Honda Silverwing first ride.

G_YamTech_314

XS650 Junkie
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I was able to resurrect an '81 Honda GL500 from an already decent condition. The gauges were destroyed, and lots of the frame had surface rust in spots that were to be expected with 32,000 miles of fun in it's past life. There's a pretty in depth video walk-around I made of the condition I received the motorcycle in. I've done medial things to get it back up and running and there are still a few more things to check off the list before I'm satisfied with it, but it's cleaned up well and runs fantastically.

I rode it home from work yesterday about 12 miles to troubleshoot the temp gauge on the new cluster, and to see if I could get my turn signals working. I succeeded in both endeavors.

The gauges are nearly MINT with only 2,400 miles on them. Same with the headers and signals.

A video walk-around of the final product will be made but for now here's a picture of it just a few minutes after it made it home!
 

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Aw Snap..I thought you meant one of these...I never understood why Honda did that? Regardless Good job on saving it! It looks damn nice!
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Have one that I'm restoring, was my wife's late mothers. Has the Honda windjammer fairing, fitted suitcase bags, dual seat with small trunk and solo seat with large trunk.
Her mom rode till she was 70, dropped the bike and her sons managed to never repair it to keep her off of it. Mostly fairing damage. Found a used one and windscreen.
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Bastards!
She had 4 sons and mostly rode with them, was while on a ride with them when I'm sure you've seen blacktop that can become ridged due to heat and heavy traffic, it upset her line and she ran off onto the shoulder and dropped it. Not very fast but it fractured her arm.
With the fairing and accessories they all felt the bike was top heavy and added to some imagined instability so it became known as "that stupid bike"
They had picked up one of those bolt on trike kits, with the small outrigger wheels and talked about putting it on, but the shaft drive swingarm and chassis didn't lend itself to easy installation so it never happened
 
I want someone to help me get it up to speed when I'm no longer able...........
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Got one of those silverwings on a trade. Kinda cool but didn't fit my 6'3" and it was pretty rough, the 650cc version would help with power...
owned it less than a week. ;^) They have kind of a cult following.
 
I want someone to help me get it up to speed when I'm no longer able...........
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Got one of those silverwings on a trade. Kinda cool but didn't fit my 6'3" and it was pretty rough, the 650cc version would help with power...
owned it less than a week. ;^) They have kind of a cult following.
The 650 Custom was a hotrod back in the day.
 
I've already put some good mileage on it! It passed my initial shakedown test... So naturally, I parked the truck at work all week and rode the Silverwing to and from the dealership. Its got well over 100 miles on it under my care now. The front master cylinder is sticky, so it needs replaced. Im going to tear it out, and inspect the bore to see if its repairable, or if I need to just bite the bullet and get an aftermarket set up. Safety is important, so if I have to sacrifice factory stuff I will, though, thats unlikely. I can still purchase a brand new cylinder reservoir from Honda directly, as well as a master cyl. rebuild kit, new cap, and other odds and ends to keep the originality going. Pricey... but I get a shop discount ;). It passes my "fun test" too. It runs good enough to put both needles on the gauges against their stops... 90 feels pretty damn fast on a bike that old LOL.

Ill be putting money into the XS650 as an apology to it for riding a different, newer project before riding the XS... need me some seat time on a bit of a cooler vintage bike... :laugh2:
 
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