'76 Goldwing GL1000 "Deathwing"

[durp]

Been a while since I've posted. Been a bit busy. But been workin a lot on my latest project. Everyones always laughed when i tell em how lon ive wanted to do a goldwing bobber. Sounds ridiculous, cuz it is. But growing up, my dad took our family on camping trips all over the states. It was always on a particular 76 goldwing gl1000, with sidecar. The guy is a bit of a genius with bikes and mechanics, so he did a tremendous amount of work on the bike and sidecar. Made a back seat in it, and widened the front seat. So my younger brother would sit in the back, and my older brother and I would sit in the front seat. The goldwing had a supercharger he added. And a radical faring. Naturally the bike had a pretty unique sound. And gave me a lot of great memories growing up traveling on this thing with my family.

So for a long time ive wanted to build a goldwing to my liking out of nostalgic purposes. I bought this back in september, and while the weather was still nice (been in the states for a while visiting family) I spent most of the time riding it, minimal changes. But once it got cold enough I tore it apart and began doing the major stuff.

So starting the project thread for it.

When I bought it. Rode it home and only gave $400 for it.


Next day i stripped a lot off, made a new taillight and plate bracket


Picked up 2 spare motors for $75. Been building a really good one out of them. And sandblasted several parts, painting.






Then chopped off all of the frame from the rear end. Making way to build a monoshock


Sizing up the rail it wil mount on. Using a monoshock from old suzuki.


All brackets and reinforcements are now welded on. Will still have a few more parts to reenforce, but unnoticeable.


And have now chopped off all the bars on top. The gas tank normally sat underneath the seat. So i'm moving the gas tank back on top, and have to reconfigure the top bars to work with it. Next ill be making a bar to run through the middle, which will add more reinforcement for the monoshock.

[ellipsis]

....cool shit...been a want to do to our 78 since my wife started riding her own bike back a few years...hardly sees the light of day now...alas not enough skills to do it...money or time...cant wait to see your finished project...I reckon the GL is a sports bike as much as they are trucks...

[paturoa]

And a thread like this is useless without photos!

[bogan]

Nice work!

Wouldn't have thought a goldwing had much potential, but, there you go

[iYRe]

you sire, are a legend. When you're ready to road test that, I'd love to escort you (with appropriate cameras and stuff)

[ducatilover]

I like! I want a GL thou, but how in fuck did you get it for $400? They can be made in to a grouse cafe racer (cafe eater?)

[The Lone Rider]

Like the others, I like it.

Pity it's not done, as I think it would have made a very awesome article for the magazine. Especially since you appear to have cataloged the bike as you work on it.

[Paul in NZ]

Awesome.......

[98tls]

Fantastic,will follow with interest.

[caseye]

An heres me spending days in my garage redoing shit that should not need it on my ol coal burner.
Great effort, more pics.
looking forward to seeing it finished.

[durp]

Thanks guys. Im still workin heavily on it. I'll hope to have a new post tomorrow night with some new updates.

Something i hand't mentioned but i think is the coolest part of the bike... when i bought it, it still needed a few things to replace. The drive end that was on it, for example, the splines were worn down so much on them it was surprising the wheel even moved. Carbs were pretty rough as well. And a few other miscellaneous parts. My dad happened to still have a lot of parts and spares laying around from decades ago when he was working on his old wing, that we used on all those family holidays. Many of the parts I needed, including the drive-end, came from the same goldwing he had that we spent all that time on. So not only is it cool bringing back such an old piece of machine, but being able to revitalize it with some parts with such personal history on them feels pretty good.

[AllanB]

Very cool. I've seen some very nice examples of cafe wings on the net.

[durp]

New neck welded on. Gotta start working on the wiring now.

[Paulo]

Awesome work, I'll be watching this with interest

[The Lone Rider]

Is the seat going to be suspended? Doesn't look like anywhere to put a seat unless you're running some more framing or struts to suspend the seat over the mono/swing