My associate pastor when I bought the GL650i had owned a GL500i for a couple of years in the '80s. He and his wife did some 2-up touring. When he and I were working together he had a GL1200. After I had looked at and ridden the '83 Silverwing, I asked him to come look at before I talked to my banker. We went out and I asked him if he wanted to ride an he suggested that I drive it and he'd ride pillion. We probably rode about 60-70 miles, both on the few twisties near Ft Morgan and on Interstate 76. When we got back he told me that he was amazed at how much punch the 650 had compared to the 500. I bought it the next day.
When Jim and I rode together, I could stay right with him up to 75 mph. Then I'd start to lag behind. My GL650 would top out at 94mph. I have to say that the previous owner had put the absolute largest windscreen you could find for the '83 Goldwing or Silverwing in the whole world (from JC Whitney). I smoked a pipe then and I never tried it, but I was always convinced that I could have loaded, lit, and smoked the pipe while moving at almost any speed! It wasn't acceleration or speed that pushed me into buying my first Concours. I was riding from Crawford to Gunnison on CO-92 (one of the great rides in Colorado) and kept wishing I had better brakes and a stiffer frame. I could feel the frame flex in tighter turns. And I realized that a little more power wouldn't be too bad either. As I rode on east, I passed a couple waiting to pull of a gas station on two mint-green '96 BMW R1100-RTs. They were sight-seeing and they'd stop to look at something, I'd pass them and they'd pass me right back. By the time I took a different route just south of Colorado Springs, they'd passed me 19 or 20 times. That's what made me want a sports-touring bike. A few months later I bought my first Concours. I'm guessing that a big chunk of those issues with brakes and frame on the Silverwing had a lot to do with curb weight.
