When Ever I Think Of A Honda Gold Wing Motorcycle,

I think of this,

a huge chunk of metal that is great for touring, but has all of the handling characteristics of the Vasa,

 so it came as a great surprise when I saw this,

 a striped down cafe racer version of the Gold Wing, 

 that really looked like it could do the business, 

 Scott, the owner of H Garage and builder of the bike commented,  'It was pretty mangled from an accident the year prior', but the customer was ready to get His '83 model back on the road,

 so Scott went to work,

just a few of the modifications included were that “The front end was cleaned up, wiring re-routed, and a new headlight with built-in turn signals and billet ears was mounted, the stock handlebar mounts on the top triple were shaved, clip-on mounts were installed and the bars were replaced with a cut set of low-rise items to keep the riding position comfortable, new levers, a master cylinder and some switch gear was mounted along with some custom cables and Biltwell diamond grips to match the seat, the stock ignition was replaced with a hidden kill switch and an aluminium start switch was also recessed into the tank”,

the Honda’s stock headers were trimmed back, some new exhaust tubing was welded up, and it was all sent to be ceramic coated, next came the installation of some carbon fibre exhaust tips, an aftermarket radiator guard was then sourced, stripped and powder coated, along with the bronze wheels and various engine covers, Continental tires were used front and back to keep things nice and beefy, the frame was chopped, detabbed, the centre stand was removed, the kickstand shaved and some little touches were added here and there to clean up the stock unit, “The paint job went to Josh at La Fountain Custom Paint, who laid down a beautiful base of indigo with some antique white racing stripes, the tail-piece is adorned with the Vampire Squadron logo, in honour of the client’s father who served in the Airforce’s 44th Fighter Squadron, all of this was then clear coated with a little blue pearl that really rolls with the light”, as always, the Honda was sent to Chad Francis of Retrowrench to clean up the wiring and work his magic with the carbs, so no more the lumbering giant, but a nimble and fast road racer, would I like one? well not really, although it was nice to see the modern the Gold Wing cafe racer, for Myself a cafe racer is a quintessentially British thing, a twin like this,

original Triton, or this modern take on a cafe racer,

the JMC Norvin Cafe Racer,

would I like one of these? please, please, pretty please!