And lets not forget that when some of the early wings were falling to the ground while being ridden and the rear tire was grinding thru the rear fender because of the lower crossmember failures...Honda was claiming it was not a safety issue...it was only when the government said it was a safety issue that Honda then quickly issued a safety recall before they were ordered too.
Rear wheel fell off
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Alot of owners back then quicky traded their early wings in when the lower cross member cracks first started happening and they learned that Honda wanted to reweld the welds on the lower crossmember of the frame...then later as the safety recalls grew, they learned their brand new wing they traded for was also included in the recalls...nobody knew early on though that the real issue with those early models would not be the lower crossmember welds...its the cracks in the rear triangle of the frame that Honda has never admitted too.
You were one of the lucky early ones if you got a frame replacement. They did a handful of buybacks, then frame replacements for 10-15, then they stopped doing anything for a little while as they figured out a cheaper solution. During this waiting period they told everyone within the serial number range to park their bikes.
Eventually they arrived at the solution for the dealers to hire their own welders, no certification required, lay the bike over, grind off the powder coating on the frame and the bad welds, weld up the frame, and then rattle can paint the repair. Flip the bike on its other side and repeat.
I asked my dealer for the welders credentials and they refused to tell me. I wasn't going to trust our lives to a welder who may have never done tig/mig welding on high strength aluminum alloys. I decided at that point to just eat my losses and sold the bike during probably the only down market for goldwings in my lifetime. After this point I only bought used bikes until my 2021 wing in November.
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