Thanks guys, I've got air assisted forks on my 'Wang, but not air caps. Mine have 1 schrader valve mounted on the rhs lower triple, but it serves both fork legs, via tiny holes in each fork tube, so your (otherwise excellent) suggestions won't work in my case, sadly.
I like Larry's idea, I have a sliding 1/2" drive T bar but no ratcheting adapter, but I've got some birthday money, so I'll invest in one. I've also got a plan in my poor tired head to make a fork spring compressor kinda like the one I made to compress rear shock springs, but a little more elegant.
Another thing that pisses me off is the stoopid handlebars Honda put on these things. In Australia back in the 1960's (from memory, so don't google it and correct me) there was a scandal where some doctors were prescribing pregnant women with thalidomide to treat morning sickness. Trouble was, it caused terrible birth defects, including really short arms, or no arms at all, or in some cases, hands growing directly out of babies shoulders.
I'm quite sure that Honda designed the GL1200 handlebars with Thalidomide victims in mind. No joke, there is no "stretch" to the bars, instead, you sit bolt upright, your upper arms sit parallel to your torso, with just your forearms at right angles, because that's all you need to hold the "tiller" bars. Dumb, and for someone like me with ape like arms, quite uncomfortable, I have to actually lean slightly backwards. What's worse though, is
how they're made. The diameter of the bars at the triple clamps is 1 inch dia, but the diameter at the switchblocks is only 7/8" OD! WTF??
No wonder the bike still has the OEM bars after 27 years! I found a pair of NOS Honda 1 inch diameter bars in my garage that a well meaning friend bought for me at a Honda shop closing down sale, no idea what they're off, but they would have been ideal if it wasn't for the fact that the OEM switches, MC's etc are 7/8" ID. I did think about lopping the ends off the bars and welding in 7/8" ends, but what a dick drag!
When it cools down outside, I'm gonna machine up some "bushes" that fit around standard 7/8" dia bars and mount some CB750 (or similar) bars and see how it goes. And hopefully, I won't be as pissed off with the riding position, on an otherwise wonderful murder-sickle! Cheers, Terry.
