the only difference in spring orientation is how much fork oil the closer wound coils displace if they're at the bottom, vs. the wider spaced coils. The closer wound coils displace more oil, therefore change the airspace above the oil by a small amount. On a 750lb sport touring bike my guess is that amounts to either nothing, or close to nothing in the handling department.
FWIW, the Honda manual does state the tighter wound coils should be at the bottom, as Terry mentioned earlier.
The spring is compressed from both ends simultaneously, so the spring compresses the same in either orientation under load.
edited:
Since the unsprung weight is everything that sits below the spring (wheel, tire, rotors, brake calipers, etc.), I guess what Larry is saying with the upper part of the spring becoming a solid piece of metal first, is that becomes part of the "sprung weight" as opposed to part of the unsprung weight. If the bottom compresses first, and sits below the part of the spring that is still uncompressed, it could be considered to be part of the unsprung weight. I don't know enough about the details of sprung/unsprung weight distribution to know if the weight of the spring is even considered in the equation, since it weighs the same compressed or uncompressed. It is generally thought that lower unsprung weight is better for handling, but that doesn't get better by adding more sprung weight to change the ratio. And again, the tiny difference this might make is not going to amount to much on a 750lb bike.