Jezzy

Chapter 1 – Meet Jezzy

Meet Jezebel, my newest project. She is a 1982 Goldwing GL 1100 Aspencade. I had been looking for a Goldwing on both Kijiji and Facebook marketplace when I came across the ad for this one. There was something about the way she looked so lonely in the photos posted along with the ad… then there was the price of $800, which made her the cheapest GL 1100 in my Province. What could go wrong?

I sent many messages back and forth with the seller, Chris and he answered the questions as well as he could. I decided to pull the trigger as soon as my truck and trailer came back from a camping trip without me. He sent me the address – it seemed very familiar to me, and it made me even more intrigued about why this bike was silently calling to me. I jumped in the truck to go to Calgary to pick her up. Stampede week, %$#&ing traffic, I am going to be late for sure so I send Chris a message on Kijiji telling him as much. No response – I hope he will wait for me.

I arrive at the Condo complex – it is at the very South end of Elbow drive where it enters Fish Creek Park, and my hunch was correct. I have been here before and something magical happened right here once upon a time. I have not physically seen the bike yet, but I know that I MUST buy it. I drive on, to where Chris said the bike was.. in the back 40 of the parking lot. I see the bike and Chris, waiting for me. I jump out and we begin to chat… instantly drawn to this bike. Chris? Well, it just so happens that Chris is the nicest guy I have ever met. We share some stories and have a few laughs, load the bike and do the paperwork thing, then we talked until I just felt bad about keeping him from his evening after a long day of work +OT. He too seems so familiar, but I think maybe he just reminds me of someone I once knew.

stay tuned… this story is FAR from over

Chapter 2 – Beginning the teardown

I made the journey back home and had to wait until morning to unload the bike as I was not going to attempt it on my own with this trailer… I have been there before and certainly do learn from my mistakes once in a while. So, after a good night sleep, I woke my boy up fairly early and began to unload… fist though, I did shoot the little video above just to see if could wake her up after who knows how long. We were both pleasantly surprised that she fired up after just a little coaxing and a lot of choke.

With a careful bit of planning and a short safety briefing with my son, it was time to roll her off the trailer and get to work! It went off without a hitch and we got her wheeled off and up into the garage with zero accidents, injuries or fatalities – another win! I put her on the side stand, grab a notebook and start making a list of must haves, wants and a quick budget as I am going to try to keep the rebuild to under $500 for this season. The short list looks like this:

carbs cleaned and rebuilt

chrome removal

rear suspension rebuild or new shocks

rear tire

grips

headlight to LED

seat recover

I know for sure, I am going to customize her to some extent – all of my 80’s bikes became some kind of bobber, bagger or rat bike… it’s kinda my thing. After about 10 minutes, and with a short list in hand, i get to tearing some chrome parts off – I have never been a big fan of chrome. Wait, whats that smell? Old gas, smells like solvent – gonna need some carb kits ASAP. First amazon order submitted – 54.42 CAD for all 4 carbs – I hope they will fit! UPDATE: carb kits worked great – link below!

Carrying on with the chrome removal, as I look for all of the parts that will need to come off to access the carbs. I decide to pull the left side crash bar, tank, and front faring… but first I need to test all the electrical. Lights? Left signal works, horn works, brake lights work and that is it. No radio, no cassette, no running lights, no headlight… no problem. I am a whiz at bike electrical and I am not sweating these minor issues.

Off with the fairing – 8 bolts in total, and a few plugs that enter behind the left side and off she comes! Easy!. The tank is a little more difficult, four bolts, tow air lines, and about 6 electrical plugs to undo and off she comes too. I know it is only day 1, but lets get those carbs out… I have watched a few very helpful YouTube vids and I am prepared. First is the airbox.. 1 wing-nut, 2 10mm bolts and out she comes… uh oh, there is a rubber gasket between the intake and the airbox that was on wrong… be wary moving forward! Undo the choke cable, pull the intake boots off the right side, the two slide caps too! Undo the intake bolts on the left side and slide the carbs out a little bit to gain access to the throttle cables – easy peasy and then a little gentle side to side while pulling through the left side and no problem… carbs out!

Its only 3 o’clock… lets have a look inside! Ewwwwww, so much green residue from old gas, these are going to need some deep cleaning. Utrasonic cleaner needed, amazon to the rescue! At least I have 5-7 days to do some cleaning while I wait for the carb parts.

Enough for day one of hands on with the bike! Stay Tuned…

Chapter 3 – Rear shock rebuild and carb kits!

I saw the mess around the base of the left shock in Chris’s Kijiji ad and knew that I would need to do something about the rear suspension. In all honesty, I was already pricing out new rear springs (without air) even before I brought the bike home. I already had a set of 12 inch springs in my Amazon shopping cart when I started reading up on the air system and talking to people on the GoldWing groups on Facebook and decided to do a rebuild instead of ditching them. I called the local Honda shop (Turple Brothers in Red Deer) and ordered up two top bushings and two shock oil seals – total cost $70.38 CAD.

After watching a few YouTube videos, I got to work! All told, the whole process took about 1 hour per shock and I think it was a good decision – if you do this job, turn the complete shock tower to undo and hook up the fitting to avoid damaging the air lines as I nearly did. Also, have some silicone tape on hand to seal the air fittings as I had a slight leak – now fixed! One of my boots was torn, so I had to but some new ones, and Honda did not have any available. I decided to roll the dice on a set from Amazon which were a Harley part – they fit perfectly, and I was very happy. Link Below:

Once I filled the shocks with fresh ATF, I had to use a ratchet strap around the rear of the frame to lift in enough to get the newly lengthened shocks back on the bike. Avoid my mistakes, reconnect all air fittings before lowering the bike and squirting ATF all over your driveway or garage floor (pic 3 below)!

The carb kits arrived!

The carb kits finally arrived and I get right to it. I am a bachelor this weekend and should be able to get them done in one day. A little advice, check, check and re-check the floats – for bends, twists and FLOAT HEIGHTS! The process took a few hours total, but I have watched hours of tutorials on YouTube and read Randakks write-ups on GoldWing carbs a few times over. The bike started up and seemed to run really well – or so I thought. I borrowed a plate from my brother and took her for a few short test rides. I noticed condensation on the intake for carb 4 while skirting around town on the highway. At first I though it was fuel, but I reached down and wiped it with my glove to find out it was water vapour and the intake was icy cold. I rode back home and did some research – some folks suggested maybe it was just a stuck float and to tap that bowl gently to try and unstick it. Coincidentally, I had turned the fuel off and put the bike on the side stand, and the cylinder seemed to be firing again after a few taps and so I took her for another scoot – NOPE, still dead. The bike starving for fuel is what was making that #4 cylinder come alive. With the petcock on, it was flooding that #4 intake and causing a flood condition in #4 and it would stop firing. It also caused a hydrolock condition and I am fortunate that I did not damage anything trying to start it like that. Definitely a float issue and I decided to pull the carbs and check my work. It turned out that I had a few problems. There was a twist in the floats on carb 4 and the air jet also seemed to be plugged. Once all of that was remedied, I reinstalled and the bike fired right up and was running on all 4 cylinders!

Chapter 4 – Fat girl on a diet

It is time for this fat girl to go on a diet.

After much deliberation and though about fabbing up some custom bag mounts which would lower the stock paniers 1.75 inches and move them back 1 inch, I decided to chop the existing chrome racks instead so that I can actually enjoy some riding time this year. Out came the cutting wheel and I went to work on the rear rack first.. chopping of the mount for the original top box and antenna mount arm. I pretty much cut off any metal piece that was not critical for structural integrity. I have more work to do cleaning it up and there are a few cracks and even a break on one of the racks which will need repair soon. Should I leave all the racks and crash bars chrome or painted black?

just a few more things – for those asking about the new seat, other accessories – Links below!

Above is a video I recorded on Aug 10 2023 – Fresh oil change, panels completed, road ready… No narration, no music. This is my first longer test ride since making a laundry list of changes and I just wanted to listen and feel for any issues during the ride. Other than a slightly high idle, and some minor popping – maybe time to adjust the idle air screws. Everyone else seems to be around 2.5 turns out and mine were all at 1.5, so that is where I returned them to after rebuilding the carbs. One or two chunky / rough shifts during the ride which may have just been my RPM’s at the time still getting used to the GL 1100 and this is my first Wing. I sure do like how hard she pulls – it was a fun ride and a beautiful evening!

More write-up coming soon… a few pics of where i am at currently…

I just bought a new 360 action Camera – link below the video! Cool videos of my bike and travels to follow