Mr Doles’ GL Barn Find Restoration

Hello All

I sold my Silverwing a couple of years ago and was without a 2 wheeler until last Spring. When covid hit and we were all in covid jail, I mentioned to my wife that I wanted to get a mechanical project of some sort to work on or I was going to go crazy.

I found a 77 Goldwing barn find on Craigslist that was cosmetically in great shape. $500 later I brought it home. For most of the past Summer I was eager to get to the garage to work on it. I cleaned, polished or painted anything that I could remove from the bike. I rebuilt the brake calipers and carbs. Cleaned out the gas tank and replaced timing belts, cables, battery and ignition system. The original still had points and condenser.

I got the bike back on the road and it was a hoot to drive fast. It was a Gen1 Goldwing which was really the first of the Superbikes. It was the lightest and fastest of the Goldwings.  My 650 lb bike had 80 hp.

In 78, Honda switched to smaller carbs and milder cams to make the engine more docile. They also began adding on the tupperware until a 2020 GW weighs about 850 lbs. I was probably going to hurt myself with this bike as I loved to hear the sweet music that it made as you ran it up through the gears. I am 72 and my bad knees were creating a problem supporting it at a standstill and nearly dropped it a couple times so I sold it.

I found a lighter replacement in a 2007 Shadow VLX. It was lighter, narrower and had a much lower seat height. I rode it last Fall but the feet forward position doesn't allow you to react when you see a bump coming. You just have to take it and it jars your spine. I sold it while still looking for a bike that fit me.

This Spring I found a 2012 Honda NC700x which is an adventure bike. It is 450 lbs, fuel injected, six speed, standard. You ride with your feet under you so you can stand or at least lift somewhat when you see a bump. It is my first fuel injected motorcycle and after the 4 carbs on the Goldwing is very welcome. It is a great commuter bike.

This one may just see me through until I hang up my helmet for the last time.

Nice to hear from you again Mr. Doles. Boy that GL 1000 sure looks sweet.

A co-worker has a GL/first gen. Goldwing rotting in her garage. Hasn't moved in years. I think it was repainted because it's green. I may stop by and see if it's still sitting there. rjdoles, that one you had was clean!

rjdoles wrote:

Hello All

I sold my Silverwing a couple of years ago and was without a 2 wheeler until last Spring. When covid hit and we were all in covid jail, I mentioned to my wife that I wanted to get a mechanical project of some sort to work on or I was going to go crazy.

I found a 77 Goldwing barn find on Craigslist that was cosmetically in great shape. $500 later I brought it home. For most of the past Summer I was eager to get to the garage to work on it. I cleaned, polished or painted anything that I could remove from the bike. I rebuilt the brake calipers and carbs. Cleaned out the gas tank and replaced timing belts, cables, battery and ignition system. The original still had points and condenser.

I got the bike back on the road and it was a hoot to drive fast. It was a Gen1 Goldwing which was really the first of the Superbikes. It was the lightest and fastest of the Goldwings.  My 650 lb bike had 80 hp.

In 78, Honda switched to smaller carbs and milder cams to make the engine more docile. They also began adding on the tupperware until a 2020 GW weighs about 850 lbs. I was probably going to hurt myself with this bike as I loved to hear the sweet music that it made as you ran it up through the gears. I am 72 and my bad knees were creating a problem supporting it at a standstill and nearly dropped it a couple times so I sold it.

I found a lighter replacement in a 2007 Shadow VLX. It was lighter, narrower and had a much lower seat height. I rode it last Fall but the feet forward position doesn't allow you to react when you see a bump coming. You just have to take it and it jars your spine. I sold it while still looking for a bike that fit me.

This Spring I found a 2012 Honda NC700x which is an adventure bike. It is 450 lbs, fuel injected, six speed, standard. You ride with your feet under you so you can stand or at least lift somewhat when you see a bump. It is my first fuel injected motorcycle and after the 4 carbs on the Goldwing is very welcome. It is a great commuter bike.

This one may just see me through until I hang up my helmet for the last time.

This beautifully restored 1000GL brings nostalgic memories to my history with Wings. I started off with the 1100GL (Burgandy) and at the time, the 1000GL was still pretty much to be seen whenever the Wingriders got together.

Thank you for sharing. The final product is stunning!

Welcome back to the board. Very nice restoration on the GL 1000.

I was really conflicted about selling the Goldwing after putting so much time and work into it. It was a sweet running bike and I know that they don't bring much money. Still, it was too heavy and wide for these old bones. I posted it on Craigslist for $2500 and got a few crank text messages and then I got a call from a man who wanted to see it.

He arrived with truck and trailer. He walked around the bike, asked if it was OK to start it and I nodded. He knew where all the controls were. He switched on the petcock, pulled out the choke, switched on the ignition and touched the starter and it came to life. He checked for smoke from the exhaust which there was none. He blipped the throttle to see the throttle response and then switched it back off. Without blinking, he pulled out $2500 and handed it to me.

He said that his first big bike many years ago was a 77 Goldwing and when he saw the ad he had already made up his mind to buy it.

We swapped stories about our previous bikes and then we loaded it up. I didn't feel quite so bad selling it to him because he had a reason for wanting that bike.

I have put a few hundred miles on the NC700X now and although it is tall, it is also 200 lbs lighter and narrower than the GW. I think that we will get along just fine.

Hi,

I had an identical 700X same colour, even had the engine bars.

Really enjoyed the bike great economy, very underrated.

Cosmic_Jumper wrote:

Nice to hear from you again Mr. Doles. Boy that GL 1000 sure looks sweet.

Thank you.

It was kind of a work of love renewing that bike. I would say renew rather than restore because in 1977, the Goldwing had a straight seat and not the King and Queen from a newer GW that came with the bike.

The previous owner said that he parked it when it developed an ignition problem. It originally came with points and condenser and I replaced them and the coils with a DynaTek electronic ignition system. There were a few other items that were not stock.

When I started on the bike I bought a Harbor Freight cloth buffing wheel for my bench grinder along with a stick of aluminum polish rouge. The rouge was like a giant chap stick containing a waxy pumice. You push the rouge into the spinning buffing wheel to load the pumice onto the wheel and then buff your parts. I learned how to polish aluminum pieces while getting that bike back on the road. Depending on how much time you want to spend, you can make parts look like chrome.

I was happy that the bike went to someone to whom it had a special meaning.

Still to this day whenever I see motorcycles from the later 70's (graduated "79"), it always gives me a bit of a woodie.

Our first touring bike was a '81 GL1100 Standard, Vetter-equipped. Wife and I got married in 1980, bought the GL1100 in Sept 1980 and went on our honeymoon on it.

The early 1100's were the same as the GL1000 except they bored the cylinders to 75mm instead of 72mm. We had it for 4 years before going to a BMW K100RS when the K100 came out in Sept 1984.

The old Goldwings had their share of problems. Handling was horrible, brakes were so-so, blow a timing belt - bend a bunch of valves, burn out the alternator stator have to pull the engine from the frame to replace it, the rear end drive splines have to be constantly repacked or they wear out. But they were still pretty good bikes for their day.

I had a GL1100 exactly like Chris Olson's, Vetter fairing, Vetter sound system with am/fm/cb. Same color. Eventually found a Hondaline fairing for it while working in Texas and found Hondaline bags somewhere else and had them painted silver/gray like the later Aspencades had. Put a Corbin seat on it in Tulsa. Looked fantastic. (at least to me). Bought the factory radio/communication for it and enjoyed it for many years. Pulled a Kwik Kamp and toured a whole lot on it. Spent many a weekend over in the Appalachian's riding every back road we could find. My wife is still very fond of how it rode and especially our trip up the Million Dollar Highway and the Rockies in general. I did pull the drive shaft and lube it a few times. Sold it and purchased a BMW RT100 Which is one of only 2 motorcycles she said "this thing has got to go". And so it did. Replaced by a GL1500.  Kept it for over 10 years but doesn't hold the fondness of that first Gold Wing although we did finish riding thru all lower 48 states on it.
 Take care and enjoy the Silverwings. We sure are....
 Dickie

dickie wrote:

Sold it and purchased a BMW RT100 Which is one of only 2 motorcycles she said "this thing has got to go". And so it did. Replaced by a GL1500.

Amazingly, we did the same thing. Except bought a K-bike instead of an R. The K-series Beemer was not all they cracked it up to be either and eventually we bought a 1991 GL1500 Interstate.

Between the two Goldwings, the GL1100 and the 1500, the 1100 was a better bike. The 1500 was a plastic pig, only got 28 mpg two-up on the freeway, handling was worse the 1100, and the Vetter equipment actually had better luggage capacity.

I need to apologize to Chris Olson for a misquote on my BMW. It was a K100RT and not an RT100. I get theses nomenclatures mixed up and this isn't the first time. These are two completely different motorcycles. Two cylinder opposed twin verses an inline 4 cylinder. So Chris we both had the same K100 series BMW's.
Take care, Dickie

Yeah, we had a RS instead of an RT, but basically still the same bike. And not that great of a bike either. I think we had more problems with that BMW than any other motorcycle we have ever owned.

Mr Doles, Nice bike choices and superior rejuvenation and care of your bikes.  I was looking at the DCT version of the NC700, and almost went for it.  You should be getting phenomenal gas mileage on that.  Only problem with the NC700X is that it will not stop giving you 100% reliability and service, and you will struggle to hard finding an excuse to look for another bike