Here we go again, 1982 Goldwing Aspincade

Got my first Real Motorcycle last night.... It was an epic journey....

I traded my lil' red 150 for an 82 honda Goldwing Aspencade... yup, that's right... My first motorcycle is a 1100cc Goldwing... I know... ambitious but I do have an Aprilla Scarabeo 500, I bought a week ago and it's a real heavy bike (600 plus pounds) and the Goldwings feel better balanced then the Scarabeo. 

So that's three bikes since November... Holy moly.... 

Anyway, on to the epic journey and story. 

My buddy Matt wanted my 150 but didn't have what I was asking. He did manage to find a Goldwing and he knew I wanted a Goldwing, but I of course didn't have the money for the wing, especially after buying the Scarabeo. The Wing has new tires, new fork seals, new tires, new brakes, new timing belt, and new clutch plate. It also has the External alternator mod. 1100 wings tend to eat stators and to change it, you usually pull the engine and the stator, assuming you can find one is expensive, so this is a common mod and it actually looks kinda cool having a motorcycle driving an alternator off the crank pulley. 

Sometimes you just fall into these things and you got to act before you think "should I, or shouldn't I"

I live in Sacramento, and the bike was in Oakland, about 90 miles away. Matt hands us the money for the wing and me and my buddies pile into the car drive down to pick up the bike. My best friend Ray would ride the bike back, as he already has a Wing and is an experienced rider. This all goes without a hitch. The plan was, to get out of the bay area, fill the bike up with super, and be home in time for our weekly dinner at Denney's, in Roseville. The bike would spend the night at Ray's place until I spent a little time getting familiar with the bike. Then in a week or so, I would drive it home.

Well, about 20 miles into the trip back, the bike decides to get an attitude. We lost two cylinders, Making the bike un-drivable so, ray gets off the freeway and parks it, and calls us to let us know where he is. It's 7:30pm at this point and we break out the tools to see if maybe something came unplugged in the ignition system. We spend about an hour, trying to figure out what went wrong #1 and #3 cylinders, so the right side of the motor is dead.   We decide to call Cody, another friend of ours, to get Ray's truck and trailer so we can get her back to the Ray's place. I put the bike back together and get it ready for transport. Mean while, we leave Ray with the bike, and get coffee and burgers and bring them back to our improvised picnic and begin the task of waiting for our Friend. We play around with the bike while we wait, checking out all the various compartments, and bags and find out it is equipped with a CB, along with the stereo and an intercom system. Looking at the bike and talking about what to modify, how we should paint it, we even found an pair of gloves and the original owners manual for both the stereo and the bike. 

Cody finally shows up at 2am, we load the bike and start the long journey home. Finally pulling into Roseville at about 3am. I finally get to bed at 4:30 after telling my wife about the bike and how much I love her. 

I really do have an awesome group of friends, and getting this Goldwing would not of happened with out them.
 

UE Boom

So what is it?  An energy drink?  A microphone?  and what does it have to do with scooters?

The UE Boom is a blue tooth speaker system about the same size and form factor as a monster energy drink but, don't let this fool you.  This thing is loud and the sound quality, while it's never going to replace a huge hi fi system, is amazing.   And while there are many blue tooth speaker systems out there, what makes this one unique is you can pair it with an additional UE Boom and get a true stereo image via smart phone app.   While bass response on a unit this size is a challenge, it does surprisingly well.  

What makes it of interest for us who ride scooters is the mounting options it has.  The most usufull for scooter riders is the 1/4 20 threaded mount on the bottom of the unit.   This feature makes it really easy to mount to a bike with something as simple as a Pedco Ultra Clamp.  These clamps are used for mounting camera's to poles, open car windows and about any other place you can think of, including scooter handlebars, and grab bars.  Mounting a single UE Boom  to the grab bar on the back of my 250 scooter, I have good sound to speeds of 40MPH or so and that's only because the wind noise in my cheap helmet drowns it out.  Mounting it to the handlebars, behind the windshield, I was able to hear it well to about 50mph ( Did I mention this thing is loud ???).  I can only imagine how loud it would be with a second one.  My other idea is to put it in my backpack and see if I can hear it better. As it is, it sounds much better then 90% of the scooter sound systems I've heard. 

Stopped at a park, it does really well of course.  You will have no problems hearing it or you can simply take it off the bike and bring it with you. The unit is water resistant and shock proof.  Battery life is ~15 hours at 1/2 volume (loud enough to be uncomfortable if inside).    Charging is done via USB port and pairing it with multiple devices is simple.  Once paired with a smart phone or iPod, the volume control on the device controls the volume of the unit.  On my iPod, I even get a battery meter on the phone to tell me how much charge the unit still has.  The only real drawback of the unit is, it's a bit pricey.  MSRP is 199.99 but you can find it on Amazon for 189.99.  Pedco ultra clamps go for under 30 bucks.  The two together are pretty priceless.

From this to That

It all started when a buddy decided to upgrade his ride.  At the time, he had two scooters, a 150 which he later sold and a 250 he had bought used at the beginning of the season that never did run right.

He then found a great deal on a 500cc Scarabeo.  The rear brakes were worn out, and the rear rotor is chewed up, so a deal was struck.  It was agreed I would do the brake job on his "new" bike in trade for the 250.

This bike is a 250 touring scoot, a bali that my buddy bought at the beginning of the season. It wasn't a "bad" bike, but it never did seem to charge the battery but it ran pretty strong, and was quick for a 250. Well, he parked it, because of the charging problem. 

So in Mid November, I brought the bike home and the following morning, I had to pull the plastics off because it had leaked fuel in the garage overnight.  I decided that I'd rebuild the carb when I found a couple of other problems.  The fuel petcock had been bypassed and fuel had leaked into the engine, including about a quart into the crank case.  It is a good thing I didn't try to start it before checking the oil.

I then changed the oil, rebuilt the carb, pulled the spark plug and cleared the combustion chamber and, yes installed a new fuel petcock.

I then charged the battery and gave it a go and she started up.  It didn't run too well at first but after I adjusted the valves and replaced all the fuel and vacuum lines, and got rid of the emissions, I actually got it to run half way decent.

A trip to the local scooter shop resulted in finding a brand new seat, windshield  and a battery tender for the bike.  Since the bike had electrical problems I changed the voltage regulator and tested the stator and charging system.  I got  it to charge but it still wouldn't start with the starter switch.  I then decided to replace all the switches in the dash, as they were in poor shape from the bike being out in the weather most of it's life.  I also changed out the ignition switch for the same reason.  

The next thing that was done was to eliminate the old stereo and alarm system.  Both were bad.  I did retain the old speakers and installed a small amp under the seat.  I installed a digital volt meter where the old stereo "head unit" was.  

All the plastics were then removed for paint, including the knee panel, all the handle bar plastics and floor boards.  These were painted gloss black.  The body panels were painted with Rustoluem acrylic lacquer gloss white.  I chose this paint because it covers really well and goes on fairly smooth.

I then started mocking up the bike, working on panel fitment and seeing what the bike would look like with the new seat and to see if I'd actually like the white paint.  I also covered the dash with 3m carbon fiber film, and replaced the mirrors.  

Anyone who has had one of these bikes, know the mirrors that came on the were some of the cheesiest, crappiest mirrors in existence and because they were broken after the bike fell over on its side, before I got it, I replaced them.  I found some really nice aftermarket mirrors that I really like.  I had to admit, with the paint, the bike really started to look sharp.  While this was never one of my favorite body styles, I really began to like it in white.  The bike just looks sharp.

Because the cf250 is known for having a weak stator, I replaced the rear running/brake lights with LED's and the dash back lights as well.  This saves quite a bit of current when running and it can use all the help it can get.  I kept the incandescent lamps for the turn indicators and the halogen lights for the head lamps.

I'm still waiting on a tail light assembly but I decided to put the bike back together so I could at least get it on the road and find out what other things I'll need to do to it.