TommyRocker
Been Around the Block
Hi all, decided to post this up in case anyone here was interested. It's a 1982 Honda GL1100. The 1100 was the last GoldWing available as a naked standard. I had a lust/love affair thing for the GL1000, but they are harder to find around me, plus I settled on the '82 1100 as the best year for the naked GL's. This is because it has more modern/reliable/maintenance free electronic ignition, better, vented disc brakes all around, and a better highway gear ratio than the earlier GL's, but is the last year before Honda moved to the annoying linked braking system and the apparently problematic and annoying anti-dive forks that were introduced on all GL's for 1983. I'm sure some people love the features of the later GL's, but I wasn't interested. I also have heard people who consider points ignition to be some kind of badge of honor. No thanks, I'd rather be riding than setting up points. While I think it would be cool to have the kick start option of the older GL1000, I have read that it was a useless feature anyways, as it was apparently impossible to start the GL this way, anyways. I don't know, but I figure I won't miss the kick start.
Anyways, I picked it up for around $1,200-$1,300 from an old retired fire fighter. It ran great, was in pretty good shape, and the guy had apparently ridden the hell out of it until he got too old and unbalanced to ride, then it sat. Here it is the day I picked it up, complete with an ugly old WindJammer fairing:
After I got it home and rode it a few times I realized the forks needed to be rebuilt. They were leaking and by extension had soaked the brake pads in fork oil. Went ahead and rebuilt the forks, replaced the pads, and took the fairing off:
I rode it all summer like this:
Towards the end of summer I was heading home one night and a drunk chick who was out celebrating a friend's 21st clipped me just a little bit when she missed a red light. Nothing too serious, and luckily it was wet and slick so the ass end just slid rather than gripping and throwing me down. She ended up tweaking the exhaust, broke the tail light and signal assembly, and twisted the fender pretty good, but that's it:
She left her address and insurance card, then she and her friends took off. When the cops got there they took down my statement and said they were going to go find her and take her statement. When I got the police report a couple days later it was listed as a "no fault" accident and her insurance wasn't interested in taking care of it. At this point I figured that was a good enough excuse to cut into it and turn it into something more fun. I figured it's a 30 year old bike anyways, the insurance company probably would have just tried to total it and give me $500 anyways, and the damage really wasn't all that bad. So I did the only logical thing. I found a place to park it and tore it apart:
Once it was stripped to the bare frame I started acquiring parts. Money is tight so it's been slow going. Here is the rough exhaust setup. The headers are from the Jardine 4-2 that was on it when I bought it. The mufflers are cheapy EMGO shorties:
I got some superbike bars for Christmas:
And I snagged a Sportster seat from my mom. It was sitting in my parents' shed becasue she put a solo seat on hers:
First I had to modify the faux-tank so the seat would mate to it:
Then I had to modify the frame to allow the seat to fit and bolt on and also provide support:
I no longer have access to a welder and I can't afford to drop $500 plus on a cheaper MIG welder, I posted up a help me thread on the customfighters forum and was pointed to a local guy who runs a small customs shop. Nathan runs Green Machine Customs in Wauconda, IL, which turned out to be only about 5 minutes from where I've been working on the bike. I took it to his shop, then we spent a few hours figuring out how to go about it, he got it done, and we BS'ed over a couple beers{after hours, of course). Real cool guy, and if you're in the area and need some work done, I recommend checking with him.
Finally got it cut and welded, got the seat and faux tank mated and bolted on, and this is pretty much as it sits now:
I'm hoping to get it powder coated this weekend, but we'll see how that goes. Joe out in Woodstock is supposed to do that part for me. I believe he's actually on this forum as JRK. I've been trying to get it out to him for months but stuff kept getting in the way. It worked out well because I decided to do some cutting, but I really do need to get that done.
I also ordered a top end kit, I have timing belts, and am looking into putting in a new water pump and getting all of that out of the way so once I get it back together I can just ride with no worries. I'm also gonna have a bitch of a time with the carbs I think. I've only done minimal carb tuning/jetting, and certainly never mastered it, so that should be fun. Hopefully it'll run ok with the exhaust I'm running. The plan is for a cafe-style bike. It's a bit too big to be a true cafe racer but I think it'll be fun. I also took a quick video of the last run before I stripped it, in case you are interested in how these boxers sound running straight headers...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZ45JFD3cfg&feature=plcp&context=C462c88eVDvjVQa1PpcFPsc0xppMB1ow2YYjc32_-lfNWZ2Wi_erI%3D
Anyways, I picked it up for around $1,200-$1,300 from an old retired fire fighter. It ran great, was in pretty good shape, and the guy had apparently ridden the hell out of it until he got too old and unbalanced to ride, then it sat. Here it is the day I picked it up, complete with an ugly old WindJammer fairing:
After I got it home and rode it a few times I realized the forks needed to be rebuilt. They were leaking and by extension had soaked the brake pads in fork oil. Went ahead and rebuilt the forks, replaced the pads, and took the fairing off:
I rode it all summer like this:
Towards the end of summer I was heading home one night and a drunk chick who was out celebrating a friend's 21st clipped me just a little bit when she missed a red light. Nothing too serious, and luckily it was wet and slick so the ass end just slid rather than gripping and throwing me down. She ended up tweaking the exhaust, broke the tail light and signal assembly, and twisted the fender pretty good, but that's it:
She left her address and insurance card, then she and her friends took off. When the cops got there they took down my statement and said they were going to go find her and take her statement. When I got the police report a couple days later it was listed as a "no fault" accident and her insurance wasn't interested in taking care of it. At this point I figured that was a good enough excuse to cut into it and turn it into something more fun. I figured it's a 30 year old bike anyways, the insurance company probably would have just tried to total it and give me $500 anyways, and the damage really wasn't all that bad. So I did the only logical thing. I found a place to park it and tore it apart:
Once it was stripped to the bare frame I started acquiring parts. Money is tight so it's been slow going. Here is the rough exhaust setup. The headers are from the Jardine 4-2 that was on it when I bought it. The mufflers are cheapy EMGO shorties:
I got some superbike bars for Christmas:
And I snagged a Sportster seat from my mom. It was sitting in my parents' shed becasue she put a solo seat on hers:
First I had to modify the faux-tank so the seat would mate to it:
Then I had to modify the frame to allow the seat to fit and bolt on and also provide support:
I no longer have access to a welder and I can't afford to drop $500 plus on a cheaper MIG welder, I posted up a help me thread on the customfighters forum and was pointed to a local guy who runs a small customs shop. Nathan runs Green Machine Customs in Wauconda, IL, which turned out to be only about 5 minutes from where I've been working on the bike. I took it to his shop, then we spent a few hours figuring out how to go about it, he got it done, and we BS'ed over a couple beers{after hours, of course). Real cool guy, and if you're in the area and need some work done, I recommend checking with him.
Finally got it cut and welded, got the seat and faux tank mated and bolted on, and this is pretty much as it sits now:
I'm hoping to get it powder coated this weekend, but we'll see how that goes. Joe out in Woodstock is supposed to do that part for me. I believe he's actually on this forum as JRK. I've been trying to get it out to him for months but stuff kept getting in the way. It worked out well because I decided to do some cutting, but I really do need to get that done.
I also ordered a top end kit, I have timing belts, and am looking into putting in a new water pump and getting all of that out of the way so once I get it back together I can just ride with no worries. I'm also gonna have a bitch of a time with the carbs I think. I've only done minimal carb tuning/jetting, and certainly never mastered it, so that should be fun. Hopefully it'll run ok with the exhaust I'm running. The plan is for a cafe-style bike. It's a bit too big to be a true cafe racer but I think it'll be fun. I also took a quick video of the last run before I stripped it, in case you are interested in how these boxers sound running straight headers...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZ45JFD3cfg&feature=plcp&context=C462c88eVDvjVQa1PpcFPsc0xppMB1ow2YYjc32_-lfNWZ2Wi_erI%3D