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The Honda Gold Wing (colloquially Goldwing or GoldWing) is a series of touring motorcycles manufactured by Honda. It was introduced at the Cologne Motorcycle Show in October 1974,〔 and went on to become a popular model in North America, Western Europe and Australia, as well as Japan. Total sales are more than 640,000 "Wings," most of them in the U.S. market. The Society of Automotive Engineers of Japan includes a Honda Gold Wing GL1000 manufactured in 1974 as one of their ''240 Landmarks of Japanese Automotive Technology''.〔 Through 2012, Honda GL models have appeared eighteen times in the ''Cycle World'' list of Ten Best bikes. Over the course of its history, it has had numerous changes to its design and production. In 1975 it had a flat-four engine and in 2001 it had a flat-six. By 2012, the model had a fairing with heating and an adjustable windscreen, panniers (saddlebags) and a trunk, a seatback for pillion rider, satellite navigation and radio, a six-speaker audio system with MP3 and iPod connectivity, anti-lock braking, cruise control, electrically assisted reverse gear, and an optional airbag,〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Gold Wing features at Honda Canada )〕 none of which were present when it was introduced. Gold Wings were manufactured in Marysville, Ohio from 1980 until 2010, when motorcycle production there was halted.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=autoblog news article )〕〔 Production resumed in Kumamoto Prefecture, Japan in 2011 using tooling transported from the old plant. The 2011 model year was not produced. ==Gold Wing development== In 1972 Honda assembled a design team to explore concepts for a new flagship motorcycle, something Honda R&D had deliberated over ever since the CB750 was introduced. The project leader was Shoichiro Irimajiri, who in the previous decade had designed Honda’s five- and six-cylinder Grand Prix motorcycle racing engines (as well as the RA273E V12 engine for Honda in Formula One auto racing) and then helped with the development of Honda’s car business.〔 Irimajiri-san was thus an apt choice to create an amalgamation of disparate technologies—automobile engines and multi-cylinder race bikes. A related event was the introduction of the CVCC clean-burn auto engine at the 1972 Tokyo show. It was Honda's first liquid-cooled engine to go into production; Honda cars as well as motorcycles had all been air-cooled up to that time. Soichiro Honda was not easily convinced that liquid-cooling was superior to air-cooled engines (which he had worked on for 50 years) but younger engineers eventually prevailed.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Honda GoldWing」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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