Totally OT... Honda Goldwing... Towtruck?

[Old Ironsights]

http://getoutofdebt.org/20504/honda-gol ... of+Debt%29

[adirondakjack]

Makes perfect sense for parking garages. A GW has as much or more power than many small cars, and that rig will get into places a conventional tow truck won't. My brother had a transmission go out on a car in a parking garage, tow truck couldn't get in there, and the limited space and weird geometry of the place meant we needed a pickup and tow dolly, and 4 people to push the dead car uphill, execute several adjustments, then get in on the dolly, WHILE BLOCKING TRAFFIC. it was not pretty.

[AJMD429]

My brother had a transmission go out on a car in a parking garage, tow truck couldn't get in there, and the limited space and weird geometry of the place meant we needed a pickup and tow dolly, and 4 people to push the dead car uphill, execute several adjustments, then get in on the dolly, WHILE BLOCKING TRAFFIC. it was not pretty.

Reminds me of a neighbor who had a rather large horse pass away when in a concrete-block shed they'd converted into a horse shelter. Thankfully it was winter, and they had a chainsaw. . .

[awp101]

http://getoutofdebt.org/20504/honda-gol ... of+Debt%29

[wecsoger]

Remember, this is Japan and folks almost raised on the Transformer movies. This is a piece of cake, errr, sushi for them.

When I was fortunate enough to have my company send me there, all I saw were the local cops at the Koban in the little itty-bitty 10cc mopeds.

[Blaine]

Pretty tricky...... My Goldwing has 125 HP and about the same torque. It's very fast and can pull the front wheel off the ground from a stop (so I've seen on YouTube...clutchs are too expensive to be doing that) Perhaps, those special models have much lower gearing for that configuration???

[41 Redhawk]

I wouldn't be so much worried about getting it moving as a Wing would have enough HP to do it. I'd hate to start down a hill though. I believe the brakes would disappear pretty quick!

[Blaine]

I wouldn't be so much worried about getting it moving as a Wing would have enough HP to do it. I'd hate to start down a hill though. I believe the brakes would disappear pretty quick!

Disc brakes on the trailer, too....

[41 Redhawk]

Ummm, so there are, phooey on me

[Blaine]

Ummm, so there are, phooey on me

I was going to agree with you....My GoldWing is not overly endowed with brakes...certainly enough for the bike, but not for much more.... A motorcycle trailer would be pushing it a bit, IMO.

[Old Ironsights]

Ummm, so there are, phooey on me

I was going to agree with you....My GoldWing is not overly endowed with brakes...certainly enough for the bike, but not for much more.... A motorcycle trailer would be pushing it a bit, IMO.

I would wonder if the ingenious Mecha Otaku motorcycle designers hadn't devised a way to remotely trigger the rear brakes of the car too...

[adirondakjack]

Yep, the tow rig has disc brakes, and either they are tied into the bike or use surge brakes. Either way that part works.

[41 Redhawk]

Blaine, since the topic is GoldWings I'll tell a little story about my dad. He is 78 years old and has a Wing with 182000 miles on it. Anyway, he was leading a group of old fanny burbs on an afternoon ride up in the mountains in VA. on a twisty road. The guys at the back started shouting on their CBs about some young feller on a Ducati passing them in the turns as they went up the mountain. Dad radioed back to send him up we he was. When the kid cleared the bike just behind dad he took off. The Ducati chased him all the way to the top of the mountain and was barely able to keep up let alone pass. They stopped at the top and the kid was stunned. He also spent some time looking up under the Wing to see what all had been dragging. Back in the days when Dad was riding earlier model Yamaha Ventures the kid would have been left behind!

[JohndeFresno]

Hilarious because it's so odd...

Yet a stroke of genius!

[bdhold]

yeah, but imagine trying to drive around a full-sized towtruck in Tokyo traffic.

[Blaine]

Blaine, since the topic is GoldWings I'll tell a little story about my dad. He is 78 years old and has a Wing with 182000 miles on it. Anyway, he was leading a group of old fanny burbs on an afternoon ride up in the mountains in VA. on a twisty road. The guys at the back started shouting on their CBs about some young feller on a Ducati passing them in the turns as they went up the mountain. Dad radioed back to send him up we he was. When the kid cleared the bike just behind dad he took off. The Ducati chased him all the way to the top of the mountain and was barely able to keep up let alone pass. They stopped at the top and the kid was stunned. He also spent some time looking up under the Wing to see what all had been dragging. Back in the days when Dad was riding earlier model Yamaha Ventures the kid would have been left behind!

I'm not surprised. The Wing handles wonderfully. It is limited only by how far you can lean by the floorboards dragging. Some just grind on thru, but that noise really puts me off

[41 Redhawk]

I'm not surprised. The Wing handles wonderfully. It is limited only by how far you can lean by the floorboards dragging. Some just grind on thru, but that noise really puts me off

Yeah, he generally stops when he hits the "feelers" but when need be will go on.

Then there is the story of the guy that had a 600 Ninja and went to Keith Code's school. Pop had the Venture then and "schooled" him for real going up that same mountain! That guy was left behind and was plumb embarrassed. Dad's a great rider and those touring bikes aren't quite the "land yachet" that some make them out to be.

[Blaine]

The Geezer Glide