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All indications are that CVT transmissions in Goldwings aren't All That.
Posted on 10/21/2025 7:07:11 AM PDT by eyeamok
I started riding at 53. Never rode more than a bicycle before that.
That was 2 1/2 years ago.
Took a class last year, got my license.
Fun times ever since.
I remember when I was around nine, found a book called, “How to Ride a Motorcycle.” Page one, lesson one:
YOU ARE THE INVISIBLE MAN
They weren’t kidding.
“In MA you can take that course and automatically get your license.”
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Here in FL as well, although it’s just an “endorsement” on your D/L.
Speaking of taking the riding course with kids, I had a 20 something in my class that was sent there by court order.
He got caught going 60 mph through an active school zone because he said he was late for work.....here school zones are 15 mph and the judge made him surrender his D/L.
On the last day when we had to take our riding test he showed up ON his crotch rocket. SMH
He said he couldn’t find anyone to bring him so he had to.
He passed the test, got his training card and went on his way.....he’s lucky the instructors didn’t know what his circumstances were.
I think about that kid every now and then....I’m sure that wasn’t the last time he got in trouble on that thing....I just hope he didn’t end up killing himself.
There were automatic motorcycles before this & as I recall, Honda even made one. I rode only one automatic cycle & it was a Moto-Guzzi. As I recall, Guzzi’s was basically like an old Chrysler product; a manual trans behind a torque converter & manual clutch. You used the clutch mainly just to shift gears; it did not shift automatically. It was a 2-speed & a nice ride.
“Page one, lesson one:
YOU ARE THE INVISIBLE MAN”
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Yep, anyone that can’t grasp the concept of riding defensively and expecting the unexpected has absolutely NO business on a motorcycle.
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If you ride and don’t expect EVERY car around you to do the most unpredictable moronic thing you can think of, your in trouble......cuz it’s gonna happen.
Something I saw on the jacket of a man on a Harley years ago going North on Yale St in Tulsa OK. I never forgot it.
“God Made Hondas to keep NI**ERS off of Harleys!” except he did not use ** in what he had in big RED LETTERS on his jacket.
At our company several bought big motorbikes and were proud of them. One man bought a HONDA Gold Wing, a very nice looking motorbike.
I mentioned what I had seen in Tulsa and he went into a blue funk, sold it and bought a nice Harley.
Me? I have had too many kin killed on motorbikes so I will not touch one with a ten foot pole!
Saw a teen boy T-bone a car making a legal left turn. Pumped his chest to keep him alive till medics arrived.
After that I became aware of how many deaths there were every week due to motorbikes.
I’ve been riding most of my life. I understand why they are doing it. Less people are riding motorcycles, so they’re trying to grow the customer base.
Frankly, this doesn’t matter a single bit to me. If you are out there riding with your knees in the breeze, you’re already a different breed. You can still motorcycle camp. You can still go on long rides. May even make traversing in cities easier. It is far from a motorcycle killer.
Hey, I know things. I just got the air in my tires changed in time for winter.
Look at the resale market for Honda Rebel 1100 DCT.
95% of the Rebel 1100’s in the used market are the “automatic” ones, the DCT. That’s because a lot of beginners bought them thinking what makes a bike difficult to ride is the shifting. Or, more importantly the converse - that eliminating shifting makes a bike easier to ride. Hop on and go. Then they discover that ain’t so. So they sell them.
A Rebel 1100 (for example) is far too powerful for a beginner, with or without a clutch. It’s fast.
Safely riding a motorcyle is a complex operation. Technology doesn’t change that. I started riding 50 years ago. Better tire and brake technology are great improvements, but they don’t mean much if you don’t know what you are doing. Ditto for not having to shift gears.
I quit riding for several decades in Florida. Wife, kid, money....And the flippin roads/traffic are a menace.
But we moved to a small town in KY and I looked at all the great curvy country roads with no traffic and that was it. Back to two wheel wind therapy. I’ve clocked 69,000 miles on two bikes since 2017. I can ride 25 miles to a state park and contend with ONE traffic light.
I’m not sure I could even enjoy riding without shifting.
That’s the ticket!
I happen to disagree with each of those statements.
I gather getting insurance for a bike is out of control. It was getting that way a couple decades ago when I quit riding. I had a full fairing 1000cc sportbike that would have been un-insurable if I had not been middle aged.
I just recently read that the HONDA SUPER CUB C125 is the number one best motor vehicle in the world...
PING!
I just bought my first bike, a Honda XR150L no less, and it is a manual. I have to learn how to ride it, and I can already do a manual car, but I do have physical limitations that will drastically reduce the amount of riding that I do. I have painful nerve damage in my left arm, which means that using it or my hand to do anything hurts like hell.
I’m excited to learn, but also kind of terrified. I bought a manual because it seemed wise to learn how to ride one, and as far as bikes go, it’s very small, but I probably should have bought something easier to ride.
Obviously, we Freepers tend to look at things from a American perspective.
Where a motorcycle is a secondary vehicle for most of us. Something to drive for fun/enjoyment. Similar to owning a sports car.
In the second and third world they are their only means of transportation. A step up from riding a bicycle or traveling on foot. What is crazy is when you see photos of three, four, five people all riding on a motorbike. Or seeing someone with a huge amount of material stacked onto a motorbike in some country in SE Asia.
One of my sawmills in Idaho has a picture of a unit of their lumber on a cart being pulled by a cow in India. That unit of lumber is designed to load on a rail car or flatbed truck. Yet, in the third world it is being pulled by an animal on a cart.
In addition, I was on vacation in Italy about a year ago. We made friends with Gisseppi the head waiter at the hotel.
He had worked there for thirty plus years. He was the top guy in the restaurant in a hotel that catered to primarily British tourists. He was in his 70s. Yet he rode a scooter to work everyday. He said he lived up the hill in Sorrento on the Amalfi Coast. There was no car parking lot at this hotel. It was literally built up the side of the cliff face.
He also said when he was young he worked out on the island of Capri. Every morning he caught the first ferry over to Capri. About a 1/2 ride. Then at night the last ferry coming back. He parked his Vespa Scooter down at the ferry dock everyday for many years.
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All indications are that CVT transmissions in Goldwings aren't All That.
Honda list it’s industry lead decades ago. Now it is always late to the party while pretending it threw it.
CVT transmissions suck.....................
Ring back the Cushman!!!!!
I still love my little 93 Harley Davidson FXR.
We’re growing old together. :-)
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