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Howard Halasz works to repair the bike afterit went down in mid-May of 2008.The GL1000 in 1997, before it was repainted.More RedosIn 2005, because the velour upholstery wasnot holding up very well, I had it redone in anoff-red vinyl. I also decided to get the wheelschromed because it was getting hard to keeprust off the spokes. (In case you didn’t know,GL1000s had spoked wheels from 1975through 1977. The wheels have steel spokesand nipples with aluminum outer rims.)Well, this actually turned out to be a bigjob! I had to get a bike shop to disassemble thespokes and to agree to reassemble it all whenthe outer rims were done. Since some chromehad gotten inside the nipples, they had a toughtime reassembling the nipples onto thespokes. In fact, I had to tap all 80 of the nipplesby hand to get this job done. (That’s 40 in thefront and 40 in the rear!)While I had the rear wheel off, I also addeda really nice trailer hitch that I had purchasedearlier which then required that I add a newstyle of mud flap, which I located at JCWhitney.Things to Watch for with a ClassicOne thing I have noticed on older bikes likethis is that they can seem to be okay, then suddenlyhave something go wrong that surprisesyou.An example of this is explained here.In early May of 2008, I trailered our twoGL1000s (my 1975 and Howard’s 1977) to the2008 Randakk’s Customer Appreciation Rallyin Cumberland Gap, Tennessee. Though it isalmost 980 miles from our homes in Houston,Texas, this rally is a gathering of very nicelyrestored GL1000s, GL1100s, and GL1200s, aswell as a few CBXs.While there, we rode our two GL1000s tothe top of Pinnacle Peak—from which one cansee parts of Tennessee, Kentucky and Virginia.The steep ride itself, with its switchbacks upand down, was uneventful. A week after wehad returned home, I was riding my bike withHoward to a local car club Saturday nightgathering when the front main crankshaft sealpopped out. It coated my rear tire with oil andcaused me to lose control—as if I were onice—and drop the bike in a grassy planter atthe front of my subdivision!Thankfully Howard was with me, and weimmediately remarked that it was certainly agood thing this had not happened on our waydown from Pinnacle Peak a week earlier or Imight have ended up going off a cliff.In spite of the “good” luck of this situation,I was now faced with a new problem—the leftside of the engine was damaged because thecase guard had been pushed into the timingbelt cover.That had broken the belt pulley andcaused more, undetermined, damage.Diagnosing the Extent of DamageHoward and I had very little time to diagnosethe extent of the damage and to locatethe parts needed to repair it before headingoff to our next destination—Wing Ding 30 inGreenville, South Carolina—eight weeks later.Since the bike had gone down while theengine was running, we found that we neededto replace a broken left camshaft pulley, thefront main crankshaft seal, the left heat shieldplate, a bent #2 exhaust valve, the timing belts,Close-up of the spokes I had chromed andthe pinstriped label I had added.the left-side head gasket, and numerous othergaskets and seals.I was able to straighten the case guard andget it re-chromed. I was also able to obtainanother set of chromed timing belt covers,since the set that was on the bike had broken.And, in spite of the fact that many of the partswe needed were obsolete, Howard was ableto locate and install the camshaft pulley, thefront main seal, the new #2 exhaust valve, andeverything else needed to make the GoldWing roadworthy again.We managed to complete the repairs justin time for the bike to win another First Placeaward in the GL1000 Custom Class at theBike Show at Wing Ding 30!Glad I Did It!This bike has experienced a vast improvementfrom the way it was when I first lookedat it and had felt that burning feeling in mystomach that said, “What have you gottenyourself into?”It would have been very easy to give upand throw in the towel back when I started.But I’m glad I didn’t. And, in my opinion anyway,my GL1000 is truly a “Phoenix risen fromthe ashes”.●February 2009 25