Hi y'all, figured I'd introduce myself over here. I'm about halfway through a GL1000 project that is both my first motorcycle and first bike build. I've been a car guy for 10+ years and have worked mostly on old Volvos, adding turbos, adapting transmissions, and in general making them way more ridiculous than they ever should have been.
Anyway, I've been thinking about a bike for awhile, and I ran across some photos of an old Goldwing that was turned into a naked bike. I instantly fell in love. After spending some time on Craiglist, I found one down in Atlanta that fit the bill. I hooked up the trailer and drove the 2 hours south after work.
It was WAAAYYYY uglier than I expected, and the guy was asking $650. I couldn't ride the thing on account of the throttle cable being broken and frayed, and it wouldn't crank for some reason. I did put it in gear and push it around to make sure it wasn't seized up.
After all that, I did actually buy it. For $260.
As soon as I got home, I realized it HAD to come apart. Not just to get the ugly gold off the frame, but because the wiring harness was seriously fawked. Along with just about everything else.
Disassembly went by quickly, but it always does.
The only real surprise was a wasted steering bearing. Fixed that by applying a new set of forks. Bonus: I don't have to strip the gold off of the replacement forks.
Found a little damage on the center stand tube from where it had hit something. Beat that flat and welded it back up.
Blasted the frame
And painted it gloss black with tractor and implement enamel
Spoiler alert: I shouldn't have done that. I let the paint cure for 2 weeks (both inside and outside in the sun) and it never really hardened up like it was supposed to. I reluctantly dropped the frame off for re-blasting and powdercoating yesterday. Going satin black this time. On the upside, the blasting media was free, and I only used 3 cans of $7 spraypaint, so it was a cheap lesson learned.
Blasted a bunch of other parts at a friend's shop
Picked out a color, took the ugly vinyl off the shelter tank lid, yanked off the flaming goldwing chicken, and shaved the recess for the emblem. Bondo, sand, spot putty, sand, repeat.
No clear yet, so it looks satin. It'll be glossy after clearcoat.
Splurged on a fiberglass solo seat (seat pad not pictured)
And couldn't resist mocking everything up in the sun.
During disassembly, I noticed that the coolant level was low and there was a lot of oily gunk in the rad and reservoir. There was definite coolant smell in the right hand exhaust manifold too. Figured I should tackle the head gaskets while everything was apart...easiest headgasket job I've ever done.
Whipped it apart
Taped some sandpaper on the table saw
Drank a few beers while sliding the head around and wound up with a clean, flat finish.
Chased the holes, cleaned the block deck (sorta), new gasket, and torqued down.
Cleaned, primed, and painted the motor
Ordered some ricer-spec adjustable shocks because my stock ones were completely wasted.
Scored some NOS brake lines for the front (rear flex line interchages with an '82 Ford Courier!)
And bought some stickers
And a matrix-spec headlight (Morimoto Sealed7 bi-led, currently on clearance at theretrofitsource.com, fyi.)
I guess that about gets us current. There's a lot of stuff not pictured...new fresh instruments and gauges, new wiring harness, brake pads, etc. etc. So far, including purchase price and valuing my time at $0.17/hr, I'm in this riiiiight around $1700. I could've spent $1,200 instead of $260 and gotten a bike that was road-ready, but I like to know what I'm working with anyway, and pulling it apart and completely redoing it lets me really understand the condition everything is in .
Currently, I'm awaiting a new neutral switch, some upgraded swingarm bearings from the UK, handlebars, and a few other things. The frame should be out of powdercoat in a week or so.
About the title...I was showing pictures of naked goldwings to a coworker and he said "wow, that could be a really cool cafe-style bike!" Another coworker turned around and said "Nah, that's waaaay too big for a cafe racer. More like a buffet racer maybe." and the name stuck. Suits me too...I'm known to enjoy a good Chinese buffet from time to time.
The goal is to have this thing running/riding/registered on the first day of spring. I should be able to make that deadline relatively easily. My local community college doesn't offer another MSF course until March anyway. I brought the bike home on October 13...with parts chasing and everything else, I think I'm making pretty good progress so far.
Anyhow, cheers. I'll try and keep the thread updated and solicit ideas/comments/advice from y'all. Thanks for having me.
