Bikes

2021 Honda Gold Wing First Look

Flagship tourer boosts cargo capacity and passenger comfort for new year.

January 6, 2021

The 2021 Gold Wing Tour now has a bigger trunk that Honda says will easily fit two full-face lids.American Honda Motor Co.

Resolutions for the new year? If you’re Honda, it’s to make your first new model announcement for 2021 all about comfort. Perhaps as an antidote to what’s definitely been an uncomfortable year for most, Big Red has chosen to give the 2021 Gold Wing upgrades in the areas of plushness and convenience, which can only enhance its status in the long-distance touring segment. Among the improvements are redesigned passenger accommodations and upgraded audio as well as a capacity increase for the Tour version’s trunk, which now can swallow two full-face helmets.

If you want it in black, you’ll have to step down to the airbag-less Gold Wing Tour DCT model.American Honda Motor Co.

The main change addresses previous requests to boost the Wing’s storage capacity, specifically on the up-spec full-dress bikes. That means the Tour model’s top storage compartment expands by 11 liters, giving it a total of 61 liters of capacity which should be plenty for two helmets; previous designs could accommodate certain helmets if they were arranged just so, and getting two to fit was often a stretch. (It’s a welcome update but we have to wonder why it took so long.) The Tour models also sport a redesigned backrest for the passenger seat, which gets a more relaxed angle, better padding, and a taller profile. In fact, the saddle area on all the Wings dial up the swank a touch, with a premium suede-like cover appearing on the Tours, while the Gold Wing and Gold Wing Automatic DCT get colored seat piping for added contrast. And the aforementioned trunkless models get a few more subtle styling tweaks to boot, with solid red taillights and new paint choices.

The two trunkless Gold Wings—the Gold Wing and Gold Wing DCT—feature a new gray colorway for 2021.American Honda Motor Co.

Covering long distances also usually means tapping into the onboard entertainment options at will, so Honda also upgraded the speakers to 45-watt units, giving them richer audio characteristics, and dialed in the automatic volume-adjustment level. An XM radio antenna is now standard, and all Gold Wings are now Android Auto compatible (from 2018-on) as well as offering Apple CarPlay integration. You can still choose between manual-transmission models or Gold Wings featuring Honda’s automatic DCT transmission, in either full-dress configuration or trunkless versions.

The Gold Wing and Gold Wing DCT also gain orange accent stripes and all 2021 Wings are now Android Auto compatible.American Honda Motor Co.

Seems like other prerequisites for new model year machines are a fresh palette and a bump in price, so Honda juggled around the colors for the new Wings and added some dollars to the final cost. The top-of-the-range Gold Wing Tour Air Bag DCT, for example, will retail for $32,600 in Candy Ardent Red, the color we saw on last year’s Tour model. Meanwhile the Gold Wing Tour DCT will list at $29,300 and the Gold Wing Tour has an MSRP of $28,300; either one can be had in Candy Ardent Red or Metallic Black. The trunkless Gold Wing DCT will sell for $25,100, while the base Gold Wing is priced at $23,900; both of those get a new color for 2021 which Honda calls Deep Pearl Gray. The entire Gold Wing range will be available in the US this February.