The Kneeslider

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1976 Honda Gold Wing GL1000 Cafe

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1976 Honda Gold Wing GL1000
1976 Honda Gold Wing GL1000

Goldwing before the cafe treatmentIt’s amazing what some time, effort, elbow grease and eBay will do, but this 1976 Honda GL1000 started out as a well used Gold Wing, just the sort of bike you might find for sale at a great price. Bikes like these turn up everywhere, the owner just gets tired of it, plans are put on hold, it gets dirty and finally goes up for sale. Often, there’s nothing really wrong with it that a bit of garage time can’t fix and that’s exactly what happened here.

This particular bike is the current Bike of the Month (March 2010) over at Naked Goldwings. When the owner bought it, it had a gold engine and showed its age so he began thinking about what he could do with the rest of the bike. A nice black and gold paint job to complement the engine, a new tail section and fairing, some exhaust pipes found for $60 on eBay and of course, lots of time and effort. The other thing to keep in mind is no extreme re-engineering was necessary, no journeyman machining or welding skills, just methodical and persistent effort, the kind of thing many of you can do.

Now he has a comfortable and extremely good looking cruiser. Turned out rather nice, I’d say.

Link: Naked Goldwings

Related: Bulldog Bobber

There are usually some nice Honda GL1000s for sale.

1976 Honda Gold Wing GL1000
1976 Honda Gold Wing GL1000

Comments

  1. Looks pretty good! Who woulda thuk it.. I always thought of Goldwigs as cars chopped in half.. 🙂

  3. Im sorry that this is completely off topic but i just wanted to say thank you to “The Kneeslider” for having this website, on my two deployments to Iraq it has become one of my favorite websites. Thanks for your service to those of us in the service.

  4. The engine looks really good. I’ve always been curious about these; they look like big fun to ride.

  6. I have one of those Oldwings. And I found Randakk’s web page.
    Heres the gallery page on his site:
    http://www.randakks.com/gal.htm

    My lust is # 2. It looks more like a factory race bike than a goldwing.
    BTW, that bike has had more than it’s share of customization, and right now it sports a supercharger. Lord only knows how many horses that single liter machine can produce.
    I want to ride it so badly…..

  8. A couple thoughts. The 1975 stock Goldwing is a really beautiful design and after looking at all the customized ones, I’d have to say that Honda has the best looking one ever just the way it is stock. This one here would have been better if the builder saved the money he spent on gold paint for the motor and replaced the rear shocks instead. Maybe I’m a custom snob, but you just can’t have a custom bike with stock chrome shocks. But then, each builder sets the priorities for his own build.

    Goldwings seem to be begging for a classy “Bobber” treatment that would outrun, be more reliable and more massive than any Harley. This bike although not a Bobber, is a very clean example of what can and should be done.

  9. Mule, I was going to say the same thing. The first year GW’s were beautiful. I also agree with how much fun it is (and how much less expensive) to customize a bike rather than restore it. This is work well done though not my taste.

    -todd

  11. Looks great and I bet it runs well. But you’d have to ride it off the pace and you wouldn’t want to crank it too far over in a bend as it’ll ground out pretty quickly looking at the clearance.

  12. My neighbor and old friend has a 1976 Goldwing in a million pieces in his garage. His dad bought it new, rode it for a while, and finally just gave it to him two years ago. It won’t run, and comes with the complete Vetter kit. Every time I see him I ask how my bike is doing. I would love to snap it up and do something like this with it.

  13. When I rode with an AMA club many years ago, our road captain was a Brit who bought one of the original “stripper” Gold Wings and set it up with flat bars, Samsonite detachable luggage and auxiliary lights up front. Otherwise, he didn’t alter it a bit. It was amazing how well it handled in the twisties for a bike that size. He really rode the wheels off it, too. It makes me think that Honda missed the boat when they discontinued the Valkyrie. A “Sport Wing” would have been a great idea.

  14. The Gold Wing when it was first unveiled late in back in 1974 was a massive bike. Today the same bike seems quite small. I remember thinking that instead of installing all the Vetter tupperware, it would be more interesting to hot rod a Gold wing. I did in fact see one set up that way in the late 1970s. Twenty years later I bought a first year Valkyrie. It was a good idea in the 1970s, in the 1990s, and today, if Honda were listening.

  16. Some people can make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear. Congrats.
    @ Travis Short, thank you for doing the job.

  17. One of my high school buds started a Honda dealership right out of school….put a twin turbo settup on a wing back in 74 …. the first one that came into his shop.

    According to Honda … the first in the world.

    I’ll send you the pic in an e-mail….

  18. I love the vintage stuff, it,s not that easy to pry this stuff out of peoples hands,but it is out there. Awesome job dude.

  19. looks pretty badass. gold wing is a little of overkill though. i always though cafe r should be light.

    just came from san francisco. i saw a 50cc moped or a scooter styled as cafe racer. smtn like this http://www.flickr.com/photos/everything/3887391287/
    handle bars, seat and paint job was CR style. I think the gas tank was part of the frame on the one i saw.

    –Kirill

  22. Nice! SOmthing different. Not another V-Twin chopper or Featherbed cafe racer. Muscle-Bike and looking good!

  23. Ivan and Jim,

    Please see the Bulldog Bobber link at the end of the post. As stated above: “Please read the entire post and check for included links before commenting” I know they can be easy to miss but I include those links to make sure you don’t overlook other cool bikes, builders or anything else we have here. The Kneeslider is an information rich web site. Thanks, Paul

  24. The old Goldwings are definitely very cool bikes. Way too big for me, but I admire them anyway. I always thought they looked best naked.

  25. I rode the first one to make it to my little town dealer and at the time I had never been to a ton faster and had half of third gear left. They were astonishing performance wise at the time. And at a time when naked was normal I thought what better way to make the miles. Felt a little wanting getting back on my 750 commando that day. Still a great bike, classic Honda good looks.

  26. Great post! I came over from los Jalops on a previous thread and I must say, I’m glad to see what’s been created here. I’ll make sure to add this to my daily reading. Keep up the great work!

  28. Tasteful and well done! I wonder how an old wing would respond to some modern brake/suspension thrown at it?

  29. I was a GM at a boston dealership in 75 when they came out. On my first ride I clicked it up into second gear and ripped off a hundred feet of rubber. When I got back with my eyes wide open and watering I told the mechanics at the shop , ‘ You gotta build a cafe racer outa one of these. Fast foward thirty five years. Awesome job, nice bike ,
    I want one. F E

  30. Really nice looking finished bike. Wouldn’t be able to hang up in the hills above Santa Cruz with that ground clearance but its a beautifully executed vision!

  31. You’re kidding right? I sincerely hope so. As much as I don’t want one, a goldwing has a place and a purpose. It’s really good at it’s job. It’s seat is wide. You can put more than one case of beer in it’s many storage compartments. Two men of 200+ pounds can get home on it if necessary. One will bitch about riding bitch but it’s about the only bike in the world where they’d actually do it. This removes everything it’s good at and accentuates everything it’s not good at. My vote for worst bike on your site. (I hope the builder doesn’t see this. Sorry, but he could use a reality correction)

  32. poptart, I have a hunch you have no familiarity with the original Gold Wings and your idea of one is the massive touring bike being produced today. The originals were naked bikes, no fairings or cavernous trunks, just a nice flat 4 powered cruiser. Doing something like this is a very nice way to make it even more fun and it’s certainly an improvement on the very used original shown in the small inset photo above.

  33. Just another guy that thinks motorcycles were invented the year before he bought one. I’m done

  36. Love the bike. I found a basket case 75 wing for next to nothing and i’m doing the cafe racer treatment
    .

  37. man i LOVE this wing. i just got my first bike and its a ’75 goldwing. i just painted it black with a yellow stripe. i have a few questions for you though. is that a 900 Kawasaki front fairing? and what kind of handle bars are those because i want do do something similar with mine. please email me with answers if you don’t mind. thanks