Howdy, y'all. My name is David, and I live in dry, dusty west Texas. I have MBS, as will become evident in posts to come.
My first road bike was a CB550, and I was 17. I had several of them over the years, tearing apart this bike to build that one, and so on. I rode a 72 CB500 with a raked neck and short shocks until it became a 550, and on and on for years after. That bike is still sitting out back, still sporting my homemade collectors and Heritage mufflers. How I loved the sound of four cylinders firing properly through the gears.
Well, life went on, and I moved off to New Mexico for a year. Up and down the mountain all the time, I couldn't help but notice all the horizontally opposed BMWs sitting around, and my mind kept going back to a GL1000 parked at my place in Texas. Somehow I managed to take a $40 bike with a junk engine and turn it into a rider inside of $250. It's a 77, and it's been my pride and joy ever since.
I've got a handful of GLs now, and two that I ride. I suppose that's part of what brings me here. I got the old CB550 running a while back, went around the block, and opened it up through the gears. I realized then how spoiled I'd become from the power of larger displacement engines.
As well, I was cleaning the yard the other day, and counted ten CB550s in various states of dis assembly. One of them was that first one, just an engine in a frame on the ground.
So I'm here to part with a bunch of this stuff. I can't bring myself to scrap it, and I remembered this forum and how I was once such an avid SOHC4 enthusiast myself. Nothing changed, I don't think. My cam and jug got split in two and opposed, that's all there is to it. My 77 has green faced gauges, and other than where I can see the cam belt covers over my knees, it has the feel of all my previous 70s Honda motorcycles. For a long time, I had to keep looking down to reassure myself that I was riding something different.
I've got the makings of a shed, and I'd like to put together a bench where not only can I tear down these old engines, but I can polish the aluminum parts, catalog, and package everything. The stuff isn't doing much good in the dirt. My primary intention is to polish Goldwing parts for my own bikes to a minute degree of detail, in a small building where I can build them build them in my spare time.
There's a whole lot going on right now, but I've made the decision that this stuff needs to find a home, so I figured I had ought to get established in the community in advance. It'll be a while before I even figure out where I want the building to be, so I'll come around in my spare time, answer what technical questions I'm familiar with, and keep the community updated on my progress.
It feels good to be back.
