Though automobile airbags were invented in the 1970s, it took over 30 years for one to be incorporated into a motorcycle. The first motorcycle (and only one to date) to offer the option for a built-in airbag is the Honda Gold Wing GL1800, starting in 2006. The airbag is designed to reduce injuries in frontal crashes (or in other words, impacts where the motorcycle strikes something directly in front of it). Honda is well-known for their thorough research and development and even created a special motorcycle crash test dummy for this project.
However, many riders still prefer separate gear like Alpinestars’ current Tech Air line, which offers solutions for racing, offroad, urban/touring, & commuting, or the Dainese D-Air line, which offers solutions for track and road riding.
The First Honda Gold Wing
Derived from Honda’s experimental M1 motorcycle, the original Honda Gold Wing (created in 1975) was a motorcycle of many firsts. Not only was the gas tank located under the seat (which lowered its center of gravity), but it was also the first liquid-cooled four-stroke engine out of Japan and had a shaft-driven final drive.
Honda’s small team of engineers built the M1 first to find out what was possible. It is clear the extra years of research and development paid off, as the Gold Wing is still well-known for its power and performance, despite Soichiro Honda (the founder of the Honda Research Institute & Honda Motor Company) having his reservations. Mr. Honda believed that customers had a psychological threshold of 750cc and that anything larger would be wildly unpopular. Additionally, there was quite a debate between a four- or six-cylinder engine. In the end, the six-cylinder won out, as it made for one of the smoothest touring engines.
When the Gold Wing appeared in showrooms, it was probably the most un-motorcycle-looking motorcycle, which turned the typical motorcycle customer away. The first year of sales were sadly quite a flop, with only about 5,000 units produced. However, this style of machine was embraced by a new breed of rider, and more sales were soon to come with the 1978 model. Customer feedback was taken into consideration, and several changes were made to the new Gold Wing version driving more sales.
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