Honda in recall of thousands of Gold Winds with airbags over ‘shrapnel’ fear

Honda America is recalling 2,701 Gold Wings that have airbags fitted.

The move comes after reports of something wrong in the Takata airbag system, a device which is fitted to 34 million cars and thousands of Gold Wings. It’s been found that over a period of time the propellant used to expand the bag in during a collision can degrade causing the inflators to rupture, this can lead to metal shard being expelled into the rider when the bag goes off. Eek. That’s like shrapnel…

Anyway, the recall is – at the moment – only USA specific, we’ll let you know if we hear of this coming across the pond and effects 2006 to 2010 model-year bikes.

This is the official statement from Honda:

2006-2010 Honda GL1800 (Gold Wing) motorcycles manufactured February 8, 2006, to May 14, 2009 originally sold, or ever registered, in Alabama, California, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, Texas, Puerto Rico, American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands (Saipan), and the U.S. Virgin Islands, or “Zone A.”

Additionally, unless included in “Zone A” above, Honda is recalling certain model year 2006-2008 Honda GL 1800 (Gold Wing) motorcycles manufactured May 10, 2007, to May 14, 2009 originally sold, or ever registered, in Arizona, Arkansas, Delaware, District of Columbia, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Maryland, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia, or “Zone B.” Motorcycles not originally sold or ever registered in either Zones A or B are not subject to this safety recall.