A Few Pieces of Chrome

So naturally I've been scouting some bling for the Naked Wing. I personally think that you can have too much chrome. With that being said, there are a few pieces on every bike that should be chromed. (unless it's an outlaw of course)

First the grips. I have these same grips on my Bleubells CM400T. I have been very impressed with how they've held up and they are also quite comfortable. The Rubber inlays are very durable but don't offer any cushion. I'm not old enough that I really care about that yet anyways. These will for sure be the grips on the '78 Goldwing.
The second thing that must be chrome are the mirrors. Plastic stem and mirrors were designed for dirt, sport or touring bikes. Not cruisers. There are a myriad of mirror styles. (little play on words there, ha ha) Some are really cool and other are really out there but which ever you choose it must fit the style of the bike. Example. Flames=flames, Maltese Cross=Maltese Cross, etc... If you don't have any elements of the mirror on the rest of your bike it looks a little silly. I do believe that the opposite is true as well. You can have too many flames, crosses, dolphins or whatever your theme is. A safe bet is to keep it simple. You lose a little originality but make up for it in class. Oval is pretty standard but look good on most all bikes. These are chromed, not billet and i think they look pretty good. (At the end of the day, my opinion is the only one that matters.)

Now lastly, chrome is not needed here but on older bikes I think it is acceptable to spice up what would otherwise be a dark cavase of an engine, cable covers. Now I have heard that they can be really cheap and aren't worth the time but I am considering them in the gold color for a select few cables on the bike. I am thinking mostly of those down buy the engine itself. Not to hot on them up by the controls. I'll need to look at the bike again and see where in any where that I'd really like them.

Fantastic Sticker Remover

I kept thinking about how I was going to get the factory spec decals off the chrome without scratching it up. I knew that Oops! gum remover worked wonderfully but I couldn't keep it on the sticker long enough to penetrate the glue.

I thought about soaking a rag then holding it in place. That would take a lot of Oops! but, if I could keep a small amount on the sticker for an extended period...

Alas! If I placed one square of toilet paper, folded in half, on overlapping pieces of packing tape....then soaked the paper and placed it over the sticker....sealing the sides....much like a bandaid....then let it sit for a little while....

The result:

I was able to remove the sticker by peeling up the edge with a knife blade and then simply pulling it off. I wet the bandaid a second time and reapplied it to the gummy residue and let it sit another 10 minutes or so and it softened right up. I cleaned off the remaining glue. buffed the area with Nev'r Dull and had one nice looking rear fender remaining.

Brainstorming Designs - First Draft

Below are three bikes that I really like and have given me some ideas of what I would like to do to my '78. The first picture just shows that the old gal could look really good with very little modification. Outside of a new seat, paint and pipes this bike is factory direct. (minus a few bolt on accessories.)

One thing that I really like from this bike is the burgundy paint around the radiator. Burgundy is the original accent color on the Goldwing emblems. I like it so much in fact that I've thought about powder coating the frame burgundy. My inspiration? This little cafe racer below. Now cream isn't my favorite color but it looks nice on this bike. The owner painted some of the chrome trim cream as well as the final drive and center stand. I wouldn't go that far with the burgundy. Just the frame. I also think that burgundy is dark enough that it wouldn't pop as loud as the cream does on this bike. A more subtle pop is what I'm after.

I've included this wing called Porter's Wing just because I like the way it looks. Almost completely factory to include the lights and handle bars, but has a very nice line to it. (I'm not making a joke about the paint either) The bike seems to flow well. Again you see the Corbin seat that was on the first bike, which I am becoming very fond of. You'll also notice that it has the Jardine Rumbler exhaust with slash cut pipes. This is the same style that I would like to put on mine.

Finally I've included a picture of what I want the paint to look like. Mother Honda was almost trade marked by her pin striping in the late 70's early 80's. The Goldwing already has a boxier shaped tank and the factory striping draws a definitive line making it even more square. You can see on Porter's Wing that the paint with out striping makes a drastic change in the apparent shape of the tank.

I would like to use the double gold(one gold flame and a second ghost flame) flames by Jim Munroe to accomplish the same effect. If you zoom in on the picture you'll see that the flames are also accented in burgundy. Coincidental? Maybe but, happily so.

Eagle One

I was puttering around with the naked Goldwing tonight and tried to buff of some of the oxidation from the front forks. I broke out the Eagle One nevr-dull wadding polish and started on the lower left fork. In no time at all, 30-60 seconds, the oxidation was coming off so quickly that it soaked through the wadding and made it completely black. It stained my hands. I buffed for another minute then wiped the fork down with a cotton rag. The results, quite nicely polished aluminum.

Oxidized

Polished

Here is the rear fender with the tail light removed. There was a fair amount of surface rust on it, especially in between the tail light and the fender. Again, a little Nevr-dull wadding, a little elbow grease and voila... 33 year old chrome looking very nice.


When I get a little more time I'm going to really get after the forks, valve and timing covers and anything else aluminum or chrome. I'll only do it once but I'll be sure to take a picture after for proof.

Kiwi. Not just for shoes.

This could be Kiwi's new catch phrase. They are really missing out on a chunk of the market by not advertising to the Goldwing population.

I had just a little time this evening to play with the bike and have been thinking about cleaning up the tank cover for some time now. So tonight I did just that. I pulled the cover off the other day and thought that it would look really good if it were clean. The leather is in good condition. If it weren't I would peel it off and have it painted instead.

While talking to my dad about how to condition the leather, we discussed using mink oil or Dubbin, and then Dad suggested using black Kiwi. Now I learned a thing or two about Kiwi while at Basic Training for the Army. I got in 10 years before the suede boots so I spent a lot of late nights sitting in the stairwell spit shining boots.

I pulled out my now quite complete shoe shining kit and when to work on the cover. 30 minutes later, this is the result:

I think that the leather look will be nice on the bike. It will preserve some of the original Goldwing as well as add a touch of character that not many bikes have now. Every biker wants to have something that makes him different from the rest. Anyone can go buy a factory bike and look like every other poser. A real biker wants to stand out and express himself with his bike. He doesn't even care if anyone else likes the way it looks. And why should he? It's his bike. Not theirs. That is what really makes them cool.

With that being said, here's my ride.

Wires, Wires Every Where...

Yesterday morning I started thinking about what kind of mess I was going to find myself in trying to get all the wiring straight on the naked bike. I printed a wiring diagram that I downloaded from www.goldwingdocs.com. (fantastic site for Wingers) I looked it over for some time, and kept thinking how nice it would be to have my brother there to help, before venturing out to the garage.

Not knowing were to begin, I started unbolting everything that might be in the way of seeing wires. I traced several of them to get an idea of where things were going and put the battery on the charger so it would have enough juice so I could test the circuits.

There were two giant bird's nests of wires. One on the front that was tied into the fairing and a second on the rear end that went to the trailer and trunk lights. I started at the battery and unplugged all the axillary power wires that the previous owner had connected for various accessories.

Whoever wired in the fairings did a good job to preserve the original wires and harnesses. The fairing wiring was spliced into the original wires so all I had to do was expose the connections and cut off the newer wiring. Here is a picture of the final product.

I was pleasantly surprised to find out that the front light housing was still wired and circuits were connected. I used a 12V light probe to test them. A little later that afternoon I pulled the headlight out of the fairing and placed it in the housing. It worked fine but I still need the chrome casing to finishing mounting the light.
The rear end was equally simple and I had a new found confidence from my previous success. The original connections were still intact under the seat and after chasing a few wires I found that I could pull everything that wasn't in a heat shrinked coating out of the bike. Tail and brake lights both work properly and the signal light wires lit up the tester.

While I was at it I buffed some of the rust off the rear fender with Eagle One Never Dull chrome polish. The rust spots were superficial and buffed right off leaving a nice chrome fender behind. I used a little Ronsonol lighter fluid to try and soften up the factory decal. It took some of the ink off but the sticker remains. I'll have to find a better product to remove that one.

I tried to remove the exhaust pipes as well. I soaked the rust covered bolts in WD-40 and after using a 16 inch cheater pipe on my allen wrench was able to break the right side loose. The left side was so packed with dirt and rust that I couldn't get the wrench in it. I was able to get a #30 torx head in it but it wouldn't give and I feared that I might strip it out. At that point I called it a day. Here is the aftermath.

Pile of wire and tape

A second pile of wire and the horns out of the fairing

The big picture
(how do you like my creeper?)

First Ride of the Season

We had beautiful weather today so I decided that it was time to pull the Wing out of hibernation. On my lunch break I went out to the garage and put the battery tender on the Wing. I had it on bleubells. I cranked it a few times and it seemed like it wasn't getting any fuel. I checked the fuel gauge and found that it was empty. Even on reserve it wouldn't kick over. I poured the one gallon spare can from the side compartment into the tank and added a little Sea Foam.

I cranked it a few more times to start the fuel though the system and then gave it a shot of ether. The bike would burn the prime but it wasn't quite ready to start before I had to return to work. I left the tender on to charge the battery back up from all the cranking and went back to work.

After work I went back out to the garage and cranked it one more time before giving it another shot of ether. It took the prime and started sucking fuel. I played throttle jockey for a few minutes until the idle smoothed out and then decided that it was time to go fuel it up.

When I got to the gas station I looked at the odometer and realized that I hadn't fueled it since we returned from Las Vegas last fall. I topped of the tank (about 3.5 gallons) and rode it around for a few miles.

Everything seems to be working just like last season when I garaged it. The clutch still needs work and after the bike warmed up I remembered that I needed to replace the coolant reservoir. (I started to smell antifreeze) Overall, it was a pleasant ride and I was quite impressed that the bike was running so well.

I'll try to get out again this weekend.