I had an ST1300 for 14 years. A friend of mine once asked me if I was ever going to buy another bike, I told him maybe, when another bike comes out that is better. Last year I had just shy of 130K on the ST and in Oct. 17' Honda did the unveiling of the new GW. Then in Feb they brought over 50 of them to Austin, TX and MC Journalists from around the world showed up, rode and started reviews in journals and video. I pretty much read and watched every one of them to get others perspectives of this new MC. At this point I decided I was going to buy this new GW, but which one?
In March 18' I spoke to my dealer and said I was interested in one but not sure if it were going to be the Manual or DCT trans. He said he would have both in stock within a week or so. I pretty much new what the manual trans would be about do I asked him if I could ride the DCT when it arrived, he said no problem and he would contact me when it arrived. A few days later he called me and said he could have a DCT Tour prepped the next morning for a test ride about 10 AM. Needless to say I was there. I have known these people for some time and they allowed me 1.5 test time on the bike. The first place I went to was a Target parking lot about 4 blocks from the dealer. In that 4 block ride it was clearly the smoothest, nicest feeling MC I had ever ridden. On arriving to the parking lot my handling concerns were alleviated in 5 minutes. I was able to do figure 8's wheel locked, no problem. Performed other slow speed maneuvers, again with no issues. The extra weight made no difference to me, actually to the contrary, this bike low center of gravity and the double wishbone front end make this easier to handle than the ST. I had about an 8 mile ride in city traffic to the Xpress-way and in those 10 minutes or so I had gotten very comfortable on the bike. It stopped very well (not quite ST) but close. It accelerated very well in Tour mode that I had it in. I went through Econo which is a softer acceleration of Tour mode and Rain mode is softer than Econo mode. I then went for it and put it in Sport mode. Well you better be hanging onto the handlebars in this mode (not quite ST fast but the ST 1/4 mile is 11.4 sec and as noted above in 0-60 times 12.8 sec, but that is wrong and can be laid to rest being one GW owner took his GW manual to the dragstrip and ran a 11.9 sec 1/4 mile.) So there is a difference in speed but on this big of bike you will hardly notice it. The torque this bike produces is simply incredible. See attached Dyno graph. There is no torque curve with this bike, at under 1000 RPM's this bike has over 100 FP of torque, at 1200 RPM's it peaks at 108 FP of torque. I have never seen another motorcycle do this. It carries this torque from again 1200 RPM's at 108 FP to 4500 RPM's at 104 FP of torque. But in the same breath Honda also builds F1 cars.
I arrived on the Xpress-way and took it up to 60 and was impressed with the handling, wind manageability (there were 15 to 20 MPH crosswinds) and smoothness. I took her to 70 and all the way up to rev limiter. It was steady the entire way. I was sold at this point, but the DCT was not for me. I elected to purchase a red manual Tour model.
A few after thoughts on this bike. The bike isn't perfect, but very close. Others might argue that, but then you can't make them all happy. The GPS isn't useless but has issues, to give Honda they have released 2 software upgrades that have dramatically improved it. Apple Carplay works but the promised Android in non-existent. The latter from what I understand is on the Google maps part. The speedo is the most accurate I have seen. My bike is understated by 1 mph at speeds above 65. The headlights are amazing, ten LED's all the time and more with high beams. I would have bought this bike for the cruise control and self cancelling turn signals, the latter some complain that they cancel to quickly. In a straight run they will blink about 9 or 10 times then cancel if a turn is not involved. This is good in my opinion on a slight x-way ramp exit where there is no turn, if there is they cancel if not re-engage. The stock seat is the most comfortable that I have ever ridden, just not a fan of vinyl (sweats me). Some say it is uncomfortable, again opinion, but then I ride a road bicycle about a hundred miles a week when weather allows in Michigan. So most seats are comfortable for me ( the stock ST seat was replaced in my 2nd year). Laam MC seats has mine right now to do his stuff in leather. Brake lights are awesome. Gas mileage is incredible for a bike this size and all on 86 octane and no, don't put premium in it. My trip B odometer is above a 50 mpg for the bikes life, that has to do with me being in 6th gear in the high 90 percentile by 40 mph, your riding may differ. Wind coverage is great, I had the opportunity to test it multiple times now. One time was back in April 2018 coming home from Florida. That is when the Alberta clipper came through and my ride through the Smokies and Ohio were in rain, sleet and snow with Ohio adding a 40 mph plus crosswind and I rode right through it. This bike does very well in crosswinds. Well there are too many other things I could say but that wouldn't give you the opportunity to explore other features and abilities this bike offers. Oh yeah one more thing, this bike is very ST like and is an easy transition.
