20 or so miles of unsealed road, a lot of it sand- hard work. If only I’d checked Google Maps that evening… there was a parallel motorway that we could have used and saved ourselves a few hours… and actually got to the border with Iran (for photos)
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There you are wrong 
,.it has a very low weight-point.
Much because it has a boxer-engine.
A regular bike is harder to get up than a Gold Wing.
But I’ve driven the Gold Wings over 350,000 km and never “drop” them,.it’s nothing you want to do with any bike.
Here you are also wrong,.due to the low weight-point,so they are incredibly easy to “maneuver” on country-roads.
If there is for example,.an obstacle on the road,then you can “throw away” the bike very quickly.
Much faster than you can do with a regular bike.
But of course,.they’re amazing to “eat” the roads with.
The longest I’ve drive without a break,.except to refuel and eat is…
From my hometown of Boden in northern Sweden,.to Heidelberg in south-Germany.
It became 2580 km in the saddle…!!!
And when I arrived to Heidelberg,.I visited a German Pub with my German friends,until late at night,.with a lot of beer and good food 
.
So they are amazing long distance machines.
/Peder🙂
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I remember as a young teenager going to the bike show in Earls Court, sitting on a Gold Wing and almost dropping it (it wasn’t secured), only for someone close by who it appeared was being quite attentive to rush to my aid😳
I remember going to the Bol d’Or about 25 years ago (a motorcycle 24 hour endurance race held at Circuit Paul Ricard near to Bandol). Most of our group were on sports bikes (I had a ZX9r in those days) a friend was on a Gold Wing. Despite the sports bikes going a lot faster (we were young(er) and stupid, plus back then the worst that happened in France was a fine so it was a sort of playground for irresponsible british bikers) the Goldwing seemed to be faster at getting from A to B.
I guess the Goldwing rider didn’t stop whereas we had to stop for fuel etc. every 100-120 miles or so.
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Hi Adam, your father’s bike could have seen service in WW1 as many older bikes were used by the services at the start of the war. The Triumph Model H was the most widely used bike by the army (along with the Douglas 2 3/4hp) but you father’s is earlier than the Model H (introduced in late 1914) as it has direct drive from the crankshaft whereas the Model H had a 3 speed countershaft gearbox behind the engine. Your father’s bike may well have had gears but they would have incorporated in the rear hub just like the Sturmey Archer hub gears in bicycles. I can’t make out from the photo if your father’s bike had such a hub but many did. Being registered in Ireland was entirely plausible as it part of the UK at the time - my 1912 Rudge was first registered in Dublin.
As a wayward youth, I was heavily into sports bikes, and was considered to be one of the faster riders within my circle of friends.
Many years later, the onset of the old midlife crisis set in, and I found myself yearning to get back on a bike again.
I did realise that my reactions and skills wouldn’t be as sharp as they once had been, and that if I went for a sports bike, I’d more than likely write myself off as the confidence came flooding back, so I opted for this Triumph America cruiser … seemed the safer option.
Needless to say, after a few summer months, bimbling around all over North Yorks., I decided it was all a bit boring, as you couldn’t exactly throw the Triumph into corners as I once had done.
So I briefly managed to satisfy the need to get back on a bike, and these are my last ever pictures of the Triumph, on the day I delivered it to a very keen chap over in Leeds.
Lovely bike, though. 
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My toy
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Interesting story 25 years ago.
At that time we also drove a lot on the continent,.it was definitely a kind of playground for us as well.
We drove hard and far,.and not with responsibility all the time .
And you’re right,.100-120 miles,then we’ve just started 
.
But to answer seriously,.we drove about 250 km in Autobahn-speed on every refueling.
But we had a system when we drove transport,.if we for example were a few bikes,who should go from Holland to Zell am See in Austria.
Yes then we refueled quickly,.we stopped at the petrol-station.
My girlfriend ran in and was ready to pay,.right away when I was finished with the refueling.
Then directly up on the bike and away again,.a refueling took a maximum of 5 minutes.
We drove two,.but usually three refuelling (750 km),before we took a break.
• This is my friend from Helsingborg on his own bike,.we have drive a lot together down on the continent.
You have to drive really hard,.to go with him down on the Autobahn.
/Peder🙂
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My ‘tona 595
Sadly no longer with us due to a bloody minded mini cab driver.
My S3,
Still being enjoyed, well, if it ever stops raining…
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This is my KTM 1190 Adventure. It’s my second KTM and I absolutely love it . It’s fast , comfortable, nimble and sounds amazing too . I do at least 1 Euro trip a year and the last one was 2 up for 3 days around France which it took effortlessly in its stride .
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Love the datona’s, and that yellow is class. How could anyone not see you?
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Great machines. I’m sure I will give one a try one day, as an option instead of the old R1200GS.
No machine-gun on ours. Don’t think the German police who pulled us over countless times (just to look at the bike), would have gone along with a machine-gun on a british registered combo painted in army colours with a big red star on the chair. One of the German motorcycle cops who stopped us, with a gigantic grin, said . . . . " you have driven from England on this, did novon tell you, za vor ist over?" 
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