Honda Gold Wing cafe racer

Honda Gold Wing cafe racer

One of the last bikes you’d expect to get the café racer treatment is the Honda Gold Wing. It’s hardly a nimble machine, and for most owners, the customizing stopped after fitting saddlebags and a Vetter fairing. But now a whole subculture has built up around ‘naked Gold Wings’, with the odd bobber showing up and the occasional successful café racer conversion. This is a 1976 model—a GL1000—with a flat-four motor and almost 600 lbs to haul around. I’m inclined to think the conversion works, and a lot of other people do too: it’s one of the most popular bikes on the curiously addictive Naked Gold Wings forum. The bike has been lowered, fitted with a bikini fairing and café seat unit, and painted ‘Trans Am’ style—including gold for the motor and brake callipers. Strangely enough, it works. (I think.)