Hi Nick, just like to say how much I enjoy your great videos.. how envious I am of where you live and have access to some fantastic rides.. I live on an over populated island ( UK ) so have to plan ride outs very carefully.. but most of all I too ride an old guzzi , a 1970 750 Ambassador, and love that connection with your Eldorado.. please keep posting videos of your great adventure rides.. A subscriber.. Best wishes Mark
@MarkDagley Many thanks Mark. There are wonderful places to ride your Ambo in the UK too. I'd jump on a bike to meet you at some 17th century pub in a heartbeat. Stay well. Nick.
I live in an overpopulated city in florida but come from nicks general area. Fortunately I have a ride to a small fishing village and a general aviation airport that I frequent. I too love watching nicks videos and thinking about what it feels like to breath unpolluted air and the joy of a crisp ride.
The best of both worlds! I would like to have a base bare bones Goldwing. I rode one in the 70's It was a dealer's demo bike and after all these years I remember how smooth that ride was.
Plus the cavalcade valves are hydraulic and the air filter is easy to change, the goldwing you have to adjust valves and remove half the front bike to get to the air filter I wish Suzuki should continue selling the cavalcade I miss my 1987 model LXE black and silver.
Thank You Nick for another great video! Those older big Japanese cruisers are very tempting , may be looking around , you know what usually happens when you start looking?
I was selling Yamaha motorcycles when the cavalcade was available at the Yamaha Suzuki shop I worked at. The cavalcade was the most liaded with features.. it even came with onboard compressor for adding and lowering the air pressure in the air bladder in the sheets.. it had that bulletproof V4 engine, it was not as quick in the quarter mile as the Yamaha venture royale 1200.. but they were reliable, long legged, bikes, very comfortable.. they were working on an air conditioning system that had a jacket and helmet for the driver and the passenger, that you connected small tube about 1 inch in diameter hose to your jacket, and then from the jacket to the helmet in the back, and you had air conditioner. That was coming, but they discontinued the cavalcade. Honda and Yamaha were the top sellers, and then Honda took over.. I myself have owned three Yamaha ventures since 1986. I put 138,000 trouble free miles on my Yamaha venture royale 1986 model. Then I went to a BMW K 1200 LT, I thought I deserve the best and after so many years behind bars. About the nicest thing I can say about the BMW is, it was pretty, but it was weird in a way I never got used to. It was very top-heavy at very slow speeds, complicated by that front end design that no one has copied so far, thank goodness, that is anti-dive. When you touch the brakes on most telescopic, fork, motorcycles, that energy goes into the fork springs from slowing down, that inertia, and a fork oil dissipates the recoil. On the BMW, you could jump up and down on the front end and that front wheel will not come up. It does not absorb slow speed breaking inertia. I dropped that BMW two times because of that idiosyncrasies in parking lots at slow speed when I would have the handlebars, turned slightly at 5 miles an hour and touch the front brakes, timber. And I’m not a little weak guy.. I tried for two years to fall in love with that BMW, it had too many quirks, final drives were failing around the world, and BMW was acting like there was nothing wrong, when I would use the side, stand to go into a store, or a restaurant or to a bike night, when I would start the bike to leave, it would pour out white smoke like it was a 500 Kawasaki triple two-stroke.. The dealer said they all do that don’t worry about it.. The windshield was optically distorted. For the price, those bikes cost, that windshield should’ve been at least as good as any Chinese motorcycle windshield optically. . it had a front end and handle bar set up that made me feel like I was riding a Rototiller set of handlebars on the bike. They were so long, like trying to eat with chopsticks. .. it had a smooth motor and great brakes that had no feel because they were electric/hydraulic. At Lowe’s speeds it made them very grabby which complicated the top heaviness, and the front end that did not absorb the inertia of stopping.zx to top it off, I was on a downhill, gravel covered asphalt road, one day in the middle of nowhere looking for a certain camp site.. I used my ABS brakes to maintain my speed going down that not very steep slope. ABS took over and I had zero breaks all the way down that hill about a football field long. I had nothing front or rear. I had time to think and pick something cheap to run into. Thank goodness there was an auto salvage yard at the bottom of that hill just through the grass straightahead. I ran into that wire fence to stop only breaking my front fender because the ABS system detected wheel slippage on the cinders and I had nothing on that 900 pound motorcycle… when my new fender came in, I got rid of that BMW I went back to a Yamaha royal star venture.. I was happy and familiar with that until nearby, AGO 1800 Goldwing was for sale with only 13 K miles on it.. it was 16 years old and still had the original tires on it. It was neglected in the maintenance department, but it was clean and well-kept in the garage. I spent a month doing the service on it, everything from changing the fork, springs, fork, seals, and bushings, pulling the driveshaft and leaving the splines, changing the clutch and brake fluid, the clutch fluid looked like a melted chocolate milkshake when it came out, I’m surprised the slave cylinder didn’t leak .. I found mice in the air cleaner that had never been changed on that Goldwing. I heard that service departments charge five hours labor to change the air cleaner on the GL 1800 gold wings. I thought that was ridiculous. I was a motorcycle mechanic at three different dealerships so of course I did the job myself. I actually have the video on my other UA-cam channel that I don’t use anymore. The title of that video is three words. goldwing made mouseproof that’s my yellow GL 1800 Goldwing in that short video showing just how Deep you have to dig into a GL 1800 Goldwing to change the air cleaner. I thought it was ridiculous when I heard how much they charge, over $600 labor. But after doing the job, that’s a fair price. But look at it this way. Those bikes last hundreds of thousands of miles. If you change your air filter once every 10,000 miles having the dealer do the work, and pay them $600 labor each time, in 100,000 miles you’re gonna pay the dealer over $6000 labor just to change the air cleaner 10 times in that first hundred thousand miles.. So when I had my Goldwing, all set, new suspension springs, new fork, oil, a new set of Dunlop elite, three tires, all fluids changed, new, spark, plugs, new air filter, I found that it was a little cramped, and I could not find a comfortable position for the backrest for me.. it had good breaks, the smoothest engine out there, I thought it was over powered, and the side effect of being overpowered means it’s a gas hog, I got 33 miles to the gallon. It felt lighter than it really was. I learned never to use the four-way flashers because when you can turn them on, you can’t turn them off. I rode home over three hours one evening with the four-way flashers stuck on. I went on the Internet and found that they pretty much all did that. The flasher module sells for hundreds of dollars used on eBay. So I just never used the four ways after that first time. I had to take the dashboard apart and fuss with that unit to get the button to pop back out… I have a video on my channel of one ride. I did on my perfect GoldLink, and they are perfect. But I just found it uninspired, dull.. when you look at a motorcycle, the first thing your eyes are drawn to is the engine. That is the centerpiece of any motorcycle, except the gold wing. You can’t even see the engine. They just didn’t do anything for me, even though it was perfect. So I sold it and went back to my favorite bikes, I bought my third Venture,another V4. venture, that they have been using that V4 engine from 1983 in the ventures, the Royal stars, and the Vmax for decades. They are bulletproof and easy to work on. I can get to the starter, the stator, slave cylinder, water pump, and clutch if I had to on the side of the road using just a tool kit. It’s all accessible. You can’t even see those things on a Goldwing without removing yards of plastic. And the thought of having something major fail on me when I’m 1000 miles from home on the Goldwing is the reason I sold it. It was perfect, but it just didn’t do anything for me. I have many videos of my Venture on my UA-cam channel and they are reasonably popular on my UA-cam channel. As of September 2024, my comparison video between my Goldwing and my royal star venture video has over 74,000 views. both the Goldwing and the Venture will go hundreds of thousands of trouble free miles with basic maintenance. But the maintenance is a lot easier on the Venture, and even if you don’t do your own work, that means you will have a cheaper service bill at your dealer with a venture over the Goldwing, because of all of the little steps that the mechanic hast to make to work on some thing. Example, changing the air cleaner. Five hours on a Goldwing? The Venture has two separate air cleaners, I could change them both blindfolded in under 30 minutes.. as a matter of fact, I think that’s a great idea for my next video. Changing both air cleaners on my Yamaha royal star venture blindfolded. You only need a 10 mm socket, and a number to Phillips screwdriver. You don’t have to remove any plastic or even the gas tank. They are in front of your kneecaps when you’re sitting on the bike behind the fairing lowers… I have seen a few cavalcades still on the road. They were rolling, so I really couldn’t look them over to see how they stood the test of time and what the accumulated mileage was. Or to talk to the owners to see if they had any big issues… I personally think that the cavalcade with its two tone paint was a little too fancy. I think if they would’ve tuned the styling down a little, and softened the colors and the contrast a little bit, maybe they would’ve sold a lot more or possibly maybe they would still be selling them..
@Jodyrides wow, that's a great story, thanks. I bought two Ventures to make into one (one had good bodywork but the 2nd gear issue, the other had good mechanicals but beaten up bodywork) but sold them while I was having heart surgery. Loved those engines as I'd had a Royal Star Tour Deluxe. I may find another eventually. They go for peanuts. Thanks for the response. Best wishes.
I love the big Japanese bikes of the late 80s, early 90s. I don't think I would own the suzuki, though, as it was only made a few years, and that makes parts harder to find and more expensive. I do see a goldwing in my future, either the gl1500 or the gl1800. I have to get rid of a couple of bikes first because these big boys take up a lot of room.
I was fortunate enough to own a Suzuki Cavalcade and absolutely loved it. Should have never let it go. I now have a couple other bikes. A 2015 Kawasaki ZX14R and a 1998 Kawasaki Voyager Xii touring bike. Both are great but given my choice I would have reverted back to the Cavalcade over the Voyager- you just can't find them anywhere.
Yes.. your a lucky man.. having both !!
Enjoy the ride,the scenery..the freedom..the fun
Thanks for sharing
Stay safe
Hi Nick, just like to say how much I enjoy your great videos.. how envious I am of where you live and have access to some fantastic rides.. I live on an over populated island ( UK ) so have to plan ride outs very carefully.. but most of all I too ride an old guzzi , a 1970 750 Ambassador, and love that connection with your Eldorado.. please keep posting videos of your great adventure rides..
A subscriber.. Best wishes Mark
@MarkDagley Many thanks Mark. There are wonderful places to ride your Ambo in the UK too. I'd jump on a bike to meet you at some 17th century pub in a heartbeat. Stay well. Nick.
I live in an overpopulated city in florida but come from nicks general area. Fortunately I have a ride to a small fishing village and a general aviation airport that I frequent. I too love watching nicks videos and thinking about what it feels like to breath unpolluted air and the joy of a crisp ride.
@davewojcik1854 Thanks Dave. 😀
I Love My GL1500se !!!!!!
Thank you
The best of both worlds! I would like to have a base bare bones Goldwing. I rode one in the 70's It was a dealer's demo bike and after all these years I remember how smooth that ride was.
I've got my eye out for a 70s GL1000. Seems like the ultimate old man's naked bike.
thanks for this
Both bikes are nice, and I'd be happy to own either one or both. Enjoyed the video, Nick and RIDE SAFE OUT THERE!
Plus the cavalcade valves are hydraulic and the air filter is easy to change, the goldwing you have to adjust valves and remove half the front bike to get to the air filter I wish Suzuki should continue selling the cavalcade I miss my 1987 model LXE black and silver.
@Mannix2023 good points. I also like the heel / toe gear lever.
" I have both, so i don't have to choose " Well done sir !
Thank You Nick for another great video! Those older big Japanese cruisers are very tempting , may be looking around , you know what usually happens when you start looking?
@kenpoissant9521 thanks Ken. Stop. Right now. Before it's too late 😄.
I had a vfr1200f quite an experience if you have the chance to try one def do so
I was selling Yamaha motorcycles when the cavalcade was available at the Yamaha Suzuki shop I worked at. The cavalcade was the most liaded with features.. it even came with onboard compressor for adding and lowering the air pressure in the air bladder in the sheets.. it had that bulletproof V4 engine, it was not as quick in the quarter mile as the Yamaha venture royale 1200.. but they were reliable, long legged, bikes, very comfortable..
they were working on an air conditioning system that had a jacket and helmet for the driver and the passenger, that you connected small tube about 1 inch in diameter hose to your jacket, and then from the jacket to the helmet in the back, and you had air conditioner. That was coming, but they discontinued the cavalcade.
Honda and Yamaha were the top sellers, and then Honda took over..
I myself have owned three Yamaha ventures since 1986. I put 138,000 trouble free miles on my Yamaha venture royale 1986 model. Then I went to a BMW K 1200 LT, I thought I deserve the best and after so many years behind bars. About the nicest thing I can say about the BMW is, it was pretty, but it was weird in a way I never got used to. It was very top-heavy at very slow speeds, complicated by that front end design that no one has copied so far, thank goodness, that is anti-dive. When you touch the brakes on most telescopic, fork, motorcycles, that energy goes into the fork springs from slowing down, that inertia, and a fork oil dissipates the recoil.
On the BMW, you could jump up and down on the front end and that front wheel will not come up. It does not absorb slow speed breaking inertia. I dropped that BMW two times because of that idiosyncrasies in parking lots at slow speed when I would have the handlebars, turned slightly at 5 miles an hour and touch the front brakes, timber. And I’m not a little weak guy..
I tried for two years to fall in love with that BMW, it had too many quirks, final drives were failing around the world, and BMW was acting like there was nothing wrong, when I would use the side, stand to go into a store, or a restaurant or to a bike night, when I would start the bike to leave, it would pour out white smoke like it was a 500 Kawasaki triple two-stroke.. The dealer said they all do that don’t worry about it..
The windshield was optically distorted. For the price, those bikes cost, that windshield should’ve been at least as good as any Chinese motorcycle windshield optically. .
it had a front end and handle bar set up that made me feel like I was riding a Rototiller set of handlebars on the bike. They were so long, like trying to eat with chopsticks. .. it had a smooth motor and great brakes that had no feel because they were electric/hydraulic. At Lowe’s speeds it made them very grabby which complicated the top heaviness, and the front end that did not absorb the inertia of stopping.zx
to top it off, I was on a downhill, gravel covered asphalt road, one day in the middle of nowhere looking for a certain camp site.. I used my ABS brakes to maintain my speed going down that not very steep slope. ABS took over and I had zero breaks all the way down that hill about a football field long. I had nothing front or rear. I had time to think and pick something cheap to run into. Thank goodness there was an auto salvage yard at the bottom of that hill just through the grass straightahead. I ran into that wire fence to stop only breaking my front fender because the ABS system detected wheel slippage on the cinders and I had nothing on that 900 pound motorcycle…
when my new fender came in, I got rid of that BMW
I went back to a Yamaha royal star venture.. I was happy and familiar with that until nearby, AGO 1800 Goldwing was for sale with only 13 K miles on it.. it was 16 years old and still had the original tires on it. It was neglected in the maintenance department, but it was clean and well-kept in the garage.
I spent a month doing the service on it, everything from changing the fork, springs, fork, seals, and bushings, pulling the driveshaft and leaving the splines, changing the clutch and brake fluid, the clutch fluid looked like a melted chocolate milkshake when it came out, I’m surprised the slave cylinder didn’t leak .. I found mice in the air cleaner that had never been changed on that Goldwing. I heard that service departments charge five hours labor to change the air cleaner on the GL 1800 gold wings. I thought that was ridiculous. I was a motorcycle mechanic at three different dealerships so of course I did the job myself. I actually have the video on my other UA-cam channel that I don’t use anymore. The title of that video is three words.
goldwing made mouseproof
that’s my yellow GL 1800 Goldwing in that short video showing just how Deep you have to dig into a GL 1800 Goldwing to change the air cleaner. I thought it was ridiculous when I heard how much they charge, over $600 labor. But after doing the job, that’s a fair price. But look at it this way. Those bikes last hundreds of thousands of miles. If you change your air filter once every 10,000 miles having the dealer do the work, and pay them $600 labor each time, in 100,000 miles you’re gonna pay the dealer over $6000 labor just to change the air cleaner 10 times in that first hundred thousand miles..
So when I had my Goldwing, all set, new suspension springs, new fork, oil, a new set of Dunlop elite, three tires, all fluids changed, new, spark, plugs, new air filter, I found that it was a little cramped, and I could not find a comfortable position for the backrest for me.. it had good breaks, the smoothest engine out there, I thought it was over powered, and the side effect of being overpowered means it’s a gas hog, I got 33 miles to the gallon. It felt lighter than it really was. I learned never to use the four-way flashers because when you can turn them on, you can’t turn them off. I rode home over three hours one evening with the four-way flashers stuck on. I went on the Internet and found that they pretty much all did that. The flasher module sells for hundreds of dollars used on eBay. So I just never used the four ways after that first time. I had to take the dashboard apart and fuss with that unit to get the button to pop back out…
I have a video on my channel of one ride. I did on my perfect GoldLink, and they are perfect. But I just found it uninspired, dull.. when you look at a motorcycle, the first thing your eyes are drawn to is the engine. That is the centerpiece of any motorcycle, except the gold wing. You can’t even see the engine.
They just didn’t do anything for me, even though it was perfect. So I sold it and went back to my favorite bikes, I bought my third Venture,another V4. venture, that they have been using that V4 engine from 1983 in the ventures, the Royal stars, and the Vmax for decades. They are bulletproof and easy to work on. I can get to the starter, the stator, slave cylinder, water pump, and clutch if I had to on the side of the road using just a tool kit. It’s all accessible. You can’t even see those things on a Goldwing without removing yards of plastic. And the thought of having something major fail on me when I’m 1000 miles from home on the Goldwing is the reason I sold it. It was perfect, but it just didn’t do anything for me.
I have many videos of my Venture on my UA-cam channel and they are reasonably popular on my UA-cam channel. As of September 2024, my comparison video between my Goldwing and my royal star venture video has over 74,000 views.
both the Goldwing and the Venture will go hundreds of thousands of trouble free miles with basic maintenance. But the maintenance is a lot easier on the Venture, and even if you don’t do your own work, that means you will have a cheaper service bill at your dealer with a venture over the Goldwing, because of all of the little steps that the mechanic hast to make to work on some thing. Example, changing the air cleaner. Five hours on a Goldwing? The Venture has two separate air cleaners, I could change them both blindfolded in under 30 minutes.. as a matter of fact, I think that’s a great idea for my next video. Changing both air cleaners on my Yamaha royal star venture blindfolded. You only need a 10 mm socket, and a number to Phillips screwdriver. You don’t have to remove any plastic or even the gas tank. They are in front of your kneecaps when you’re sitting on the bike behind the fairing lowers…
I have seen a few cavalcades still on the road. They were rolling, so I really couldn’t look them over to see how they stood the test of time and what the accumulated mileage was. Or to talk to the owners to see if they had any big issues…
I personally think that the cavalcade with its two tone paint was a little too fancy. I think if they would’ve tuned the styling down a little, and softened the colors and the contrast a little bit, maybe they would’ve sold a lot more or possibly maybe they would still be selling them..
@Jodyrides wow, that's a great story, thanks. I bought two Ventures to make into one (one had good bodywork but the 2nd gear issue, the other had good mechanicals but beaten up bodywork) but sold them while I was having heart surgery. Loved those engines as I'd had a Royal Star Tour Deluxe. I may find another eventually. They go for peanuts. Thanks for the response. Best wishes.
Interesting video. You only have to decide which one you are going to ride on any particular day.😊
I love the big Japanese bikes of the late 80s, early 90s. I don't think I would own the suzuki, though, as it was only made a few years, and that makes parts harder to find and more expensive. I do see a goldwing in my future, either the gl1500 or the gl1800. I have to get rid of a couple of bikes first because these big boys take up a lot of room.
I was fortunate enough to own a Suzuki Cavalcade and absolutely loved it. Should have never let it go. I now have a couple other bikes. A 2015 Kawasaki ZX14R and a 1998 Kawasaki Voyager Xii touring bike. Both are great but given my choice I would have reverted back to the Cavalcade over the Voyager- you just can't find them anywhere.
Where was that bridge at the end? Looks very familiar. I want to say the Long Sault Parkway? Or Wolfe Island?
@@mikemills5144 Brass Point Bridge / Burnt Hills Road across the Rideau Canal, near Sealeys Bay.
I would love to see you try a Harley-Davidson, road king.
You're just trying to cause trouble 😄. I suspect I'd love it. If you can find me one for $2500 (my standard purchase price) I'm game.
Thanks
A little voice in my head is saying I need a 69 Velocette Thruxton.
both? I thought you traded with your friend. Now you need a Kawasaki Voyager and a Yamaha Venture to complete the collection
We made a second deal. Don't tempt me 😅
My choice would go to the best handling on gravel
@@Gfthce3426 Haha. There isn't much to choose between them on gravel. Both are OK, with obvious limitations.
I wish my Electraglide had a reverse gear;)
Goldwing all the way