A Fuel Stabiliser Additive

My GoldWing, a GL1800, is usually laid up for most of the winter these days and I also have two other, older GoldWings which get stored far more than they get used.

One of the issues when storing a bike for extended periods is whether to empty the fuel tank (and maybe even the fuel system, or at least the carburetors) or leave it full.

Is there a clear “best practice” approach to this or is it down to whatever takes your fancy?  And if there is a clear best practice, is it the same for all models and ages of GoldWings?

And does the type of fuel in the tank make a difference?  I decided to try to find out.

The potential fuel system problems from long term storage are that:

• the fuel goes “stale” over time so the engine will not start or run satisfactorily
• corrosion or blockages might occur either in the tank or elsewhere  in the fuel system
• ethanol fuels have additional corrosive potential.

Fuel Stability

Petroleum (otherwise known as petrol or gasoline) is refined from crude oil and it contains the “higher” alcohols and other volatile chemicals – hence it’s tendency to give of fumes (i.e.vapour) readily.  These chemicals are also highly flammable, so if you mix petrol vapour with air and apply a spark you get an explosion.  Contain the explosion inside a cylinder which has a piston in it and you get motion and that, in essence, is how a GoldWing’s engine works.

Although petrol is mostly the product of selectively distilling crude oil, the manufacturing process also includes adding special chemicals (called additives) to enhance its performance.  Once upon a time organic lead compounds (which are highly toxic) were added to petrol as an anti-knocking agent but no longer of course and we now use unleaded petrol – but it still contains a selection of additives to enhance its suitability as automotive fuel and the various manufacturers like to claim that their petrol is better than their competitors (and especially better than cheaper supermarket petrol) because of the value of their particular choice of additives.

Because petrol is a complex mixture of chemicals, some of which vaporise more actively than others, some of the livelier chemicals evaporate in storage and the fuel goes “stale” and will no longer start or run an engine satisfactorily.  Manufacturers add some stabilising additives during manufacture but you cannot buy petrol at the pumps which will last more than two or three months in storage without risk of “going stale” and becoming unusable.  If you try to use it you will find the engine becoming difficult to start or run properly and you will also risk gumming up of parts in the fuel system.  Running your GoldWing on old petrol is not a good idea.

Fortunately it is possible to buy additional stabilising additive for petrol which will extend its storage life considerably – to as much as two years.  These additives will not rejuvenate old stale patrol so you have to put the stuff in while the petrol is fresh to get the benefit but providing you do that, a purpose-made fuel stabiliser will allow you to store your GoldWing with fuel in it safely for up to two years.

Supermarket petrol is sometimes said to store less well than the stuff supplied by Shell, BP etc and therefore to last less than two or three months in storage – and therefore only to be suitable in vehicles which are in continuing use.  I’m not aware that this has been proven and the supermarkets might dispute the implied allegation that their fuel is in some way inferior – but if you do normally use supermarket fuel in your GoldWing during the riding season (as I do) then it could be worth buying the last tankful of the season from Shell or BP etc, even if it does cost a bit more.

If the bike is to be laid up for winter without draining the fuel system, stabilising the remaining fuel with a fuel stabiliser becomes highly desireable.  A selection of these additives are available and you may be able to buy some locally but you can also buy them easily on line from Amazon by searching for “fuel stabilizer”.  (Sadly even the UK Amazon website insists on spelling stabiliser the American way with a “z”.)

These additives are by the way also useful for stabilising the petrol in your lawnmower over winter and its not a bad idea to use it routinely in the fuel tanks of generators which are used only occasionally or as standby power sources.

Fuel syphoning pump - useful for draining a tank

It’s important to appreciate that fuel stabilising additives cannot revive old, stale petrol so if you have neglected to add them at the start of this winter storage period you have probably missed the boat.  If you laid up your bike in September you almost certainly have, especially if you won’t be running it again until March, which would make a six month storage period.  You will therefore need to drain off and the stale fuel and replace it with fresh before you put the bike back on the road.

Drained-off fuel needs disposing of carefully because it is still highly flammable and toxic stuff – whatever you do don’t dump it down a street drain or use it to liven up your garden waste fire.  Petrol contains carcinogenic chemicals like benzine so don’t use it to de-grease motorcycle or car parts in the garage either; these chemicals can get through your skin and cause serious health problems if you are exposed to them repeatedly.

Since it’s only usually a couple of gallons or less which get syphoned out of the bike’s tank, I usually pour into the family car’s fuel tank, where it will be mixed adequately with fresher fuel and can therefore be used up safely.

Keeping a bottle of fuel stabiliser in the garage and remembering to dose the fuel tank with it as you put the bike away for the winter saves all this faffing about and is by far the better and easier way.

Note that there are other considerations for safe long term storage of a GoldWing (such as avoiding allowing the timing belts to rest in one place for long periods) so running the engine periodically becomes highly desirable and if you end up storing your bike longer than one winter, a maintenance schedule incorporating this sort of thing will preserve the bike better and safe expensive replacements.  If you end up storing your bike for more than two years you should plan to replace the fuel in the tank with fresh peterol (to which fuel stabiliser is thenadded) as part of the maintenance schedule.

Better, of course, to keep your GoldWing in use than to resort to long term storage, especially by just leaving the bike in the garage and neglecting to do anything at all.

Fill the tank or not?

Conventional wisdom is that it better to keep a steel fuel tank (as in Classic GoldWings) full of petrol during winter storage, to discourage corrosion by the water vapour in the air.  With a plastic tank, as in a GL1800, it doesn’t matter as long as you remember to add the fuel stabiliser.

Filling up a steel tank might not be necessary if your bike is kept in a genuinely dry garage, or of course if you can persuade your wife to let you store your precious bike inside your centrally heated home for the winter so the family can continue to droll over it together.

There are uncertainties about plastic tanks and long term storage of ethanol fuels (especially high concentrations of ethanol such as flex-fuel) but for petroleum fuel it probably makes no difference how much is in a plastic tank as long as the fuel has been stabilised.

Fuel system blockages

Evaporation of fuel during storage can increase the risk of blockages in the fuel system due to the formation of “gummy” deposits (especially in carburettors) and other debris which has mobilised and or settled during storage.

For this reason even with fuel stabiliser added to the tank, it makes sense to ensure that carburettors are emptied of fuel before your bike is stored for long periods.  You can do this by running the engine with the fuel tap off until it stops although a better and more reliable way is to physically drain each carburettor by removing the drain plug on each float chamber.

GoldWings which have fuel injection systems, i.e. all the GL1800s and the 1985 GL1200 Ltd and 1986 Aspencade SEi models, fuel stabiliser should be added to the tank and run through the system by running the engine before storage rather than trying to empty the system by running the engine until the fuel is exhausted.  For long term storage these bikes should have their engines run periodically and the fuel in the tank replaced with fresh (and freshly stabilised) fuel at least every two years.

Fuel system corrosion

Another problem which can be caused or aggravated by long periods of storage is corrosion of the fuel tank or fuel lines.  Water is a common contaminant of automotive fuel, especially diesel but also sometimes petrol, and this water can be contaminated by micro-organisms which can produce acidic and other corrosive contaminants.  Fortunately with petrol fuel supplied in UK and Western Europe, chemical or microbial contamination is not a big or common problem at all.

Water-absorbing sachets and bags

I have already mentioned that conventional wisdom is to keep the steel petrol tanks of classic GoldWings full during winter storage to discourage corrosion of the unlined interior of the tank by exposure to water vapour in the air.  A full tank (of stabilised petrol) will help to prevent corrosion for prolonged storage (i.e. over two years) but you would than have to drain and discard the fuel before putting the bike back into service, even if stabiliser had been added.

If an unlined steel fuel tank is to be stored empty for prolonged periods, especially in an unheated garage, placing a suitable desiccant (i.e. a water-absorbing chemical) inside the tank and scheduling periodic replacement or drying of the desiccant would be worth considering.  Desiccants, usually silica gel materials, are available in bags which you could hang inside the filler neck of a GoldWing fuel tank.

Ethanol fuels (petrol to which up to 10 % ethanol has been added) are being introduced in UK and since ethanol is more corrosive than petroleum, an increased risk of corrosion might therefore arise.  Ethanol fuels may also be capable of dissolving or dislodging materials which have previously stuck to the sides of old fuel tanks and lines and this could conceivably lead to blockages, including of fuel filters.

With E5 and E10 fuels (i.e. up to 10% ethanol in otherwise neat petroleum) these risks are probably very small and are perhaps nothing more than theoretical.  There may have been instances of even these low-concentration ethanol fuels causing damage to some motorcycle plastic fuel tanks but I have heard nothing about GoldWing plastic tanks being damaged and 10% ethanol fuel has been in widespread  use in the USA for some time.

The specialist sealing materials which are used to repair (i.e. to resurface internally) old, corroded steel motorcycle fuel tanks may be vulnerable to damge by ethanol fuels but hard information is difficult to come by.    Hopefully if these sealing compound are at risk from ethanol, the manufacturers will be modifying them to cope with ethanol in future anyway so even with tanks which have been treated with older sealants, re-treatment with newer and more stable materials will be possible.

If you run an old bike irregularly an find yourself starting to use ethanol-containing fuels it could be well worth installing an in-line fuel filter if there isnlt one, or changing the filter after you’ve being running on ethanol fuel after a few engine running hours, to safeguard against anything which has been dislodged and blocking carburettor jets.

Summary

I don’t claim to be an expert on this subject but from what I’ve been able to discover, some fairly simple precautions should see GoldWing owners safely through winter or even more prolonged storage.  As with many things in life, prevention is much easier and better than cure.

• Adding fuel stabiliser to your tank before winter storage is the basic requirement and if you haven’t done it yet, it will still be worth giving your bike a dose now to see the bike through this winter.
• Adding fuel stabliser after the fuel has been stored for a while doesn’t revive the fuel and doesn’t restart the two-year clock.
• Filling the tank up if your bike has a steel fuel tank is also a basic and important requirement – also not to late to remedy thi winter if you haven’t already done it.
• The final fill-up of the season could usefully be of non-supermarket petrol because it might have better storage and other properties, but this won’t remove the vital need for a fuel stabilising additive.
• Ethanol fuels which are being sold in UK these days probably don’t present much of an additional problem but if you can avoid it for the final fill-ups of the season there might be some value in doing so.

Click on the image for an enlargement

Although Honda have not published details of the inspection procedure in UK a copy of Honda America’s Service Bulletin has appeared on the internet and can be viewed by clicking here.

It’s a bit difficult for non-engineers to grasp what the inspection is about from this technical bulletin but it appears to involve rotating the secondary master cylinder (by inserting a special tool in place of one of the mounting bolts) as far as it will go in a clockwise direction (i.e. in an unfavourable way) to see of the rear wheel then drags after a test application of the rear brake.   In other words to force the piston alignment of the secondary master cyinder as far as possible in the potentially brake-dragging direction to see if it then causes the brakes to drag.

If the rear wheel locks up after this test or if resistance to rotation (measured as in the third picture) exceeds 5.1 kg (11.2 lbs)  the bike has failed the test and the secondary master cyclider requires replacement.

Having done this test of how the secondary master cylinder performs with the most unfavourable piston rod angle which can be contrived, the mounting bolts are tightened up again with rotating force applied in the opposite, counter-clockwise direction, to optimise the piston rod entry angle, as in the fourth picture.

According to this Service bullettin all GL1800s from 2000 -2010 are subject to this recall and even some of the 2012 Model GL1800s are affected, so it’s not just some of them as originally thought – which at least makes it easier for UK GL1800 owners; your 2001-20010 GL1800 will require this inspection and all of us will get a letter from Honda UK eventually.

It would appear from the US GoldWing forums that very few GL1800s are failing this recall test, only 1-2%.  But if a bike does fail the dealer will ask the owner to leave the bike for repair straight away for safety reasons, rather than ride it home and bring it back when parts are available.  When deciding which Honda Dealer to take your bike to for inspection, you might therefore want to ask whether they will be able to do the repairs quickly if necessary and whether a loan bike will be available.

Some US riders are posting on the forums that they will not bother taking their bikes in for checking if they have not experienced dragging of the rear brake because of the low failure rate but this is foolish thinking.  Without inspecting the piston rod alignment using the special template you cannot be sure that your bike will not develop dragging of the rear brake in the future and although a rare event, sudden onset of rear brake dragging could have a critical effect on the bike’s handling.

Trikes

Barry Walton of Colin Appleyards GoldWing and Trike Centre, who build and supply lots of trikes these days, has advised me that this safety recall does not affect EML trike conversions, which are fitted with EML’s own fork legs, so they don’t have a secondary master cylinder and are not affected by this recall.  On the other hand Lehman trikes retain standard Honda fork legs so they will require inspection if they are listed by Honda as needing one.

Although no longer a franchised Honda dealer themselves, Appleyards are still leading GoldWing Specialists and have moved quickly in response to this recall.  They will be able to assist their own customers (solo bikes as well as trikes of course)  with arrangements for these recall checks (and any necessary repairs) to be carried out free of charge and they will also ensure that replacement parts are available so that their customers’ bikes will not be kept hanging around.  As always, Barry and Appleyards Workshop Supervisor Malcolm Wright will always try to help any Winger who asks for it, so even if you didn’t buy from them, don’t hesitate to call them if you need help.  Their phone number is 01535 606311.

Honda UK

If you haven’t had your letter from HondaUK yet there’s no need to rush into getting in touch with them – they are on the case.  If however you experience dragging of the rear brake you should make contact with either your nearest Honda dealer or the Honda Contact Centre without delay.  The telephone number is 0845 200 8000.

I rang HondaUK for an update a couple of days ago but I’ve had no response so far; if I hear anything worthwhile from them I will add a Postcript.

Thanks to Nigel Mackintosh for spotting that this Service Bulletin had appeared on the internet and letting me know about it quickly so I can pass it on.

Postscript

Got my response from Honda UK today, shortly after this article was published.  They have told me that VOSA have supplied the VIN number list to DVLA but HondaUK are still waiting for DVLA to extract and supply the names and addresses, so they can start sending out the letters.  They are not yet sure whether they will get the names and addresses for UK owners of imprted US-spec bikes straight away but they do intend to include them in the free inspection/repair programme, so no concerns there.  Honda UK are clearly doing what they can to conduct this safety recall without delay.

Related Articles

HondaUK make a statement about the GL1800 Brake Recall

Safety Recall on GoldWing GL1800 Braking System – all years

There is an EU Directive which requires than all petrol sold in Europe contains 5 – 10 % ethanol by 2013.

But what does this mean for our precious GoldWings, including our classic bikes, built when four-star leaded petrol was still the norm – how ill they cope?

The move towards ethanol-containing fuels is happening gradually in UK and 5% ethanol has been added to some fuel (without necessarily announcing it) for some time.  But 10% ethanol (E10 fuel) is likely to come into wide use in UK over time and it’s already fairly common elsewhere, especially in France and the US.

The good news is that either of these fuels, E5 or E10, can be used in any model of UK or US-spec GoldWing.

With pre-GL1800 GoldWings (mostly carburetors but including the 1985 GL1200 Ltd and the GL1200 Aspencade SEi) models there may be some loss of performance because ethanol has about one third less energy content, volume for volume, than petrol.  But the bikes should come to no harm running on this fuel.  And because the GL1800 has a clever sort of fuel injection, there should be no noticeable performance loss.  When using E10 fuel a 3% decrease in fuel economy compared with petroleum is likely to be noticed with all GoldWing models.

So for E5 and E10 fuel no modification of the GoldWing is necessary and you can simply start using it when it becomes available in your area if you wish.

Brazil is already using E25, so 25% ethanol, nationwide.  GoldWings are sold by Honda in Brazil so presumably those bikes have to be able to run on E25 and it would be interesting to know if Honda modifies GL1800s specially for that market.  I did look at Honda’s Brazilian Website but there was nothing obvious to suggest that the GoldWings are different and my Portuguese isn’t wonderful so I gave up.  If you are planning to take your UK GoldWing on tour to Brazil it might pay to make further enquiries before you go!

Not currently in prospect in UK

There are also over half a million “flex-fuel” motorcycles in Brazil which can run on 100% ethanol (E100) and Honda manufactures some of these.  Alcohol has a higher octane rating than petroleum so flex-fuel engines are designed with higher compression ratios and they have also usually needed a small auxiliary fuel tank filled with petroleum (or a low concentration ethanol/petroleum mix) for cold starting.  Even with specially designed flex-fuel engines, problems occur with cold starting at alcohol concentrations above 70% and seasonal reductions in alcohol concentration are made in some countries because of this.  These are changing times.

Ethanol for fuel is made by fermenting sugars with yeast, as for drinks production, but an additional five-stage water-removal process is then necessary to achieve the high purity from water to allow ethanol to mix and stay mixed with petroleum properly.  Some of you will remember from school chemistry that ethanol is hygroscopic, i.e. it absorbs water from the air around it and this happens even when it is mixed with petroleum.  Ethanol can also be subject to contamination and is more corrosive than petrol, so introducing it is not straightforward.

High concentration ethanol fuels (above 10%) therefore present increasing problems and would do so for GoldWing owners, including if E25 fuel became mandatory (Brazil style) in Europe.  There would be substantial performance and economy disadvantages, even for the GL1800.  Steel fuel tanks, which older GoldWings have, would be at risk of accelerated corrosion and other fuel system and fuel filtering problems.

Fortunately higher concentrations of ethanol fuel are not currently on the EU agenda and given the typical age of a UK GoldWing owner, we can even hope that they won’t be a problem during our motorcycling lifetime.

In summary therefore running on E5 or E10 fuels should not be a problem for GoldWing owners in UK, even classic GoldWings, just don’t expect quite such good fuel consumption.

Phone Contacts viewable on Garmin SatNav screen in order to make a call

Relatively few riders want to use their phone while riding – apart from anything else linking a mobile phone into a GoldWing’s intercom system is not straightforward and nor is it cheap.

As well as technical obstacles there are also important road safety issues – is it sensible to be using a phone at all while riding, even completely hands-free?

I first looked at hooking up my mobile phone to my GoldWing system six or seven years ago after a friend had done it successfully on his bike, which he used for a lot of business travel and since he was self-employed he needed to be able to take calls while making a journey to avoid losing work.

By connecting a car-type Bluetooth hands-free unit to the bike’s intercom via a purpose-made interface unit and then relying on a Bluetooth connection to the phone, which could therefore stay in his pocket, he had succeeded in establishing a reliable, working system.  This approach was possible because unlike most such hand-held devices, he had found one which had external microphone and speaker sockets, to which he was able to connect the interface unit which would then connect to the bike.

I went as far as buying one of these hands-free devices to follow suit but never quite got around to getting the necessary interface unit made; the car hands-free unit is still around somewhere, still in its packaging.  I suppose at the time I didn’t have a pressing reason to have the phone available while riding and another friend, with whom I discussed the idea, felt very strongly that phones and motorcycling didn’t mix.  Much better, said he, to leave the phone switched off in your pocket so you can concentrate entirely on your riding.

I more or less agreed with this view at the time but later decided there could be one exception to this otherwise very sensible safety rule.  By this time I was getting involved in leading European tours and I figured that as the tour leader, being contactable while on the move could be very valuable – for example to help re-grouping after a separation, if someone took a wrong turning and got lost or had broken down.

All making it on to the ferry

There are other ways of catering for these eventualities of course but none are foolproof, not even mobile phone communications, which have coverage dead spots.   But I had been on tours when some riders had got separated and ended up havimg to find their own way to the next overnight stop because they got separated soon after the day’s riding began and being able to contact the  tour leader before the next planned stop would have been helpful.  That particular tour leader took the view that everyone had been provided with a route card and most of them also had satnav with the route pre-loaded onto it, so it wasn’t necesary for the group to stick together all day every day.

But I was planning to include riders who had never been abroad before and the primary aim would be to stick together as a group at least on the longer transit rides.  I remembered my own nervousness about losing contact with the group and especially the leader when I was new to it – and the pressure it puts you under to tryto keep up, threatening to sacrifice safety, so I didn’t want my touring group to be under that sort of pressure if it could be avoided.

So when an option to hook up my mobile phone became available by adding an extra cable and interface when I was upgrading my sat nav anyway, I decided to take the plunge.  Many sat nav devices incorporate Bluetooth connectivity nowadays but this was novel at the time.  My new satnav was a Garmin Street Pilot 2820 and the hook-up kit came fom Kennedy Technologies (who sadly are no longer manufacturing) and once they were installed everything worked perfectly first time and has never let me down.

Cardo Scala Bluetooth headset

Nowadays there are much simpler ways of hooking up a mobile phone, for example by using a Bluetooth helmet head set and there are probably lots of ways of hooking everything on the bike up to a Bluetooth helmet headest too if you want to.  Nevertheless my system worked and still does; I can hear and be heard if I take a call while riding (I have the option not to take the call) and it can also be useful to make a call without taking my helmet off, although I would always pull over to do this.

I would usually pull over as soon as I can when I take a call too but if necessary I can take a call while continuing to ride at least for a short time.  If someone happens to speak up on the CB and/or the satnav pipes up with a navigational instruction as the call comes in it can get a bit confusing to both you and the caller (which happened to me once) but that’s not insurmountable either.

I did once make a test call on the move, wearing riding gloves too, so it can be done.  I picked a quiet time on the motorway for this experiment but even so it wasn’t easy and it wasn’t really safe.  I haven’t repeated that exercise and I don’t recommend making outgoing calls from a motorcycle in any circumstances while still on the move.

There is however convenience in being able to make a call quickly and easily, without  having to take either helmet or even gloves off, simply by pulling over to do so and I do use it very occasionally.  It could for example make it possible to pull over to make a call to the emergency services (about a serious collision you’ve just passed on the motorway) while still keeping the option open to move off again quickly.

Getting back to the value of a phone hook-up while touring, it wasn’t of course necessary (or desireable) for everyone to be able to talk to each other by phone while on the move or indeed for anyone except me to be abe to take calls.  But by ensuring that everyone had my mobile phone number from the outset and knew that I could take calls on the move, they could have confidence that I was contactable fairly quickly if they did get lost or break down, which I felt was useful.

CB range is rarely more than a mile

As well as helping with their confidence as newcomers to European touring it would also allow me to make tour leader decisions (like whether to wait, turn back or ride on) as soon as possible after something went wrong, thereby making the problems easier to nip in the bud.

CB radio has its value in group riding too but range is limited and often too limited to be any use in these separation/breakdown circumstances – although I do remember one group ride when so riders too the wrong motorway exit and it was possible to use the CB to tell them where to aim for to regroup once they got back on route.  Mostly however CB range was too short and being able to receive a phone call while I was riding seemed to meet the requirement very well.  It would save me having to halt the rest of the group to wait for a telephone call from someone who had got separated – a call which he might not even bother to make if he was contently making his own way.

My theory was therefore that if a breakdown or a separation occurred behind me so that other riders in the group had to stop and arrangements were needed to re-group or to get help of some sort, they would at least be able to ring me straight away, and before I got too much further down route.  I could then decide whether to halt the rest of the group or not and take whatever further action might be required.

See this and you might want to make a quick phone call

I must confess that I’ve never taken a call  while leading a group in the circumstances which I envisaged.  It cost quite a lot to buy the special interface to connect the bike for both hearing and speech to the sat nav – and this type of sat nav is itself now becoming obsolete, so if I replace it I would have to get a new interface as well.

So in theory the facility to take phone calls while riding (and make them while still togged up) has value but in practice I’ve hardly ever used it used it and except for its contingency value it has certainly been poor value for money.

And the strict line my Winger friend takes about leaving the phone switched off while you’re riding still seems to me to make a lot of sense so if the time comes when I have to change my satnav (or in the now unlikely event that I change my bike) I might not bother trying to hook up the phone to the bike next time.

But then again I might.  Being able to make a quick call could be extremely valuable.

Passenger Floorboards, Part No 7005

The US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has issued a safety recall alert for aftermarket passenger floorboards sold by Kuryakyn since September 2008 as accessories for 2001-2011 GoldWing GL1800s.

The recall affects a total of 21,600 sets of floorboards and the problem is that the mounting bracket may crack and break off, causing the floorboard to detach from the motorcycle,  possibly injuring riders or cause collisions.  Only about 50 sets of these floorboards have been sold in UK since September 2008 and there have been no reported failures at all.

The Kuryakyn Part Number quoted on the US Recall Notice is 607005 but this doesn’t compute because Kuryakyn usually allocates four digit part numbers to accessories.  I have however been able to get confirmation from Kuryakyn that it is the Passenger Floorboard, Part Number 7005, which is affected.  The rider’s footboard kit, Part Number 4038, is not subject to this recall.

You can view the official US recall notice by Clicking Here.

It may be some time before the UK’s vehicle safety authority, VOSA, issue their own recall notice and because there have been no reported incidents in UK indeed they they may not even do so.  However Kuryakyn’s UK & European distributors, MAG (Europe) Ltd, have already confirmed to me that they will be arranging to have replacements fitted.  This work will be done free of charge.

The UK inspections will be carried out by their three principle UK Stockists and any UK Winger who has Kuryakyn passenger floorboards fitted to his GL1800 should contact one of these Stockists directly for service.  They are:

Knutsford Motorcycles on 01925 752600

Colin Appleyard Motorcycles, Keighley on 01535 606311

HGB Motorcycles, Ruislip on 01895 632234

Any concerned UK Winger is also welcome to contact Simon Vernon, who is handling this matter for MAG (Europe) on  0161 337 4390.

To repeat, there have been no reported incidents of failure of these floorboards in UK and only floorboards supplied after September 2008 are at risk.  Although it would be sensible for UK Wingers who have these accessories fitted to their bikes to inspect the mounting plates for cracks before they next go riding, I don’t think there is any reason to take the bike off the road on this account.  This recall might just provide a plausible excuse for leaving the wife at home doing the dishes while you test ride the bike on Boxing Day but that’s about it.

Concerned US Wingers may call Kuryakyn directly on 715-247-5008

GL1800 - 2001 Model Year

Honda (UK) has recently been informed by Honda Motor Europe of a safety recall for the 2001 to 2012 year model Goldwing (GL1800) although in Europe, only 2001- 2010 year models are affected.

The exact fault is that the secondary master cylinder compensator port may become blocked, resulting in potential rear wheel brake drag, and a temperature increase on the rear brake, exceeding specifications.

What has caused this? A combination of small free play of the secondary master cylinder piston and large push rod angle, coupled with primary seal swelling, may block the compensator port of the secondary master cylinder.

The ‘fix’ for this problem will be that the dealer will inspect the secondary master cylinder with an inspection tool and if brake drag potential is detected, the secondary master cylinder will be replaced with an improved one which has a slightly different angle.

A total of just over 160,000 machines globally are potentially affected (with approximately 20,000 of these being in Europe), although, a total of 26 cases have been reported as showing symptoms in the US market but there have been no incidents at all reported in Europe.

Approximately 1,800 UK specification registered machines are affected, although until Honda (UK) receives further information from the DVLA, we do not know the total number of machines that may be affected in the UK as this will also include some US specification machines. Any US specification machines in the UK would be included in the recall and be attended to by the Honda (UK) dealer network.

In terms of the process, VOSA have recently approved the recall and provided authority to DVLA to release customer information to Honda (UK) of owners whose machines may be affected and we hope to receive this information in the coming weeks. During this time, Honda (UK) will be sending a recall notification to our dealer network early next week and so at present, our dealer network would not be fully aware of the situation, which is something some of your blog followers have experienced during their visits to some dealerships. Once Honda (UK) receives this information from DVLA, letters will then be sent out to all relevant customers notifying them of the recall and the action for them to take. We anticipate customers will receive this letter from Honda (UK) early in the new year.

In the meantime, Honda can confirm that the motorcycles are safe to ride as the symptoms only manifest themselves under very specific conditions.

However if customers do have any concerns they should contact Honda (UK) on:

0845 200 8000

Fiona Cole, Corporate Affairs,  Honda (UK)

Note that the following details are from the American declaration and the inspection and repair procedure which HondaUK adopt may vary from this, depending on the view of the UK Authorities.  As far as safety recalls are concerned, the manufacturer has to secure the approval of the national safety authorities for the inspection and repair action.

Owners will be sent a letter inviting them to make an appointment with a Honda Dealer to have their bike checked and/or fixed.  Because this is a safety recall, i.e. the fault could affect the bike’s safety,HondaUK  will apply it to all affected GL1800s registered in UK, including parallel imports.  HondaUK  are allowed to get the names and addresses of the owners from DVLA in these circumstances, although having used them to issue the recall letters they are not allowed to keep them.

Nature of the potential fault:

The compensating port hole inside the secondary master cylinder (part of the combined-braking system) can become blocked due to either stacking of tolerances in manufacturing and/or sufficient swelling of the primary pressure cup inside the master cylinder.

If the compensating port hole becomes completely blocked, the rear wheel brake caliper can drag after the rider releases the brake input. If this occurs, the rear brake temperature and pressure progressively increase. Unexpected braking increases the risk of a crash and continued riding with the brake engaged can generate enough heat to cause the rear brake to catch fire.

This doesn’t mean that there is a high risk of unexpected severe braking or a fire, just that there is enough of a potential risk for Honda to have to do something about it.

Inspection and Repair

Honda Motorcycle Dealers will inspect the secondary master cylinder of all affected motorcycles.  If an inspection indicates that the compensator port hole can become blocked due to this problem, the Dealer will replace the secondary master cylinder.   These inspections and repairs (if needed) will be carried out free of charge.

Target dates for all American GoldWing owners to have received their letter is the end of January 2012.  Honda America has apologised for any inconvenience this creates, but feels the safety of our customers is the highest priority and encourages every customer to contact their dealer to schedule an appointment upon receiving the SAFETY RECALL letter.

HondaUK is expected to do something similar without unnecessary delay although their timescale might be determined by how quickly they can secure the approval of the relevant UK Authorities.

HondaUK have a very good track record when it comes to handling this sort of thing – as good as if not better than Honda America.  There is no indication as far as I can see that anyone needs to stop riding their bike until the inspection has been carried out although any rider does notice dragging of the rear brake it would obviously make sense to investigate rather than ignore it.

You can contact HondaUK’s Motorcycle Customer Relations Team on 01753 590510.

When the going gets tough ....

Our Indian Summer is over and the leaves are falling big time, even though the air temperatures became mild again temporarily last weeekend.  If you haven’t already done it this is a good time to decide whether to lay the Wing up for the winter or prepare properly for riding in winter conditions.

The risk of snow and ice is still low, unless you live or ride on very high ground, and there are still riding events and activities on the calendar to be enjoyed as well as the occasional day when the weather presnets a glorious riding opportunity.  Last Saturday here in Lancashire was such a day and I’m now kicking myself that I didn’t grab the opportunity.  The Manchester Salvation Army Toy Run is also coming up (November 19th) and there are other worthwhile (and worthy) events still to come too.

If you decide to lay the bike up for the winter, as I might have to do in order to face another hip operation, then it’s important to give it a little care and attention as you do so.   Dave Partridge, proprietor of AwingAway and Tecnical Editor for the Federation Website  wrote a very helpful article on Laying up your GoldWing last year which you might want to read again.

And if you are going to lay the bike up don’t forget that you can surrender your tax disc and get a refund from DVLA; I discovered after an interesting series of encounters with our local DVLA Office that timing your arrival at about ten minutes before they close, so 4.50pm, even on their bsuier days, ensures a short or no queue at all or anyway some pretty snappy service because they all want to go home.  If you haven’t read it, my article about the DVLA has its entertaining moments.

But let’s not get too defeatist that the biking season is over just yet.  Let’s think about continuing to ride as winter approaches – and therefore about the implications for our riding skills and style, the extra things we need to look out for and deal with as hazards on autumn roads.

Wrapping up but still smiling

Preparing for Winter Riding

Perhaps the most obvious autumn hazard we face is more and more continuous rain.  Those of us who don’t have to ride in rain, for example to get to work more or less whatever the weather,  will often decide not to set out if its raining but there’s always a risk, and a higher risk in autumn and winter, that we’ll get caught out in rain to we should at least be better prepared in case it does.

Our first thoughts are probably about keeping dry ourselves, so about making sure the wet riding gear is on the bike.  But rain affects tyre grip and will often also reduces visibility, as of course does fog.  The combination of rain or fog and a drop in air temperature can dirty and/or mist up your windscreen and visor too, so ensuring that you can still see where you are going if it starts raining or gets foggy while you’re out is useful preparation as well.

Windscreen and visor care

In summer I ride with the windscreen set high up so i look through it, to reduce air flow noise inside my helmet, but in winter I always drop the screen to its lowest position so I can see over it properly, including at the surface of the road immediately ahead.  You can flip your visor up quickly if necessary to get a better view but you can’t adjust your GoldWing’s windscreen while your riding, so you have to plan ahead.

Keeping your windscreen clean and polished helps to ensure optimal visibility too of course and a purpose-made product like Plexus makes that job a lot easier and more effective and will, for a while at least cause the rain drops to flow off the screen more quickly and easily.  But GoldWing windscreens are specially coated with something, a thin layer of surface plastic of some sort, so you have to take care not to use anything which will damage it.  A product called RainX was all the rave one year and it repelled the rain of the windscreen superbly but the windscreen’s plastic coating started peeling off and wrote the windscreen off.   This was years ago and they may have modified the formula to remove this risk of damage but it would be wise to check.  Maybe it’s best to stick to products you know to be safe on GoldWing windscreens.

Visors need more attention for winter riding too and choosing an effective de-misting application for the inside of your visor is important, especially if you wear a full face helmet.  The idea of de-misting applications is to reduce the surface tension  of the water which condenses on the visor and so make it transparent rather than misty.  Washing up liquid works reasonably well but there are a host of special chemical and applicator products sold in bike shops and it’s a question of choosing what works for you.  I have a full face helmet and I used to switch to it in winter for greater protection but nowadays I stick to my open face helmet instead – which allows me to lift it up a little bit when misting appears, to generate upwards airflow which does the de-misting job effectively enough.  Ian Cardwell, who rides all year, has found that Autoglym Visor Cleaner works well on both windscreen and visor.

GoldWing can be very conspicuous if you don't compromise it

Check that your lights are bright enough to be conspicuous

This might seem an odd thing to suggest to a GoldWing owner, whose bikes are often brightly illuminated with extra lighting, but it’s worth a cautionary note.  Not all GoldWing are conspicuously lit, even new ones.

It just as important to be seen well as to be able to see clearly yourself when visibility on the roads is at risk and so checking that your bikes lights are working at full brightness is important.  If your bike has standard, i.e as manufactured, lighting then its a question of checking that the bulbs are still working and if any are looking a bit dim or intermittent, checking and cleaning the contacts.  If that doesn’t get them all shining brightly then you should dig a bit deeper, or get someone  else to dig deeper for you, to check for wiring problems, including poor earth connections.

Lots of GoldWings have lights which have been substituted or modified, such as LED units replacing ordinary (i.e. incandescent tungsten) bulbs.  It’s important to check that these substitute light sources are bright enough to provide following road users with adequate warning because some of them certainly aren’t.  Riding around in reduced visibility with dim tail and brake lights is taking quite a risk.

The same applies to indicator lights and for example the chrome-fronted light bulbs which some wingers use for GL1800 front indicators  when they replace the standard yellow mirror lenses with clear or smokey lenses are as dim as the proverbial Toc H lamp.  The light output from these chrome-fronted bulbs, even through a clear lens is much, much less that from a standard clear bulb through an amber lens because only the back of the bulb does anything and only reflected light is emitted.  If you compound this problem by using smoked lenses the indicators will be even dimmer.  Oncoming drivers are going to miss your turn signals with potentially disastrous results.  When someone pointed out to me that my front indicators were barely visible and I worked out why I kept the clear lenses but switched to yellow bulbs instead.  Better to have a yellow bulb visible through your clear lens than to be invisible to other traffic.

If in doubt change now

Tyre pressures and state of wear

Another bike check which gets even more important in winter is your tyre pressures.  Tyre performance depends greatly on inflating to the correct pressure and in winter you might need every bit of performance your tyres can give you.  Wingers seem to be prone to failing to check them regularly.  A contact who services lots of GoldWings has told me that he often finds that the tyre pressures are well below specification and sometime only half the pressure there should be.  When he points this out to the owners they will say something like “but you checked them at the last service”, as if that was OK.  That last service was probably months and months ago.  Tyre pressures need checking at least once per week and ideally every time you take the bike out.  Failing to check your tyre pressures regularly is being suicidally lazy, it’s a simple as that.

Tyre wear is another performance issue and it’s a bad idea to leave replacing your tyres until next Spring if they are ready for changing and you plan to ride during the off season.  You are going to have to pay for them anyway so why not bite the bullet before winter and have the benefit of the extra safety margin which new tyres will give you in the wet?

Motorcycles are allowed to be worn down to a smaller tread depth than car tyres and they start off with less tread depth too.  But that doesn’t mean it is sensible to run on well worn tyres, especially during winter, and tyre performance doesn’t just depend on tread depth anyway.  Flatting of your tyres, especially the rear one, will start to compromise your tyres’ performance long before you reach the tread depth markers and you might find this out the hard way during winter riding by suddenly losing rear tyre grip in the wet, especially on roundabouts.  A skid while you are riding a GoldWing is quite a buttock-clenching experience and although you don’t automatically come off if your rear tyre loses grip while you are turning, it will certainly raise your eyebrows if its never happened to you before.  If in doubt, change your tyres for new ones as winter approaches.

Beautiful but dangerous to bikers

Spotting Winter Riding Hazards

Safe riding is always about reading the road ahead as soon and as well as possible and this can be particularly important in winter, when you need to read the road surface especially carefully and there are extra hazards, like wet fallen leaves on the road and the risk of black ice, the conditions for which have to be anticipated, because you simply cannot rely on being able to see it.

The average motorist, and the average rider, look only a short distance ahead to read the road, maybe only one hundred yards and even less than that in towns.  Advanced riders look much further ahead and they are scanning all the time for every scrap of information they can pick up which could help them know what’s coming.  Even if you haven’t done advanced riding training (yet?) getting into the habit of making yourself look as far as possible ahead, to pick up the earliest clues about hazards you are about to encounter can pay real dividends.

For example knowing that the air temperature has dropped low enough (3ºC and below) to present a risk of black ice forming in particularly sheltered or exposed bits of raod surface so that you start to look out for them can be literally life-saving.  You probably know for example that black ice can have formed in shady dips but are you aware that it can also form on bridges you might be riding over, because there is cold air underneath the road surface at this point rather than the warmer solid earth either side of the bridge?  The only warning you’ll ever get about black ice on the road ahead is if you spot the risk factors for its formation.

I’ve already mentioned fallen leaves, which are very slippery when they get damp, as an additional surface hazard during autumn and winter but there are others.  Road maintenance has been neglected in UK this past year because of the economic downturn so patches of road surface which have worn smooth or started to crack and crumble become an increasing hazard in colder and wetter conditions.   Diesel spills on roundabouts are even more difficult to spot in the wet and mud, metal grids, tar banding, sets and cobbles are all much slippier when they are wet.  Likewise they are places where any frost which might be forming will be must slippier.  Know your enemy and look out for it, that’s the thing.

Slower than this would be sensible!

Very heavy rain brings extra risk too, both by obliterating your view of the road surface when there is a lot of water standing or streaming on the road but also by presenting an increased risk of losing grip because of aquaplaning.  Riding through flood water can get very exiting on a bike, especially if the road surface beneath th water cannot be checked for potholes and such so you must always do it with great caution if at all.  GoldWings are not designed for fording in the way that some other bikes – and remember that if you are fording a flowing stream and the road surface isn’t rough tarmac or concrete there will be the added risk of a slimy surface.  It’s potentially entertaining to watch the Winger ahead of you come to grief and drop his bike while fording but ideally you will be far enough back to be able to stop your bike on dry land before going to his aid rather than joining him having an impromptu bath with your bike as well.  If in doubt don’t ford at all on a GoldWing, it’s as simple as that.

There is nothing you can do about aquaplaning except keep the handlebars straight and gradually close the throttle in the hope that tyre grip will be recovered as you slow down.

Spray from large vehicles on the motorway adds to the problem of surface water and one of the scariest situations I’ve found myself in on a bike was being alongside a lorry on the motorway when the rain and spray suddenly got worse and combined to make it like riding blind through a flooded car wash.  Overtaking lorries when there is heavy rain and spray around is always something to be approached with great caution and probably best not done at all.  The combination of heavy rain and heavy traffic which is still moving quickly is very threatening to a motorcyclist and well worth coming off the motorway to get clear off, even if it does delay your journey.

You don’t have to stay on the motorway when you are making a journey and if conditions start to get dangerous the sooner you let discretion be the better part of valour the better.  I don’t like staying on motorways in thick fog in the car and I certainly wouldn’t do it on the bike.

Not so full on in winter conditions is wise

Adopting a gentler riding style

As well as spotting as many hazards as soon as possible you need to give yourself extra time and opportunity to see them late and to reduce the risk of what will happen if you don’t, by riding more slowly, picking your line with an eye to more margin for error and braking and accelerating more gently.  You need a bigger margin of tyre grip for unforseen action so you need to to put extra effort into matching gear and throttle to your road speed so that you can accelerate and decelerate more gently and avoid the need for abrupt changes in speed or line.  Use a higher gear to help avoid wheel spin, that sort of thing.

Skids on a motorcycle are no fun at all so they are much better avoided than dealt with.  If a full skid develops, ie both wheels lose grip, you are unlikely to be able to recover control of the bike at all unless the skid was caused by very localised loss of surface grip so that the skid is only a momentary one and corrects itself as you move on to better road surface.  But that’s pretty unlikely to happen and if you suffer a full skid you are almost inevitably going to go down out of control.

A rear wheel skid might be controllable.  Remove the cause of the skid (eg reduce or stop braking or accelerating)  get the bike as upright as possible and steer into the skid.  As the skid stops resume braking or accelerating as necessary to recover your line but more gently than you were doing, so as to avoid precipitating another skid.  If you were going too fast into a corner or a roundabout you might not have room to recover so err of the cautious side with your approach speed when there is any risk of a skid.

A front wheel skid is more difficult to control and you need to react very quickly to stand any chance.  If the skid was precipitated by too much throttle or a sudden handlebar movement or braking you might be able to reverse its effect by removing the cause but don’t count on it.  Front wheel skids really need to be avoided.

If you find yourself sliding towards a kerb in a skid it’s just possible that hitting the kerb might help rather than hinder the situation, so having the presence of mind to make use of the impact with the kerb to help get the bike upright and under control might save the day.  It’s a longshot but it happened to me once and I was able to get the bike under control again.

Summary

Even if you’re not planning to do much riding this coming winter, give your bike a bit of attention before you lay it up.

Be aware of the additional hazards of winter riding and look ahead to try to spot them.

Adopt a gentler riding style to give yourself a margin for coping with the unexpected.

And if you’d like to read about more adventurous winter riding and how to do it, I came across this interesting article on another motorcyclist’s Blog.

Dave Partridge

Dave Partridge, who offers mobile servicing for GoldWings , under the trading name of AwingAway, based on Staffordshire, has just come up with some very tempting prices for servicing – including the opportunity to get your MOT done free of charge providing it’s done at the same time.  You get a free 10-point safety check on the bike even if an MOT is not required.

That strikes me as a staggeringly good offer and reason to get your MOT done while Dave’s at it, even if it’s not yet due, so that you can get yourself synchronised for next year.  Giving your bike an annual service and safety check is no bad thing regardless of the mileage you have done and doing it every year at the same time makes it easier to remember to do it.  Dave might even send you a  reminder next year!

Obviously this doesn’t include the cost of any additional work which might be needed, but it’s a fixed price for the service and the fixed prices are very keen at that – substantially lower than you would pay probably elsewhere.

Dave is a qualified motorcycle technician and a GoldWing owner himself.  He’s also th technical Editor of the Federation of UK GoldWing Clubs and you can pick his brains, free of charge, about any GoldWing technical problem you might have by using the Technical Enquiry Service on the Federation’s Website.

I’ve heard nothing but glowing reports of Dave’s work and can therefore thoroughly recommend him.  He will travel reasonable distances to do servicing work, which could also be attractive to you.  Dave is offering an innovative service to Wingers which is proving very popular.

You can contact Dave on 07795 095043 or by email to dave©awingaway•co•uk

You can also view a leaflet about Dave’s services which details his prices by clicking here.

The British Motorcyclists Federation has done some serious homework and posted a set of notes on Facebook about these EU Proposals in order to demystify them. The proposals do include a plan to prohibit modifications to the engine and drive train of motorcycles but they will not prohibit changing components (i.e. doing any work yourself on your engine or drive train) so the idea that the proposals will stop bikers doing thier own maintenance doesn’t stack up.  Our Goverment is against this proposal anyway and BMF will continue to lobby and campaign against it so it might never happen.

The EU also proposes to make ABS compulsory on all large motorcycles but this will only affect new ones (in due course) and may also never quite happen.

The proposed compulsory On Board Diagnostic equipment will not monitor speed etc but merely keep a record of faults and “out of range” occurances as an aid to maintenance and repair.  The proposals include requiring manufacturers to allow bike owners to be able to access the information and the release fault codes and other maintenance information outside the manufacturers’ dealer networks, which will prevent them cornering the servicing market on their bikes.

So there are aspects which are a potential threat but some of the proposals are good ones.

You can read the BMF post in full (and comment on it if you wish) by clicking here.