1978 Custom Built Motorcycles Other on 2040-motos

Have rebuilt several GL1000s and wanted to customize one, so this is it. First generation Yamaha FZ1 front end with fully adjustable suspension...preload, compression and rebound damping. Polished upper triple and bar risers with Honda ignition switch modified to fit. Front brakes are one finger strong! Bike handles like a modern sport bike with the upgraded radial tires and more modern suspension. Very quick turn-in, flickable and modern forks cure the nose dive of the stock GL front end.

Other customization in addition to the front suspension:

Swing-arm welded seam flattened and widest rim possible used to build rear wheel with SS spokes and nipples. I believe the stock GL rear rim was 2 1/2" wide, the new Excel rim is 4 1/4" wide and both wheels now hold modern radial sport tires. Which have very few miles on them since build.

Rear fender shortened several inches with new mounts welded on. Custom tail light and one-off custom seat with welded steel pan and higher density foam in seating area.

Frame sand blasted and powder coated. Engine block painted in automotive candy blood/orange over silver with clear coat. Valve covers and belt covers buffed to high gloss then coated in clear tinted with candy black for a "black chrome" look.

Custom one-off exhaust, ceramic coated and polished in bright silver with individual baffles in each tip. Includes center stand rubber stop welded on. Not too loud at idle or while riding but when revved it sounds like an angry WRX and then it gets pretty loud.

The gauges on the tank all work as they should and have been rebuilt. Faces were repainted and the gauge pod was modified to allow the SS bezels to show and protrude a bit more.

Choke cable was shorted and moved from the handlebar area to a more convenient location on the left side at the carburetors. Carburetors were completely rebuilt and polished inside and out using Randakk's kit with Ethanol resistant o-rings and seals, including new plenum seals and a petcock rebuild kit.

The body panels have been custom painted with a black base coat, clear with light orange pearl over all, then "ghost" pearl and candy flames in orange and red to co-ordinate with the Honda tank badges and engine block. All clear coated  with several coats.

There may be other smaller custom touches but that's the bigger items. Just about everything else has been rebuilt or replaced. Here is a list of other items of concern that have been replaced.

* Timing belts, Water pump, Ignition plate and points, Spark plug wires, caps and plugs, Clutch cable, New clutch, New head gaskets and valve job plus new tires of course. (Avon tires, if you are curious, and I'm very pleased with them!) Oh, yes, the Stator wire plug has been replaced with a new one also. Battery is probably two years old and still works well.

Asking $5,000. May listen to offers. Not interested in trades at this time.

These are fun bikes when completely stock but this one is way more fun, and at 38 years old most younger folks don't know what it is, but it is an attention getter! To describe it a bit more, it's a very, very smooth motor and it's geared pretty high so highway speeds are very comfortable and easy to maintain. The weight is down low with the flat four cylinder motor, which runs on regular gas by the way, and these bikes were built to run for many, many miles. In those days constant velocity carburetors usually had rubber diaphragms which could deteriorate with age, not the GLs. These carbs have high precision machined aluminum and brass pistons which don't rot so they can last forever. Even the float valve in each individual carburetor his a small clip-on sediment filter to avoid fueling problems downstream of the main fuel filter. Honda broke a lot of new ground with these early Goldwings. Very impressive bikes in many ways, even today, but especially when they first came out.

Here's a couple links to videos of it running. I'm new at this and had to convert for EBay. Hope links work.

Okay, links wouldn't work, i.e., EBay wouldn't allow them.  So, if you'd like to see and hear the bike search for the two videos by name on Youtube. 

First is the bike parked then started up and revved. That one is "GLsoundparked"
Second is a GoPro on the back of the bike going through the gears.  "GLupN"

Good luck, Thanks for looking.