So, Wednesday night after work, I came home and gave the lawn its
final 2008 mowing (sheesh, seems pretty late for that) and took the
GL1000 out for a nice 12 mile evening ride. It was in the upper 30's,
and I was wearing my Aerostich RoadCrafter with jeans, long-sleeve T,
and sweatshirt underneath, Givi boots, full face helmet, and Harley-
branded insulated goretex middleweight gloves. I had taken the
Plexifairing windshield, engine case guards, and throttle lock off the
bike, so it was dead stock.
The bike started and warmed quickly and easily, and after donning my
gear, it was ready to ride off with no choke. I headed out of the
neightborhood for the first time, and onto the Fairfax County Parkway,
a 4-lane divided surface street with a 50mph limit. On which, the
cars do 60-65mph. The bike easily accelerated up to the speed of the
prevailing traffic, with me sliding helplessly back on the flat seat.
Dang. The Harley and Ducati both have lips behind the rider's seat to
keep me from sliding back. Oh well, a call to Corbin for Christmas
should take care of that. Hey, I wonder if Sargent Seats has an
equivalent of the Corbin Gunfighter for the GL1000?
Anyway, it was chilly out, but I was comfortable enough for a short
ride, with my face shield cracked open. I had about 2-3 miles on the
parkway to notice that the bike is NOT grunty and torquey the way the
GL1500 Gold Wings and Valkyries I have ridden were. No, instead, it
concentrates its power ABOVE 5,000 rpm, and responds with an
increasing rush of power like a sport bike when you twist the throttle
open and keep it open. The bike is MUCH faster than it felt in the
inaugural ride.
I was lucky enough to get "caught" by several yellow lights while
traveling at 60mph or so, and after checking the big, round, high,
wide, well-placed mirrirs for vehicles behind me, checked out the
brakes by delaying my stop for several seconds longer than normal.
The brakes are probably the most vintage feeling part of the bike, to
me. After the upgraded brakes on the Harley (stainless lines,
floating Brembo rotors) and the state of the art brakes on the S4Rs,
the single piston calipers and spongy 31-year-old rubber lines and
thick, slippery, steel rotors are *just* short of scary. Luckily, the
rear brake is as good as the front brakes are bad, and using all three
aggressively provides braking a little bit better than did the 8-inch
drums on my '72 Triumph Tiger 650! Stainless steel lines, new pads,
rebuilding the calipers, and perhaps a new, used, modern master
cylinder should provide a useful upgrade. The front tire has tread
but is hard as a rock; needs to be changed. That might also improve
front braking performance!
I'm not sure about the riding position. The footpegs are perfect,
with my toes about 9-12 inches behind my knees with the ball of my
foot on the pegs. Easy to post up over bumps, perfect for hanging off
at the track (!), just right. The bars are high and wide. I need
them wide, since the bike is heavy, but I'm not so sure about the
height. In 1977, Honda raised the bars 2 inches over the standard
'75/'76 bars. I think those bars would be better; two inches is not
huge, but perhaps enough to reduce the feeling that I'm riding a bike
with mini ape-hangers. The only complicating factor for the switch is
that on these bikes, Honda ran the control switch wires *through* the
center of the bars, and out a hole at the base of the bars between the
bar clamps. Re-routing 31-year-old wires is not my idea of fun, but
I may very well give it a try.
The shocks and forks, are, as mentioned after the brief inaugural
ride, mushy, underdamped, and oversprung. I will certainly be
changing front fork springs and oil, and replacing the rear shocks.
Other than those minor changes to get the bike up to snuff performance
wise (and the normal maintenence items) I will be trying to acquire
the factory original passenger grab rail (the only oem part missing on
the bike) and a duplicate "fuel tank" center section, one that I can
drill holes in without feeling guilty, so that I can add an era-
appropriate tank rack to which I can fasten an expandable tank or tail
bag to carry a week-end's worth of stuff.
Sheesh, Keith, thanks. Perusing that naked Goldwing site has got my
imagination racing!
Some other ideas percolating are Napolean Baren bar-end mirrors,
smaller aluminum-alloy bodied turn signals, aluminum headlight "ears"
to replace the chrome plated sheet metal oem items, and the slightly
smaller side covers from a 1979/1980 nekkid wing. The bike is too
nice to make extensive, irreversible changes to, but it's either leave
it dead nuts stock or make it a little bit mine.
Oh yeah, the third ride.... tomorrow, to the DMV, for title,
registration, and tags. Gotta decide if I'm going to put a vintage
tag on it (it's eligible) or a regular tag. The antique plates
relieve me of having to have annual state safety inspections, but I'm
not supposed to use the bike for regular commuting and supposed to use
it less than 1,500 miles per year. Think I'll go with the regular
plate, The bike won't have any problem passing safety inspection.
With your new hobby, you might enjoy /a visit/
visit(s): here:
http://www.nakedgoldwings.com/
http://www.crescentmooncycles.com/
http://www.goldwingworld.com/pages/index1.htm
http://www.vjmog.com/ftopicp-5685-.html
http://www.kschapterc.org/links.htm
> So, Wednesday night after work, I came home and gave the lawn its
> final 2008 mowing (sheesh, seems pretty late for that) and took the
> GL1000 out for a nice 12 mile evening ride. It was in the upper 30's,
> and I was wearing my Aerostich RoadCrafter with jeans, long-sleeve T,
> and sweatshirt underneath, Givi boots, full face helmet, and Harley-
> branded insulated goretex middleweight gloves. I had taken the
> Plexifairing windshield, engine case guards, and throttle lock off the
> bike, so it was dead stock.
> The bike started and warmed quickly and easily, and after donning my
> gear, it was ready to ride off with no choke. I headed out of the
> neightborhood for the first time, and onto the Fairfax County Parkway,
> a 4-lane divided surface street with a 50mph limit. On which, the
> cars do 60-65mph. The bike easily accelerated up to the speed of the
> prevailing traffic, with me sliding helplessly back on the flat seat.
> Dang. The Harley and Ducati both have lips behind the rider's seat to
> keep me from sliding back. Oh well, a call to Corbin for Christmas
> should take care of that. Hey, I wonder if Sargent Seats has an
> equivalent of the Corbin Gunfighter for the GL1000?
> Anyway, it was chilly out, but I was comfortable enough for a short
> ride, with my face shield cracked open. I had about 2-3 miles on the
> parkway to notice that the bike is NOT grunty and torquey the way the
> GL1500 Gold Wings and Valkyries I have ridden were. No, instead, it
> concentrates its power ABOVE 5,000 rpm, and responds with an
> increasing rush of power like a sport bike when you twist the throttle
> open and keep it open. The bike is MUCH faster than it felt in the
> inaugural ride.
> I was lucky enough to get "caught" by several yellow lights while
> traveling at 60mph or so, and after checking the big, round, high,
> wide, well-placed mirrirs for vehicles behind me, checked out the
> brakes by delaying my stop for several seconds longer than normal.
> The brakes are probably the most vintage feeling part of the bike, to
> me. After the upgraded brakes on the Harley (stainless lines,
> floating Brembo rotors) and the state of the art brakes on the S4Rs,
> the single piston calipers and spongy 31-year-old rubber lines and
> thick, slippery, steel rotors are *just* short of scary. Luckily, the
> rear brake is as good as the front brakes are bad, and using all three
> aggressively provides braking a little bit better than did the 8-inch
> drums on my '72 Triumph Tiger 650! Stainless steel lines, new pads,
> rebuilding the calipers, and perhaps a new, used, modern master
> cylinder should provide a useful upgrade. The front tire has tread
> but is hard as a rock; needs to be changed. That might also improve
> front braking performance!
> I'm not sure about the riding position. The footpegs are perfect,
> with my toes about 9-12 inches behind my knees with the ball of my
> foot on the pegs. Easy to post up over bumps, perfect for hanging off
> at the track (!), just right. The bars are high and wide. I need
> them wide, since the bike is heavy, but I'm not so sure about the
> height. In 1977, Honda raised the bars 2 inches over the standard
> '75/'76 bars. I think those bars would be better; two inches is not
> huge, but perhaps enough to reduce the feeling that I'm riding a bike
> with mini ape-hangers. The only complicating factor for the switch is
> that on these bikes, Honda ran the control switch wires *through* the
> center of the bars, and out a hole at the base of the bars between the
> bar clamps. Re-routing 31-year-old wires is not my idea of fun, but
> I may very well give it a try.
> The shocks and forks, are, as mentioned after the brief inaugural
> ride, mushy, underdamped, and oversprung. I will certainly be
> changing front fork springs and oil, and replacing the rear shocks.
> Other than those minor changes to get the bike up to snuff performance
> wise (and the normal maintenence items) I will be trying to acquire
> the factory original passenger grab rail (the only oem part missing on
> the bike) and a duplicate "fuel tank" center section, one that I can
> drill holes in without feeling guilty, so that I can add an era-
> appropriate tank rack to which I can fasten an expandable tank or tail
> bag to carry a week-end's worth of stuff.
> Sheesh, Keith, thanks. Perusing that naked Goldwing site has got my
> imagination racing!
> Some other ideas percolating are Napolean Baren bar-end mirrors,
> smaller aluminum-alloy bodied turn signals, aluminum headlight "ears"
> to replace the chrome plated sheet metal oem items, and the slightly
> smaller side covers from a 1979/1980 nekkid wing. The bike is too
> nice to make extensive, irreversible changes to, but it's either leave
> it dead nuts stock or make it a little bit mine.
> Oh yeah, the third ride.... tomorrow, to the DMV, for title,
> registration, and tags. Gotta decide if I'm going to put a vintage
> tag on it (it's eligible) or a regular tag. The antique plates
> relieve me of having to have annual state safety inspections, but I'm
> not supposed to use the bike for regular commuting and supposed to use
> it less than 1,500 miles per year. Think I'll go with the regular
> plate, The bike won't have any problem passing safety inspection.
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> final 2008 mowing (sheesh, seems pretty late for that) and took the
> GL1000 out for a nice 12 mile evening ride.