1976 Honda Gold Wing
My 1976 Gold Wing
I purchased this bike from a friend for $250.00 about 6 years ago. It had been pretty badly crashed and had a ton of cosmetic damage. It did run although not very well. My pal was asking $300.00, but because it didn’t run as well as he said it would, I got him to knock off an extra $50.00. The problem turned out to be 4 broken spark plugs. That it ran at all is a testimony to how tough this bike really is.
I got it home and immediately set to work on it. Aaron (the guy who sold me the bike), my buddy Morgen and I were all leaving on a road trip/bike trip to the west coast in about 2 weeks time. The reason I bought this bike at all was because when I took the valve cover off my old bike, the cams were so grooved up that I decided to scrap the bike, rather than replace everything it needed. And it needed everything. So did the Wing, but at least the wing had about 15,000 less mileage than my trusty old Suzuki 750L.
I had taken a few days off of work to get the bike prepped for the trip. My first stop was Sport Wheels (a bike boneyard) where I dropped about $250.00 on parts. The list included:
- speedo
- tacho
- turn signals
- valve cover bolts
- timing belt cover
- timing belt backing plate
- intake tube
- other miscellaneous gorp
I also secured a handlebar, grips, tires (Dunlop 591 on front, 491 on rear), mirrors, brake pads and fluids from various bike shops. I got a battery from Fleet Farm and a clutch cable from Honda. I pulled the radiator and sent it to be cleaned out. About 4 days later I got up at 8:00 AM and was done installing, rerouting and bodging about 4:30 in the AM the next day. I was done. We left for our trip and although the bike had some small difficulties, it ran pretty well.
It never carbureted very well so on a good referral, I sent it to a shop in the suburbs to have the carbs straightened out. This was just before another long trip about 4 years ago. I wasn’t impressed from the start. The shop manager didn’t seem to think I’d be back for my beat-up beauty and requested $100.00 down for the job. I bristled, and paid him because I had heard these guys were good. They told me 3 days. On the third day I called and they hadn’t even started it. They told me 2 more days. This would have made it Friday and I was to leave Saturday morning. Not cool. I called the next day and they said it might be Monday. I had to pitch a fit and the guy said he’d stay late of Friday to get it done. By about 6:00 PM on Friday I wrote a check for the balance and took the bike home. We left the next morning.
I was pleased to notice that the off-idle stutter was gone, but so was any reasonable gas
mileage. It smelled rich, it made the plugs gray in a short time and my mileage went from
about 36 to 37 MPG to just barely 30 MPG. It did have a bit more
spunk, but not nearly what I had hoped for. By the time my buddy and I got to Florida, I had blown
my gas budget to shreds, but we had made good time.
The Wing and the Gulf of Mexico.
On the way back from that trip, I went from Tyndall AFB near Panama City, Florida to Milwaukee, Wisconsin in one day. It took me roughly 18 hours (6 am to 12 am) to go 1121 miles. I averaged about 61 MPH. Not too bad. It was all Interstates down and back, but that trip was for the destination, not the getting there. The reason I crunched all those miles is the reason I'm a happy guy today. Just before I left, I'd met a wonderful woman. I was totally panicked that while I was gone, she'd meet someone else, but she didn't and my hustle paid off. Our Anniversary is Valentine's day.
I put Bates bags on the bike after taking them off my Water
Buffalo.
I later installed the scuffed up Krauser bags I got
with the bike (unattached after the crash) after I found an installation kit at a junkyard.
One of the bags is damaged and they are now both
pretty scuffed after a different crash last fall, but they work very nicely. See the top of the page for what they look
like on the wing today.
The wing has had its mechanical issues. It’s pushing 80 thousand miles, 40 thousand of which are mine. The biggest job so far was having to do some work on the alternator. Unfortunately, this is an engine-out-of-the-frame job. My pal Jon and I pulled the motor over a winter and I sourced a new rotor and stator from the boneyard. The old rotor had thrown the cover of one of its magnets. This is a little, oval piece of metal that covers the magnet, and is molded into the rotor with whatever goo they secure it with. The metal piece cracked. Why? I’m not sure. The crack then let the piece escape and wedge itself between the rotor and stator. This created huge amounts of noise and it was very obvious that it was going to need work. I just hate that sinking feeling. The job was very straight forward, and by looks of the stator, I would have had to have done the job soon anyway. The boneyard stator looked much better and after putting it back together, I’ve not had any more problems.
Crashes. Hate them.
In 2000 I had 2. Both were on this bike. One was very minor, happened at nearly walking speed and just scratched up the
exhaust pipes on the right side of the bike. I hit
some oil coming off the freeway and the back end swapped places with the
front. I wasn’t hurt at all. Oh, yeah. The silly looking chrome
aftermarket valve cover on the right side hit and cracked.
Time to replace the valve cover. I had scored a second Gold Wing (1975 this
time) and had sworn up and down that I would never use it as a parts bike. Well, I’ve been using it
as a parts bike. Its covers were stock, so I swapped them out. They were very nice
and I really liked them. Unfortunately, they were not to last. I had a big
crash in the fall. I hit a patch of sand at about 20 MPH and the bike pretty much spiked me into the street.
Thanks to my lid, jacket, gloves and boots, I had not a scratch on me. I did, however, break
two ribs on my left side and also messed my right thumb up.
The thumb still hurts if I move it wrong. This little crash cost me my valve covers
(again, grrr…) a timing belt backing plate (but not the cover) and several
valve cover bolts. I also had to replace the front fender. I thank the parts
bike for supplying the necessary parts and to the boneyard for not gouging me too hard for yet
another set of valve covers. I have learned my lesson and have now fitted crash bars.
If you've hit this page by way of the Gold Wing Webring, welcome! Feel free to click around. The site's front door can be reached by clicking the Consolidated Diversions icon at the bottom of this page. The main bikes page can be reached by clicking on the BIKES icon. Click maintenance log to see the newly created maintenance log. Click tech tips to see the various and sundry technical tips and pointers I've assembled over 6 years of Gold Wing ownership.
|
||||||||
