Cause

I work the front lines of this problem and hear from more owners and repair more units then probably any other private individual.  Since no one really knows why some Wings ghost shift and others don't, what I share here is what I know from my personal experience.

Early on ghost shifting was blamed on heel-toe shifters or because a GL1800 was triked.  Eventually, stock, unmodified Gold Wings began having transmission problems too.  As more examples surfaced, those early suspicions were eliminated. 

NOT HEEL-TOE SPECIFIC
NOT TRIKE SPECIFIC

Many say 2006 is the worst year, indicating it is a year specific problem.  When Honda created the 5th generation Wing, sales on the new model dropped drastically as potential buyers adjusted to design and price changes.  In the 2001 it is believed less than 4,000 GL1800s were sold in the US.  In 2006 more the 35,000 units were sold.  If ghost shifting is a percentage based problem, then hardly any 2001s would need repair and many 2006s, or units from other popular years, would.  2008 was another popular year due to even more feature changes.  2008 was another feature change year that helped bump sales.

As the 5th generation Wing became more popular with feature changes attracting more buyers, sales per year increased too.   The most popular years are from 2004 - 2008, and so are the transmission problems.

Transmission problems are reported on all years from 2001 - 2012.  Sales numbers and reported transmission problems to Honda is protected information, so knowing it is a percentage based problem is not known for sure.  But it does appear that more complaints surface from the more popular years.  Also, there are no part number changes that affect transmission performance from 2001 - 2012.

NOT YEAR SPECIFIC
APPEARS TO BE PERCENTAGE BASED

Many blame ghost shifting on oil type, oil grade, oil-change frequency, clutching habits, road conditions, climate, high or low RPMs when shifting, not pre-loading the shift lever, while in a turn, accelerating to fast, not accelerating fast enough, shifting to fast, not shifting fast enough ... and the list continues and continues and continues.

All these myths and beliefs became known as voodoo reasoning.

If an owner is reading this, it is assumed they have taken the first step in searching for the answer as to why their Gold Wing ghost shifts.  The Owner's Manual that came with their Wing should be studied to make sure they are maintaining and operating their Wing as intended.  If they are, then the above is truly voodoo reasoning and "it is not your fault."

IT IS NOT YOUR FAULT

Often the operator is blamed for a bent or damaged shift forks.  "You must have been pressing down to hard on the shift lever."  Sometimes a worn or damaged shift drum is found too.  This damage is a symptom and caused form ghost shifting.  Our Wings are designed to be shifted at "foot speed."  Ghost shifting can happen so fast it puts tremendous stress on the forks causing them to bend and crack.  The shift drum will get damaged too.

FORK AND SHIFT DRUM DAMAGE IS CAUSED FROM GHOST SHIFTING AND NOT FROM YOU

Lately many blame ghost shifting on metal quality.  When gears are manufactured, the metal must meet a manufacturing standard.  If the metal  is inferior, the gears will crack and break, or wear prematurely.  Some gears do crack, but only after thousands of miles of ghost shifting abuse, while others show wear known as "cancer" or pitting.  Cancer shows up as the gears are used or worn.  Therefore, the metal quality theory is not true since some Wings ghost shift when almost new.  At that young age, the gears rarely show signs of cracking and no signs of cancer either.  As Lloyd from the UK wrote in an email he sent "I own a 2008 with 1700 miles on it, and it just started ghost shifting ..."  I can guarantee that if those gears are removed and magna fluxed, they will not show signs of cancer or cracks, but, as he states, it is a ghost shifter.

NOT CAUSED FROM POOR METAL QUALITY

Often ghost shifting becomes a warranty complaint and repaired under warranty.  After some of them are repaired, they become a ghost shifter again.  I've corrected some of those Wings myself.  Some state they were told that their transmission failed because it was not assembled correctly by the manufacture.  That is possible.  Much of the assembling is "fail safe," but clips and washers can be missing, or incorrectly installed affecting a transmission's operation.  The likelihood of those transmissions being corrected once repaired is likely.  But what about the others?  How about the ones assembled correctly from the manufacture, repaired, and ghost shift again?  Were they not repaired correctly?  Is there another problem?  Does the transmission have a design flaw?  Is it the operator, or maybe something during the manufacturing process affecting one transmission but not others?  Since it is not known what really causes ghost shifting, it is known that replacing the damaged parts does not guarantee correction.  

REPLACING DAMAGED PARTS IS NOT A SURE CORRECTION
REMACHINING THE GEARS TO STAY ENGAGED IS