A gl1000 story briefly mentioned a couple years ago.
A few years ago I saw a Vetter equipped 79 gl1000 on ebay for $400. I texted the guy who was ready to trade it for a snowmobile, I offered his price and would come on his schedule, bring a bike trailer and a friend so he would have to do nothing. He decided the cash was better than the sled.
I got it home and started fixing things. Of course, it needed tires, brakes, and a battery, I cleaned the carbs a couple times, the rear brake pedal was rusted solid, a torch helped convince it to loosen, once it started moving I was able to get it apart and clean the pivot parts. Both master cylinders and calipers got the usual treatment, my favorite bike shop swapped the tires for me, I flushed the gas tank and got it running, the speedometer had been taken apart and when I rocked the bike back and forth the gauge face would rotate in the case. Ebay to the rescue again, I got a 78 speedometer with the red needle which becomes invisible at night.
On a test ride while taking a fast off ramp, it seemed to handle poorly. I got home and found loose and missing engine mount bolts, someone had given up either installing or removing the crash bars. Replacing and tightening them cured the squirm.
I bought a broken sidecover off of ebay, JB welded new aluminum tabs to it to hold it on and it looked pretty good. The mufflers had a few weld cracks so they got fixed right away with Pro-poxy putty. I rode it for the summer and decided to take it to the 75th Sturgis Rally to visit my Ex-brother-in-law who was working at the Mt. Rushmore KOA.
I made up my camping gear, cell phone charger, and clothes bag. I put the backrest back on the rack and moved it forward so I could lean back against the bags. It worked pretty well.
I left around 3 am since I couldn't sleep anyway, my friends with the trailer and motorhome had gone ahead a day early so my safety net was gone, I went anyway. Iowa came and went pretty easily the route turned west on I90. I thought I had really made progress, when I went up the ramp after a gas stop my GPS said continue straight for 684 miles. That was tough to hear.
At any rate it got me there, and the GPS told me where to turn. I was on a gravel road and was certain that I was in someone's rural driveway, expecting dogs and a guy with a shotgun. The GPS assured me that it was the right road, so I continued. Soon I saw a gate that said KOA and the first camper past the gate was Mike who heard me coming and was waiting with a beer. It turned out that I had entered a delivery entrance and to go around to the front was 20 miles further.
It had a popular replacement seat that was awful, it had slick boat vinyl and I kept sliding forward all day. It was also humped up in the middle causing major discomfort to the boy parts. After I got there, Mike loaned me a hack saw blade, we peeled back the front of the seat vinyl and I cut a hollow section out of the foam and tapered it towards the small seat hump. It was a lot better and improved again when I bought a $50 sheep skin to sit on.
We did a few good rides with his new to him Sturgis model Harley 3 wheeler and a couple weeks later a Budweiser/Sturgis 75th anniversary banner arrived in the mail.
The Oldwing got me home safely though the exhaust finally started cackling about 75 miles from home. I had brought the pro-poxy along and applied it again, it set up while I got breakfast at the Walcot Ia. truck stop. Later, it got Harley mufflers on the stock head pipes. It sounded great on the road but at Idle it sounded like a tractor.
When I was practically gifted Old Blue the 78 GL1000, I sold the 79 naked and mostly original appearing and then spent every penny on Old Blue, the 20 year sleeper.
A year later I saw the 79 for sale and listed as original miles even though it has a 78-speedometer next to a 79 tachometer. I did comment on what a great bike it is, but the miles were unknown due to the obvious speedometer swap. The seller acknowledged both comments. It brought a good price for a former $400 derelict. I think everybody broke even but there's a nice GL back on the road.
The 79 eventually went to Sturgis also but the story gets a little blurry compared to the first one. I do remember 4 hours of rain in Iowa and Minnesota and how wet my feet got. I hadn't remembered waterproofing my shoes and was also wishing the Vetter lowers had been left on it. That trip included riding with another group of friends out there, we went to the Buffalo jump museum and Deadwood.
14 hours and 965 miles each way.
