Saturday, February 26, 2011

Oh Happy Day

Last night I was web surfing for Wing parts and fenders, handle bars, seats, pipes, etc... that might look good on a Wing cruiser. I woke up this morning as was thinking to myself, 'I would really like to spend a day, a warm day, in the garage working on the bike. That would be a good day.'.

My first pleasant surprise of the morning was that it was actually fairly nice outside. I decided that I would just go out to the garage and look the bike over and try to get some ideas. As I got looking I realized that the trunk would come off really easy. So, I took it off. I liked the look of the bike with all the plastic off the rear end.

I next wondered what it would look like without the fairing. When I looked closer I found my second and most happy surprise of the day. Underneath the fairing was a headlight housing. I was worried about how I would find a replacement housing and taking the forks apart and running wire and.... surprise! There is already everything you need right here. Glorious.

Four bolts, eight hose clamps and a few snipped wires later, the fairing is off and I get my first look at a naked Goldwing. I must admit. I like it.


I think that I can keep the rear fender and handle bars. I will replace the giant tail light with something that fits the curve of the bike better and get new exhaust pipes and a thinner seat. I'll have to find some good looking turn signals for both the front and back and I think it might look good with the three headlight cluster, although they are expensive.

I'll need to put the highway bars back on and do a little work on the engine; oil change, replace coil, fix air line for the air ride shocks. I did find out that there is a K&N air filter in it and it has a sticker under the seat for the last oil change. The previous owner did try to take care of the bike.

I'll take off the panels and the air dam for the radiator and have them painted. Now, what color and design?

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Valkyrie?

I have been looking at customized Wings and I think that I want to put a Valkyrie rear fender and seat on the Wing. I don't think that it would take a lot to make the Goldwing look like a Valkyrie cruiser.



This is what I had in mind.