1978 Goldwing Cafe Racer project

Can't wait to see what you do to her. oh and Randakk's is and NGWclub are great resources for these old girls, and change your timing belts.

Cheers

Maritime
 
As I went down to New Orleans for a 4 day weekend there is nothing new to report. I bought a new ignition switch as it was sticky and with the melted wire issue I didn't want to chance another major short.
 


Artwork that can do the ton, makes me feel like a putz..

Well the CX500 is ready to go to the welder on Monday to get the seat/fender bracket welded on so I am working on getting the big girl running. No spark at the plugs so I put a set of points on only to have the condenser test bad. The fuel pump won't work so I took it apart to find a perfectly good diaphragm so I took the valve apart, cleaned it and surprise it works. Upon getting the radiator off to gain access to the timing belts I noticed excessive gap on one exhaust valve. The cam looked good so I decided the valve was either hung up or bent so I gave it a couple taps with a brass drift punch and it came unstuck. Belts on order as these look very sad.
 
Just a posting to keep the thread alive. I did get the lower parts to do a hydraulic clutch conversion though. It was $35 on ebay, I figure the master will be an easy find when the time comes..
 
Nice, i need to keep an eye out for the hydro conversion parts tkoo

Sent from my MB525 using Tapatalk 2
 
AlphaDogChoppers said:
Making a cafe racer out of a GL1100 is just wrong... 8)
Click to expand...

I 100% dissagree with this statement. shedding weight and improving marginal brakes and stiffening up suspension is the best thing you can do to these old motors. Just putting a cafe style seat and bars and calling it done is wrong. Check Troybuilts 78, he can ride that thing against a lot of modern bikes in twisty stuff and keep up or blow by them.
 
I guess the main objection of some people to a cafe GL stems from the fact that it starts as a super bike, anyway. Can easily do 120+ stock or with all of the fiberglass added. And, upon introduction it was almost instantly seen as an "old man's bike". I saw them that way myself as a 20-something back then, who rode an RD400 and Penton 125 set up for flat tracking. Cafe racers were a little "new" in the circles I was in (and underwater half of every year), and I found them very cool. I had put 400 Honda bars on my RD that resembled today's Eurobars, but narrower.

Well, today I AM an old man, put 11000 miles a year on a GL1800, and the GL1000 seems like the right project for me to turn cafe. True 1940s/50s England cafe? NO! 2013 East Tennessee cafe? Heck YES! The frames were designed solid by the Honda race bike designers. Mine has a '78 frame with a '75 motor, so I get the hottest engine and get to use creativity to make the Comstars look good. The frame easily cleans up, but you have to be creative hiding the four (two double) coils and other gadgetry. Now, some may say it is best to strip the extra gauges, but being a bull-geek (I teach cyclotrons), they just have a draw for me.

The big challenge I see for the OP is to make sure all of the extras work properly, which requires careful service and faithful maintenance of the wiring harness. I've considered swapping all of the connectors on mine for more modern connectors, but will keep the older style for this one. And the four carbs with 7 jets each are real fun

Wrong to cafe a GoldWing? NO! But, it does start out as a faster, better handling bike than most HDs. Does that make it cheating?

"Love 'em all.... Let God sort 'em out!"
 
I think mine does the job rather well... ;)
 

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