Topic: Fingers crossed I just bought 2 wire wheel GL1000'sfor $100

[Bankerdanny]

Assuming the guy honors the deal I am picking up 2 project wire wheel GL1000's with titles(!) for $100. If it does happen loom for lots of pics on Saturday.  One is assembled,  one a basket case. The assembled one has a distributor conversionon it in place of the stock points.

[Alan F.]

Good luck, & thanks for having us along for the ride.

[Bankerdanny]

Good luck, & thanks for having us along for the ride.

It will likely just take up space in my garage for the foreseeable future as I have a lot of projects already, but it was just too good a deal to pass up.

[MauiK3]

Post photos!!

[Alan F.]

I know the feeling.

[ekpent]

What year are they Danny, maybe 75 or 76 ?

[desertrefugee]

Subscribed.

(Could be 75-77). Comstars began in 78.

[Bankerdanny]

Post photos!!

Here's a screenshot of the more complete of the two. The engine is out of the other bike and at least one head and cylinder are off.

[Bankerdanny]

What year are they Danny, maybe 75 or 76 ?

The seller says '74, but the GL didn't come out until '75. Both appear to be Antares Red, which was one of the colors available all 3 years of the wire wheel bikes, so it could be a 75-77. I'll find out Saturday afternoon.

[MauiK3]

Looks like some real work there but with two, hopefully you have a good array of parts.
Not a fan of the distributor look.

[Bankerdanny]

Looks like some real work there but with two, hopefully you have a good array of parts.
Not a fan of the distributor look.

I don't know why you would do that conversion on a street bike. Randakk installed a Chevy Vega distributor on his GL1000, but that was a high performance supercharged bike. That said I am really interested to see it in person.

Worst case scenario I have a bunch of good parts that are worth far more than I am paying for the bikes.

[ekpent]

Wonder if guys are still swapping those forks/wheels over to 750 front ends. Two of those gets you Benjamin back +.

[dusterdude]

I have a front on my 750.

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[Bankerdanny]

Success

[grcamna2]

Success

Yeah Man ! 
A pair of restorable vintage Honda GL1000's for a steal of a price 

[desertrefugee]

If that’s the more completed the two, you will have your hands full. However, that one had some serious love “back in the day “.  The distributor was one, and the very rare four into one exhaust would’ve been another. Too bad it’s rotted out.

[Bankerdanny]

I have definitely been presented with some mysteries. The complete one is a '76 model. I don't know the  build date as the paint is missing. The bare frame is a very early '75 with a 3/75 build date and a 500x serial number. I think the engine in the '76 is from the '75 or even a 3rd bike. The partially complete engine (missing one head, but not stuck) has a s/n close to the 76 frame. The engine in the 76 had had the serial number ground off. All that is left is a "SC02E -" above where the s/n should be. The front wheel on the '76 is garbage. The rim has big chunks flaked off. The back seems ok and the wheels on the other frame are fine, but need to be respoked. Both seats I got are rusted to nothing and worthless. There are some valuable parts, but making them into a single rider will be a lot of work.

It is too bad about the 4-1 header. Note the 02 sensor at the back. The original owner made some interesting mods. Too bad it wasn't stored better.

[Bankerdanny]

Engine number issue solved, it is from a 1980 GL1100. Too bad the 75 engine is gone. It had the hottest cam and was more of a performance engine. Honda used milder cams to get more bottom end torque in 76 and beyond.

[MauiK3]

I guess when I had my 75 I didn’t mind revving it

[Stev-o]

Some serious rust issues there. I dont know the GL market but thinking it might be easy to get upside down on those?

$1475 seems pretty cheap for this one...

https://www.smartcycleguide.com/L48407069

[Bankerdanny]

Some serious rust issues there. I dont know the GL market but thinking it might be easy to get upside down on those?

$1475 seems pretty cheap for this one...

https://www.smartcycleguide.com/L48407069

I am confident I'll get my $100 out of it. We'll see if I decide to build a bike from one of these or not. This was a 2023 project anyway so I could part it out and look for one that needs less work. I don't necessarily need a wire wheel bike.

[grcamna2]

Plenty of good parts there. 

[desertrefugee]

Yeah, those are 1100 carbs.  That was a common swap as well.  Guess he wanted the whole enchilada.

[Bankerdanny]

I found the Cycle World review of the GL1100 and there are some interesting details I didn't know. The 1100 engine uses a different ignition setup, an electronic ignition with vacuum advance driven off the crank at the back of the engine rather than the 1000's points driven off the left side cam. The 1100 head still has a cover where the 1000 had its ignition.

So the original owner somehow adapted what I think is a Civic distributor to be driven off the left side cam like the 1000. Now I need to look at the back of the engine to see if the original 1100 setup is there.  I suspect out was removed to shorten the engine so that would fit in the 1000 frame.

[MauiK3]

Lots of spending needed if the goal is a good bike that also looks good. It seems there aren’t a lot of fairly clean examples of them around.