Motorcycles

[Bob Zumbrunnen]

An update on the status of my Gold Wing.

I just called the dealership and he said that they're currently waiting for a call back from corporate because the frame came back from the welder and they immediately noticed that only the part that the welder was permitted to weld had been welded but that the crack "went all the way around", so it's not ready for reassembly yet. I have no idea what "all the way around" means in this context? As in a completely broken frame rail? I'd believe that. The change in handling I'd noticed would be better explained by a complete fracture than simply a cracked weld.

Based on earlier conversations with corporate, I think what's going to end up happening is that the frame will be sent back to Marysville, inspected/documented, and a new frame will be sent back out.

Meanwhile the weather has been perfect for riding and yesterday I got my latest payment notification for the bike.

I hates me a Gold Wing right about now.

And in talking to friends at the track, it sounds like a BMW may not be in my immediate future, either. Well, getting the Wing back so I can trade it in isn't in the near future, but if what I'm told is true about how the bottom has dropped out of the market on these, I'm more upside down on this bike than the cash I'm willing to throw into the mix to get the BMW.

If a class-action hasn't been started yet, I would suspect one soon will be. First step will likely have to be seeing what the Honda dealership themselves is willing to put in writing that they'd give me on the bike as a trade-in on a new one.

Last year I saw an Illusion Blue one sell on eBay for very close to its new price.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=4556626829&category=5...

Same bike with a starting bid price of $14k and no bids.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=4556971362&category=5...

Similar bike but less expensive/rare color with current bid of $12.9k. I noticed that someone asked what the VIN was. Likely to see if it was affected by the frame recall. Wonder how many of those bidders don't know about it.