Topic: Can any of you Honda gurus tell me good/bad/ugly about 1976 GL1000's?

[cb750fbomb]

There's one for sale and wanting to know what everyone here thinks. I would assume that they're not very nimble, but will go fast.

[kghost]

Well I had a cafe wing....plenty fast.

shaft drive leaves something to be desired handling wise.

carbs are a pain in the A$$....makes sohc carbs seem easy

[jaknight]

Hi Bomb,

I can tell you exactly what's wrong with them..... God hasn't given me one......

~ ~ ~ jaknight ~ ~ ~

[Calflash]

Some of the parts are getting hard to find.
Go here for more info than you will ever need   www.goldwingfacts.com

[72COOL]

I owned a 77 with a Vetter fairing for 3 seasons that was great for touring. It had 80k on the odo.  I personally like shaft drive.  No maintenance and clean, clean, clean.  Points ignition and timing I found difficult to adjust.  Could have gotten better tools and done it more often, though. Rebuilt the carbs and it was tough but not impossible by any means.  Tires were available and cheap.  This was not a resto, just a daily driver.  Loved the handling and the power.NakedGoldwing, and Randakk's cycle shack are great sources.  Didn't have much problem with parts.  Currently have an '82 1100.  There is a much bigger and easier market for '80 and forward.  Taking the engine out of the frame is pro-level job.  You need a real shop, lift equipment and two people. Take a compression tester with you.  If it has good compression then everything else is fixable.  Oh, and mufflers for 75-79 are unobtainable.  They are goofy shape and rust prone.

[cafebob]

I have given alot of thought to doing a turbo charged dunstall minimalist cafe GL1000 as my next project.  I think they would make an excellent platform for turbocharging.  put a CBR front end on it, monoshock, nice sport bike tires/rims. plus, the shaft drive would be great on a turbo bike.

CB

[ev0lution7]

big clunky not very fast stock and lame to work on.... gotta like shaft drive....  parts SUPER hard to find and parts can be VERY expensive and some parts that break are simply not made aftermarket or new from dealer... and they changed alot between the years... on 75 when the came out to 79 so some years are tooo different to interchange...

bottom line i dont like em they look k00l check out randakk i still get emails from him about his new stuff...

i aggree those carbs make Cb750 or sohc4's carbs look like toys those carbs suck dead monkey but when it comes to working on them they are in a bad spot and have way to many parts to go wrong...

[cafebob]

I was thinking maybe a 85 or 86 1200 with fuel injection.  Those bike made what 120? HP and about the same torque right, that's not bad at all?  If you strip one down, and I mean down to the bare minimum, they cant weight more than 450.  Its just all the crap they through on them.  Loose the front end and rear end, and replace it with ones from a sport bike.  Hell just keep the stem, and engine cage and go from there.  you could get that thing down to the 400 pound range for sure.

The FI ones are dieing to be turbo'ed.  The exhaust header would be so simple to make.  Even with low boost, these things would put out 150-175 HP.  That is just silly.  They have the right geometry for a good looking cafe.  Nice flat horizontal section above the motor.  The problem is the rear.  It would have to be changed...... A nice big dunstall tail could probably hide all the electronics and battery. Really clean up the lines too.


I don't know its something I have thought about for a while...It would be unique thats for sure.

[fuzzybutt]

get some downdraft webers or dellortos and fit those

[HondaMan]

I do sell considerable numbers of Hondaman Ignitions to the GL1000 crowd.
Most common complaint I know of the 1000 family: forks aren't big enough diameter for the weight, flexy. Beyond that, smooth!

Too big for me...

[ev0lution7]

forks are deffiently tooo small for the weight i dont like them at all the Gl1100 and the 1200 looks like a good canidate for BOOST (supercharger) they sure dont lean great

[cb750fbomb]

This is the one I was lookiing at:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=380113311458&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWAX%3AIT&viewitem=

[bryanj]

Had a very early one as a shop bike did 70,000+ inside 3 years. Diff coupling failed at 20,000 as very early ones had no grease nipple for the shaft sliding coupling on top of diff casing where it bolts to swing arm soon modified by Honda, new rear tyre ever 5,000, SH diff at 90,000 (didnt replace rear wheel bearings in time) serviced every 6,000 and apart from service items don't remember doing any other work to it

[kghost]

I was thinking maybe a 85 or 86 1200 with fuel injection.  Those bike made what 120? HP and about the same torque right, that's not bad at all?  If you strip one down, and I mean down to the bare minimum, they cant weight more than 450.  Its just all the crap they through on them.  Loose the front end and rear end, and replace it with ones from a sport bike.  Hell just keep the stem, and engine cage and go from there.  you could get that thing down to the 400 pound range for sure.

The FI ones are dieing to be turbo'ed.  The exhaust header would be so simple to make.  Even with low boost, these things would put out 150-175 HP.  That is just silly.  They have the right geometry for a good looking cafe.  Nice flat horizontal section above the motor.  The problem is the rear.  It would have to be changed...... A nice big dunstall tail could probably hide all the electronics and battery. Really clean up the lines too.


I don't know its something I have thought about for a while...It would be unique thats for sure.

I've owned two....




You'll have an extremely hard time getting a wing ...even the early ones...below 500lb. Thier just fat.

Hondaman as usual is correct about skinny front forks....its a problem on the CBX too.

Fork brace really helps with the spagetti front end.

In the picture below you can see the brace

[Don R]

Two words- muscle bike