Handlebar wiggle

[JP1970]

Greetings!
I purchased a 2018 Honda Gold Wing yesterday and trailered it home with soft loop straps on each handle bar grip, per the salesman's suggestion. Once I got the bike home and unloaded, I noticed the handlebars wiggle up and down ever so slightly.

Did trailering the bike this way do any damage, or????

Thanks so much!

Jason

[WingAdmin]

I hate to say it, but your salesman is an idiot. Never, ever tie down a Goldwing by the handlebars. You likely will need to have them look at the bike, chances are you have stripped the splined portion that holds the handlebars in position.

And for future reference: How to tie down Goldwings for transport

[JP1970]

Oh, no!!! I was afraid of that!
Thank you very much for the reply.

[Andy Cote]

Welcome to the forum.

WINGADMIN is right (as always). Salesman is not familiar with this bike. This is why Honda sells tie down brackets for the new 2018+ Goldwing.

[JP1970]

Thank you so much....I am not off to a great start with my new/first Gold Wing, but lesson learned. I have an appt. to take the bike back Saturday...any guesses how bad or expensive a fix this might be?

Thanks!

[Andy Cote]

Where do you live?

How far is this trailer trip?

If it were me, I would expect the repair to be free and that they install the accessory tie down point for free. I would go straight to the service manager first then the owner or at least the sales manager and explain nicely. Save the Karen response in case he says no. Saturday is great because there could be some potential customers for an audience. A call to your local TV Investigative reporter would be fun.

If they insist on payment, Judge Judy will pay for your trip to Hollywood.

[JP1970]

Unfortunately, the dealer where I bought the bike is 230 miles away, so I am going to have my local shop (an authorized dealer) take a look at it this Saturday. The dealership where I bought it authorized me to have them look at it, and they would pay for it.

I was looking and found a Service Bulletin that may even cover this under warranty, "Loose Handlebar Repair."

I will definitely use this as a learning opportunity. Uhg!

[Andy Cote]

Curious how you made out.

I found this on another site. Official Honda tie down instructions for the 2018 model year. Same as WingAdmin's post but with official Honda documentation.

[bad2thebone55]

I think you will have success with a warranty claim....and if not the selling dealer sounds like they will do what is required to remedy your issue based on bad information from the sales or tech on proper tie down of your bike.

[joe-fred]

You drove 230 miles, one way to save some dollars and have the gall to ask your local dealer for assistance, Good lick with that

[Terry D]

The Assembler of that bike at the Dealer did not torque the handlebars as directed by the assembly instructions. I know this from being an assembler for a Dealer here in San Antonio. It would not take much for the anyone to just tighten the bolts down yourself. On many lighter bikes it is okay to tie them down by the handlebars. We would always put those bikes on their side stand and using the crisscross tie downs that slip over the bar ends we would tighten the left side first. Not cinched down just so there was no slack. Then tighten the right side down so that the bike sat level. This compressed the forks so that the fork springs applied the pressure. Then we would just tie the rear end so that it could not bounce side to side or begin to roll back. The front wheel was tied to a block or the front of the trailer to keep it from rolling back.

[Fatboy46]

JBWeld to the rescue!!

[Andy Cote]

Still curious how the OP made out at the dealer.

[JP1970]

So, yes, I traveled over 200 miles to buy a leftover 2018 Gold Wing for 6K below MSRP I found for sale in Salt Lake City, apparently the salesman tied it down wrong, or by some stroke of coincidence the handlebar stem nut needed to be replaced. Either way, my local shop (where I previously purchased a Honda CRF250L and a Yamaha MT-07) took care of it for it me under warranty, a service bulletin recall on the 2018 for loose handlebars.

I now have almost 800 miles on the bike, and it is a wonderful motorcycle. I have owned several Hondas over the years, some Yamahas, and even a couple of Harley Davidson's, but nothing beats my new 2018 Gold Wing manual---all is good! Feel free to check out some of my videos on YouTube, if you're interested. My channel is: JP1970.

Thanks, Jason

[Andy Cote]

Glad it's all resolved.

[drwerner]

Or it could be the steering stem nut was loose as it was on my 2018 - https://traxxion.com/product/2018-gl18- ... -stem-nut/ . Also - see this: https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=tr ... M%3DHDRSC3

Good luck!