My original thought was an old Honda inline-four, but then I found this rather forlorn looking Gold Wing. I got a few Internet pictures to give me some ideas and inspiration and before I knew it, the project kind of took off. I really did not have a grand plan in mind and it just came together piece by piece.

The original bike was a full-dress 1987 Interstate model that looked like it had been tipped over a number of times. The previous owner had installed a used fairing of the wrong color presumably because the original was broken. The bags were intact, but scratched in every possible direction. The seat was the old King and Queen style and other then being super ugly, was not in bad shape. It was registered so I rode it around town to make sure I wasn’t going to waste a bunch of time on a POS. It actually worked pretty well, but it was just so dammed ugly.

The first order of business was to remove the fairing, bags, instruments, lights, and all the chrome bits. After removing the fairing I realized I had a problem. The “gas tank” cover had two gaping holes, one on each side where the cover was made to look like it flowed into the fairing. I knew that Honda made a standard version of the Gold Wing prior to 1987 and maybe I could get one of those and make it work. I found out that Gold Wing parts on eBay are plentiful and super cheap. I found a tank cover for an ’82 standard for $40. I just had to build a couple of tabs to hold it on at the front and rework the mount in the back and it fit like a glove.

Next I had to do something with the front end. The stock wheels are big, wide 16-inchers with fat touring tires. It just wasn’t going to lend itself to the café look so I decided to go with more of a drag bike look. The stock fender was hideous and the OE fork brace was broken. Again on eBay I found an aftermarket fork brace. It is really beefy and actually should reduce the fork flex. I found a front fender at the local cycle salvage. The guys at Bryce Rocket Cycles in Santa Rosa, California, really helped me out with the salvaged parts. I think the fender is from a mid-‘90s Suzuki. It is bolted directly to the fork brace. Bryce also found me a headlight from a Kawasaki cruiser probably from around 2003. The headlight is mounted to the triple clamps with a fabricated bracket and I drilled three holes in a line along the top of the headlight shell for small low fuel, neutral and high beam LED indicator lights. As for the rest of the instrumentation, I mounted a small Trail Tech Vapor digital gauge that combines a speedo, tach, and water temp in one small unit. I mounted the speedo pick-up magnet on the rear hub and ran the wire along the swing arm so it is pretty stealthy and the speedo works great. The handlebars are a BMW low bend with a new set of comfy grips. Bryce also found me a 750 Honda Interceptor front brake master cylinder so I could get rid of the Gold Wing’s stock linked braking system. Now the front brake lever works both front calipers while the brake pedal works just the rear caliper. I also put on a set of steel braided brake lines.

With the front end pretty well wrapped up, I moved on to the engine. I replaced the cam drive belts, changed the oil, and gave it a basic tune up. I found an aftermarket set of pretty cheap and universal fit, slip-on mufflers. To install them I had to weld an extension onto the stock headers and after some fiddling, they are now secure and even on both sides of the bike. Of course, that led to a re-jet of the carbs, but it now runs strong and sounds great. One thing about these mufflers, the quality is pretty good, but the packing immediately blows out. I repacked them with good quality packing and now they are a bit quieter. To finish it off, I used rattle can high-temp wrinkle black on the valve covers and anything else that was shiny.

   I took the stock seat to a buddy who does upholstery and he suggested that I do most of the work myself and he would do the cover. So I pulled off the old cover and foam and cut the back part of the base off with a die grinder, Sawzall, and sheet metal snips. The seat base is plastic so it is pretty easy to hack away at. When I got the basic shape I wanted, I bent the edge of it down using a heat gun. That edge would give the upholsterer something to staple the cover to. Then, using my wife’s electric knife (yes the same one I use to cut the Thanksgiving turkey), I shaped the stock foam into a single seat with a café-style hump. The upholsterer came up with the idea of using two kinds of material on the cover, the typical grainy-type vinyl on the hump and a sort of carbon fiber print on the part you sit on.

All that was left was the tail end of the bike. The stock rear fender was just as ugly as the front, but instead of trying to graft one from a different bike onto it, I decided to just modify it. So again, out came the die grinder, Sawzall and snips, but the more I cut on it the worse it looked. I tried welding some horizontal strips along the edges and when I cut those down a bit, it started to look like something. A little hammering, filler rod, smoothing, and it looked pretty good. When I got done with all of the “tins” I took them down to my buddy’s body shop where they sprayed on some silver they had left over from a 2007 Toyota Celica.

After that it was just some cosmetic finishing touches like some EBay red Honda badges, cutting the rubber gators off the air shocks, wrinkle finish on the final-drive unit, and cool little bar end mirrors. A funky little LED tail light maintained the retro/hot rod look. Just for fun I weighed the parts I took off and it added up to over 150 lbs.

It is amazing how good the bike works. It’s got a super smooth engine, plenty of power, and great fuel mileage with lots of range. It’s also amazing how much attention it gets. It doesn’t matter what kind of bike they ride or even if they ride at all, people always come up and talk to me about the bike. I’ve taken it on poker runs around Sonoma County and it always turns heads.