SuperBrace Installation on Honda Goldwing GL1800 

Just watched this video out in my garage, man...(sorry couldn't help it) and installed the Super Brace on my 2008 GL1800. What a big difference. Great buy. Also, thanks for the very easy and straight forward instructions. Installed without a hitch...

Back when I had a 1500 I installed a SuperBrace on that bike. I was very happy with the added control and ride. I plan on doing the same to my 2012 soon. Thanks for the great tutorial!

Superbrace installed today on my 2012 GW pretty ez job only one bolt on the brace that was hard to torque to specs because the brake line was n the way otherwise a clean job n oh yes I did the bouncy bouncy before I torqued the pinch bolts... thanks for ur helpful video cruiserman 👍🏍

This super brace thing will NOT stop the 40 mph Goldwing wobble. What WILL stop it is to remove the ball bearings from the triple tree and install Timken tapered needle bearings. I did this on the recommendation of a friend and it worked perfect. To address the cupping in your front tire...first off, toss out the Dunlop front tire and mount a Bridgestone 709 and run it at 41 psi. Before you put the wheel back on the bike, get a set of Centramatic wheel balancers and your tire cupping issues are history. You mileage on your front tire will also get better.

Nice one .

dear, great video! I have a question: is centramatic compatible with the superbrace? can there be any problems if I install both? do I have to change the fork distance on the wheel axle? many thanks and congratulations! Att

None of the other installation videos include loosening the pinch bolts on the end of the fork. Is that not necessary for the Gen 2?

Any ideas on how to bounce front forks when you have a ride away center stand?

I believe something is missing in this video because being the abs one... Behind the rear part of the brace there is a lot of job do be done in order to fit this piece....

seems like a trade-off having a fork brace. Many people don’t consider the additional unsprung weight. Many people don’t even know what that is. The auto manufacturer Porsche knows what it is.Not only do they use alloy wheels, but they use titanium Lugnuts. Those Lugnuts feel like they’re made of plastic. They can sell for $40 apiece from a salvage yard used. unsprung weight is weight added to the part of your machine the suspension Hass to control. when you hit a bump, that energy goes into the fork springs. Your damping mechanism controls the spring so it doesn’t act like a pogo stick on rebound. when you add weight to something like the fork sliders,that’s more weight for the springs to absorb, it takes longer for that bump/ rebound cycle to take place. Hit the bump, the front end absorbs the bump into the springs, the Springs push the wheel back, the damping unit controls the spring. With added weight, that complete cycle takes longer.. what’s the harm? Your machine, the wheel if it’s halfway through that cycle when you hit the next bump, That overwhelms the suspension on washboard roads or anywhere there is a series of bumps close together... you can load your saddlebags in your passenger seat and your trunk up with the maximum suggested weight, but don’t put any more weight on your unsprung wheels if you can help it. I roadraced motorcycles for eight years , I won 6 road racing championships, I was national champion 2 times. AMA, and, WERA... On one of my road race machines, it was legal for me to add a second disc upfront. So I experimented and added the second disc, caliper, brake pads, hardware to attach the disc, and the caliper, the hose, ect.. The benefit of a second disc, there’s only one big one. The machine will brake in a straight line .. that’s the main benefit. that and you’ve double the horsepower of your brakes.. but do you really need 450 hp brakes? They don’t put double disks on each wheel on the front of your car.. Now for the harm caused by adding that unsprung weight. When I would brake in turns,Because of the two discs pulling evenly on both forks,, it would pull the wheel straight and cause my bike to stand up in the corner. I had to fight, countersteer harder to keep the machine leaned over in corners I was able to brake in.. this was a big problem in the mid80s when 16 inch front wheels were trendy on sport bikes. they finally went to 17 inch wheels after they figured out what the problem was. The second problem with adding the extra unsprung weight. Did you ever hold a gyroscope. Did you notice that it does not like to change directions. That second disc was a large gyroscope that did not let the machine flip left right left right quickly. It’s slowed down my steering / rotation in S turns. The third thing the added weight hurt, flywheel effect of the disc. Remember those little cars we had when we were kids that had the fly wheel inside, and if you would run the car on the ground and wind up the fly wheel, and put it on the ground, the car would go by itself. That disc needs to be accelerated just like the toy car, that takes power. Once it’s accelerated, it does not like to slow down. That takes more brakes, did I mention that disc brakes have a certain amount of drag. That steals power too.. Now we come to the final harm that added unsprung weight causes. Unsprung weight. Because my machine had that second disc and caliper and hardware and hose and brake pads. Road race tracks are bumpy entering turns, and exiting turns from the cars. With my single disc set up, there were turns that I could take flat out without slowing down run right over the bumps because my suspension could hit those ripples and handle it. With the second disc,my suspension would still be compressed when I would hit the next bump and the next bump & the next bump.. The result was, my machine would shatter/drift off line about a foot, because my suspension was overwhelmed and could not keep the front wheel on the ground. That’s how unsprung weight can harm your handling. The fly wheel effect, slowed my machine down on acceleration. I noticed this because machines I was dead even with an acceleration, with just a single disc,the other bikes now had about 2 miles an hour on me, that’s a walking speed. The gyroscopic effect from the additional Gyro/disc, cause me to run off the track in NS series of turns that I used to be able to take with the single disc flat out in third gear. With the double disc’s, I could get the machine to rotate left right left right quick enough and I ran off the track three laps in a row in the second turn.. Luckily I found this out in practice on Saturday, I ran the heat race because I didn’t have time to go back to my single disc front end between practice and my heat race. I came in 10th in the heat race that I usually won.. I went back to the single disc Saturday night, and I won again on Sunday. I know it sounds sacrilegious to suggest it, but I don’t think a gold wing needs dual discs in the front. They don’t put two discs on each wheel on cars.. motorcycles did fine with tiny little drum brakes in the front for about 70 years..Of course they were weak. And prone to fading and getting wet. But there is such a thing as downshifting. And does anyone really need to brake from 120 miles an hour down to zero on their Goldwing within a few seconds consistently?.. no. With a single disc in the front, you can lock that wheel with two fingers... that would be such an improvement in handling, handling bumps, lighters steering, tracking over bumps, with the elimination of one of the disks, caliper, hardware, plumbing.. So back to my original response to this video. Adding weight, unsprung weight to burden the suspension , Is a trade off. I don’t know what the improvements of a fork brace will bring, but they will probably be offset by adding unsprung weight by the average wing owner.. that’s why I’m searching RU-vid for suspension improvements. Because the suspension on my machine needs to be improved, not overburdened more than it already is..

So many people told me that SB was junk - a complete waste of money. My 06 had low speed wobble and SB cured it.

After watching this video I installed a super brace. Guess what? It does not improve the wobbling situational at all! I am not even sure if I feel any different with handling. So, if you are willing to spend $199 to put on a super brace just for the look, go ahead.

Is it really that much better than the OEM brace? I've got an '82 CB900F which has an Aluminum clamp-type brace - IIRC it's a Tarozzi, but not plastic it's all Aluminum with four major Aluminum cast parts and TEN allen-head bolts in total. It's a very nice piece, it's adjustable so far as width which seems like smart fine-tuning - it's very tricky & TIGHT around the fork legs, which seems to imply stability....However, it seems like a whole lot of wasted material, when I look at the slightly later models such as VF1000R or more to the point VF1000F, with the brace which screws straight onto the fork legs themselves, with vertical bolts parallel to the fork travel, just a rectangular block of alloy up top - I've gotta ask myself WTF is the point of a big circular CLAMP around the leg, when an integrally cast lug is already "gripping" the le0 g with however many tens of thousands of pounds of force add up to the tensile strength of the alloy - IMHOSo what I'm LOOKING at, for an ideal fork upgrade on my 'F bike, is the GL1500 fork! Yeah - a lot of guys are using CBR and VFR components, the USD forks are very popular. But I want "period-correct" components. And the GL1500 looks a lot like the fork from Freddie Spencer's '82 AMA Superbike championship "CB750F" - it specs out the same with all the same dimensions at least. There are certainly other TRAC forks in 41mm such as VF1000R or GL1200, but only the GL1500 itself has that 20mm axle - which is said to be as important as the fork brace itself. Hey, these OTHER bikes only came with a 15mm axle - same as you'd find on say, a CB72/CB77 Hawk/SuperHawk with a 200mm 2LS drum brake, or even smaller brakes, sometimes you see a 15mm axle paired with 33mm fork tubes such as on a CB350 for instance. Ridonculous that they'd use it on the CB900F let alone the CB1100F, CB1100R, or GL1200!!!SO YEAH - that's what I've chosen. I'm planning to swap over to the GL1500 fork, which is gonna be a hassle to adapt to 10mm larger rotors and some wire-spoke wheels which will require custom bearings for the fatter axle. Worth it though, IMHO.But here's all of you GOLDWING guys, sticking another damn Superbrace on the thing? WTF. Is the GL1500 fork really so weak that it needs it? Or is it simply about the bike's weight? I'm flabbergasted at what to ME at least, seems like retrograde technology compared to the braces which were integrated into the basic fork design circa 1984, 1985 & on up!

Go from a 2014 BMW R1200GS and get on a GL 1800 and you think the front end is made out of rubber. Think the newer Goldwings addressed this problem. Shame you have to re-engineer a 20,000 dollar motorcycle so front end isn't a wet noodle.

This sounded interesting until he started talking about the grooves in the road. This brace is going to keep your bike from following those groves???? I don’t think so. That statement lost my interest real quick.