The sharing of your knowledge and that of all the forum members continues to encourage me to do things on my own work, saving COUNTLESS $$$. On my GL1500I, Christmas improvements include installing RUNNING lights where the cornering light would go, LED headlight upgrade and replacing the CB antenna. Minimal tools, minimal effort, MAX results. Thanks to everyone.
Good tips there..sometime it’s the simple issues are annoying..I’m sure there will plenty of owners wiggling their clutch lever after watch this…ride safe all 🇬🇧👍
Great video and great answers. I also check the cylinder for leaks outside first then internally while I have the lever off. Rubber and fluids, after all are and always will be breaking down. As long as I am this far into repairs and it's on the lift I service brakes. Too often folks get used to nuances in their bikes that are actually parts wearing out. Keep up the good works and Thank You. You all are in my prayers Hoka hey
Hi Scott, I found a issue with my 1500 years ago on the clutch, the little pivot bushing that moves with the clutch lever that you had explained to the person that asked about wear and tear on his clutch had wearing down a little and was causing my cruise control to not shut down when tapping on the clutch lever . Hope this helps other goldwing riders.
I wish I could answer this one the way you want - but the answer, unfortunately, is that there is no replacement. Honda doesn't make or stock them anymore, and there are no aftermarket replacements.
2012 Honda goldwing that has a hesitation on the throttle in the first few hundred RPM when you start off is extremely annoying and sometimes causes me to almost drop my bike when in a corner or turning around just starting out. can you tell me what causes this hesitation on the throttle response.
Great stuff! I didn’t get to winterize my 95 GW this year because of health issues. Unfortunately I’ll be unable to do any work for quite a while. I can’t bend my knees without serious pain and can only bend at the waist or stand for short periods of time. Any simple suggestions that might be at least a little helpful? Thanks.
Clutch sticking on a 89 goldwing that has been sitting awhile. Any ideas on how to release it without damaging anything. I rebuilt the clutch slave and have good pressure at the clutch lever. Need help. Thanks
I have 1500 with the first issue you mentioned. My clutch gets to the friction area just before the grip. So are you saying there is no adjustment for that other than replace the clutch ?? The bike only has 75000 miles on it and that is where it would get friction since I owned it for 20 years ???? Would the fluid have anything to do with it ?
i’ve had both a BMW K 1200 LT my first BMW, I will never buy another BMW I had a Honda GL 1800 Goldwing, my first Goldwing. Perfect machine i’ve also had three Yamaha ventures since 1986. I have my third Yamaha venture right now, here in 2022..I bought it used,with 30,000 miles on it and totally stock. The reason I have that is because as perfect as my Goldwing was, the difficulty in doing basic maintenance scared me away. I used to make my living as a motorcycle mechanic when I was in my 20s, I am a maintenance junkie. I’m the guy that changes brake fluid and clutch fluid every year, I’m the guy that pulls the driveshaft out to lube the splines every few years, and always on a machine I just bought used. anyway ,about changing the fork springs, the shock spring, the clutch and brake fluid, the air filter which was a five hour job, $600 is what dealers charge..the rear shock spring which was also a five + hour job, and I’ll bet that’s over $1000 to do the air cleaner and the rear shock spring upgrade in a Honda dealership at $125 an hour, that is a labor price from seven years ago, it’s probably more now. but if you do not do your own maintenance, it will be very expensive to have it done at a dealership. I mean on my Goldwing you can’t even see the slave cylinder, the water pump, the clutch cover, I don’t even know where the clutch is on a gold wing, the starter, the alternator, you can’t even see them, they’re buried in plastic..to do most maintenance on the engine, you have to spend time removing plastic.. reminde me of my saab 900s.. to do work on the engine the shop manual told you to remove the engine first call me even just to replace the timing chain. But to be honest, I could have the engine out of my saab in much less time than the time it takes to change the air filter on my goldwing.. i am not kidding, ive done both jobs… I put a video on youtube to show what I found inside my air cleaner housing when I changed the air cleaner on my Goldwing a couple years ago. if you care to look at it, it’s only a minute long, but it shows how deeply I had to dig into that bike just to get to the air cleaner. The title of my video is three words goldwing made mouseproof it’s under my other screen name so you would have to search it by the title.. it’s not really a hard job, it’s just that it is about 50 little jobs, and you have to keep track of every bolt and screw because they are all different lengths. You have to get yourself a cardboard box and punch a bunch of holes in it with a number two Phillips screwdriver. And as you remove the screws to take the right and left fairing panel screws out, you have to keep track of that bunch of screws because they are all different.. anyway to cut to the end to give my opinion as an ex owner of a BMW, which I will never buy another BMW. they sure ain’t what they used to be….You definitely have to marry the dealer, and take out a loan. I’ll give you an example. A friend of mine was a BMW motorcycle mechanic. I stopped in to ask him a question about my BMW, and when I went into the service department he had a bike just like mine on his lift table. He had the bags, the trunk, the seat, the back part of the frame, the fender, the rear wheel, part of the exhaust system removed. He had the transmission off. I could see the fly wheel with the clutch .. I asked him what’s up with this bike. He said the slave cylinder leaked brake fluid on the clutch and it ruined it. I’m replacing the clutch. I said how much is this gonna cost. This was a few years ago,he said $4500 plus shop materials plus disposal fee plus tax.. I won’t even go into how flawed my BMW was with it burning oil if you use the side stand, the final drives bearings falling, the distorted windshield that you couldn’t look over, that weird front end, those weird electric brakes. The cost of parts, I ain’t never going out on that BMW limb again.. and that is sort of why I decided to sell my perfect mannered beautiful ride smooth operating Goldwing. They are a nightmare to work on. Everything is buried so I went backwards. I have already had two Yamaha ventures, my 86 for 16 years 138,000 miles, the only thing that ever failed on that motorcycle was the front brake light switch mounted in the front brake lever perch. That’s it. Nothing else ever broke on that bike so now after trying the bmw and goldwing,I have gone back to a 2008 old school Yamaha venture, it’s roomier than the Goldwing because it has a narrow engine, more legroom,it has floorboards because it has a narrow engine, the bags are bigger, it is larger for a larger person, it gets 48 miles to the gallon, not 33 like I got with my Goldwing, iall the major components on the engine are right there in front of you.. The clutch, the slave cylinder, the alternator, the water pump, the starter, and they’re not covered up by plastic..I have to say the Yamaha ride on the air shocks although they are old school suspension technology, they give a smoother ride than the gold wing, …Goldwing has a more taunt ride, which is better for handling, better for controlling the bike when braking hard, but I’m here for comfort, not for speed. The Venture has more than adequate power, I always thought that the Goldwing had way too much power, way too much ..no one could possibly pin the throttle on that Goldwing and squeeze all the power out of it anywhere but on the interstate or maybe out west somewhere Montana where the roads are really long. You can’t possibly use all that power, but you’re paying for it with reduced gas mileage. Gold wings are perfect, but so is my toaster, they’re both perfect, and they’re both just about as interesting. The gold wing is a little boring. it doesn’t feel like it’s a living breathing machine. It feels more like a nuclear powered aircraft carrier..They’re about as exciting as a Toyota Corolla. Everything works, it’s going to get you there, nothings gonna break, nothing exciting ever happens, unless you hit a deer at 70 miles an hour which happened to me on my BMW… I have to say one thing about it during the deer impact. The bike never moved. I just coasted to a stop with $5500 damage.. so that’s my opinion, I’ve owned the gold wing, the BMW, and three ventures, and I like the simplicity and the serviceability of the venture over the highly technical you have to marry the dealer Honda and BMWs. I will admit right here that the Honda is a more refined smooth running perfect machine, but the Venture will last Just as long, and Venture looks, sounds, and feels like a real motorcycle, not like a toaster
I'll admit, the Wings are definitely not the most fun to do maintenance on - I tend to batch all of mine together, so I will tear the bike apart and do all the stuff on it that requires disassembly at once. One of my favorite parts of the Wing though is the smoothness, particularly of the engine. V-twins vibrate so much that my hands end up going numb after an hour or two.
I bought 88' GW as project, now road ready. I've found a dead spot in throttle (right at opening of throttle). When motor catches, there is too many RPMs on the throttle too get through the dead spot an still have smooth performance off the line! Is this a common problem, with fix? Thanks!
Question! I have an gl1500 2000. The issue I’m having is when I go to turn on my cruise control it can around 30-45 minutes before the light in the dash comes on. What could the issue be?
That's going to take some diagnostic work. I would start by cleaning out the actual switch itself. I'd also post your question in the GL1500 forum: goldwingdocs.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=6
hello my name is Paul and I was going to Darkside my bike but I wanted to know I'm a little bit short and only have a 29 inseam and I would like to put a lower profile tire on my bike and I was wondering if 195 45-16 would be a lower profile and if that would work on my bike my bike is a 97 Honda Goldwing
Hey Paul, according to Goldwing Docs 175/XX/16 is the ideal circumference of a dark sided GL1500 you'd want to go with... the XX portion of the measurement is the width in % compared to the diameter(175cm) Any bigger would rub any smaller should be fine as long as it's wide enough to seat (I didn't say "seat properly" because the car tire won't ever fully seat on the motorcycle rim due to the shape of the bead)
The height of the sidewall of a tire is a key component in ride comfort too, not just ground reach. The sidewall is the motorcycles first line of protection from road hazards, such a potholes of maybe small branches on the road. The small the sidewall ratio, the stiffer the hazard becomes to the wheel, which is then translated up through the shock to the frame to the seat to your butt. A lower profile sidewall may increase your risk of wheel damage in the event of a severe strike against a pothole edge. My 2 cents worth
Keep in mind also that by lowering the rear (and not the front) you alter the front fork suspension geometry, so the bike is going to handle a bit differently - specifically, you're increasing caster and trail, so you're increasing the force required to displace the front forks in order to steer or swerve.
The sharing of your knowledge and that of all the forum members continues to encourage me to do things on my own work, saving COUNTLESS $$$. On my GL1500I, Christmas improvements include installing RUNNING lights where the cornering light would go, LED headlight upgrade and replacing the CB antenna. Minimal tools, minimal effort, MAX results. Thanks to everyone.
Nothing makes me happier than to hear things like this!
Good tips there..sometime it’s the simple issues are annoying..I’m sure there will plenty of owners wiggling their clutch lever after watch this…ride safe all 🇬🇧👍
Excellent video thank you for sharing
Ah well, there goes my weekend plan for licking my battery terminals, lol. Talk about taking the fun out of it! ;)
Awesome! Thank you!
Great video and info thanks
Great video and great answers. I also check the cylinder for leaks outside first then internally while I have the lever off. Rubber and fluids, after all are and always will be breaking down.
As long as I am this far into repairs and it's on the lift I service brakes. Too often folks get used to nuances in their bikes that are actually parts wearing out. Keep up the good works and Thank You.
You all are in my prayers
Hoka hey
Hi Scott, I found a issue with my 1500 years ago on the clutch, the little pivot bushing that moves with the clutch lever that you had explained to the person that asked about wear and tear on his clutch had wearing down a little and was causing my cruise control to not shut down when tapping on the clutch lever . Hope this helps other goldwing riders.
Sloppy clutch lever on my GL1100. Suspecting that this is the culprit. But the Pivot pin is seized in there solid.
You need to get that pivot out of there and replaced!
GL1500se Passenger footboards. How to change the old cracked rubber boots and where to get new rubber boots.
I wish I could answer this one the way you want - but the answer, unfortunately, is that there is no replacement. Honda doesn't make or stock them anymore, and there are no aftermarket replacements.
Have you ever made a video of adjusting cables to the Spragg clutch on the starter motor of a 1999 Goldwing GL1500? Mine will not lock into reverse.
2012 Honda goldwing that has a hesitation on the throttle in the first few hundred RPM when you start off is extremely annoying and sometimes causes me to almost drop my bike when in a corner or turning around just starting out. can you tell me what causes this hesitation on the throttle response.
Great stuff! I didn’t get to winterize my 95 GW this year because of health issues. Unfortunately I’ll be unable to do any work for quite a while. I can’t bend my knees without serious pain and can only bend at the waist or stand for short periods of time. Any simple suggestions that might be at least a little helpful? Thanks.
My knees get sore spending a lot of time crouched down - my solution is this little roller stool, that also holds tools close at hand: amzn.to/3KthPD7
Clutch sticking on a 89 goldwing that has been sitting awhile. Any ideas on how to release it without damaging anything. I rebuilt the clutch slave and have good pressure at the clutch lever. Need help. Thanks
I have 1500 with the first issue you mentioned. My clutch gets to the friction area just before the grip. So are you saying there is no adjustment for that other than replace the clutch ?? The bike only has 75000 miles on it and that is where it would get friction since I owned it for 20 years ???? Would the fluid have anything to do with it ?
i’ve had both a BMW K 1200 LT my first BMW, I will never buy another BMW
I had a Honda GL 1800 Goldwing, my first Goldwing. Perfect machine
i’ve also had three Yamaha ventures since 1986. I have my third Yamaha venture right now, here in 2022..I bought it used,with 30,000 miles on it and totally stock. The reason I have that is because as perfect as my Goldwing was, the difficulty in doing basic maintenance scared me away. I used to make my living as a motorcycle mechanic when I was in my 20s, I am a maintenance junkie. I’m the guy that changes brake fluid and clutch fluid every year, I’m the guy that pulls the driveshaft out to lube the splines every few years, and always on a machine I just bought used.
anyway ,about changing the fork springs, the shock spring, the clutch and brake fluid, the air filter which was a five hour job, $600 is what dealers charge..the rear shock spring which was also a five + hour job, and I’ll bet that’s over $1000 to do the air cleaner and the rear shock spring upgrade in a Honda dealership at $125 an hour, that is a labor price from seven years ago, it’s probably more now.
but if you do not do your own maintenance, it will be very expensive to have it done at a dealership. I mean on my Goldwing you can’t even see the slave cylinder, the water pump, the clutch cover, I don’t even know where the clutch is on a gold wing, the starter, the alternator, you can’t even see them, they’re buried in plastic..to do most maintenance on the engine, you have to spend time removing plastic.. reminde me of my saab 900s.. to do work on the engine the shop manual told you to remove the engine first call me even just to replace the timing chain. But to be honest, I could have the engine out of my saab in much less time than the time it takes to change the air filter on my goldwing.. i am not kidding, ive done both jobs…
I put a video on youtube to show what I found inside my air cleaner housing when I changed the air cleaner on my Goldwing a couple years ago. if you care to look at it, it’s only a minute long, but it shows how deeply I had to dig into that bike just to get to the air cleaner. The title of my video is three words
goldwing made mouseproof
it’s under my other screen name so you would have to search it by the title.. it’s not really a hard job, it’s just that it is about 50 little jobs, and you have to keep track of every bolt and screw because they are all different lengths. You have to get yourself a cardboard box and punch a bunch of holes in it with a number two Phillips screwdriver. And as you remove the screws to take the right and left fairing panel screws out, you have to keep track of that bunch of screws because they are all different..
anyway to cut to the end to give my opinion as an ex owner of a BMW, which I will never buy another BMW. they sure ain’t what they used to be….You definitely have to marry the dealer, and take out a loan. I’ll give you an example. A friend of mine was a BMW motorcycle mechanic. I stopped in to ask him a question about my BMW, and when I went into the service department he had a bike just like mine on his lift table. He had the bags, the trunk, the seat, the back part of the frame, the fender, the rear wheel, part of the exhaust system removed. He had the transmission off. I could see the fly wheel with the clutch .. I asked him what’s up with this bike. He said the slave cylinder leaked brake fluid on the clutch and it ruined it. I’m replacing the clutch. I said how much is this gonna cost. This was a few years ago,he said $4500 plus shop materials plus disposal fee plus tax..
I won’t even go into how flawed my BMW was with it burning oil if you use the side stand, the final drives bearings falling, the distorted windshield that you couldn’t look over, that weird front end, those weird electric brakes. The cost of parts, I ain’t never going out on that BMW limb again..
and that is sort of why I decided to sell my perfect mannered beautiful ride smooth operating Goldwing. They are a nightmare to work on. Everything is buried
so I went backwards. I have already had two Yamaha ventures, my 86 for 16 years 138,000 miles, the only thing that ever failed on that motorcycle was the front brake light switch mounted in the front brake lever perch. That’s it. Nothing else ever broke on that bike
so now after trying the bmw and goldwing,I have gone back to a 2008 old school Yamaha venture, it’s roomier than the Goldwing because it has a narrow engine, more legroom,it has floorboards because it has a narrow engine, the bags are bigger, it is larger for a larger person, it gets 48 miles to the gallon, not 33 like I got with my Goldwing, iall the major components on the engine are right there in front of you.. The clutch, the slave cylinder, the alternator, the water pump, the starter, and they’re not covered up by plastic..I have to say the Yamaha ride on the air shocks although they are old school suspension technology, they give a smoother ride than the gold wing, …Goldwing has a more taunt ride, which is better for handling, better for controlling the bike when braking hard, but I’m here for comfort, not for speed. The Venture has more than adequate power, I always thought that the Goldwing had way too much power, way too much ..no one could possibly pin the throttle on that Goldwing and squeeze all the power out of it anywhere but on the interstate or maybe out west somewhere Montana where the roads are really long. You can’t possibly use all that power, but you’re paying for it with reduced gas mileage.
Gold wings are perfect, but so is my toaster, they’re both perfect, and they’re both just about as interesting. The gold wing is a little boring. it doesn’t feel like it’s a living breathing machine. It feels more like a nuclear powered aircraft carrier..They’re about as exciting as a Toyota Corolla. Everything works, it’s going to get you there, nothings gonna break, nothing exciting ever happens, unless you hit a deer at 70 miles an hour which happened to me on my BMW… I have to say one thing about it during the deer impact. The bike never moved. I just coasted to a stop with $5500 damage..
so that’s my opinion, I’ve owned the gold wing, the BMW, and three ventures, and I like the simplicity and the serviceability of the venture over the highly technical you have to marry the dealer Honda and BMWs. I will admit right here that the Honda is a more refined smooth running perfect machine, but the Venture will last Just as long, and Venture looks, sounds, and feels like a real motorcycle, not like a toaster
I'll admit, the Wings are definitely not the most fun to do maintenance on - I tend to batch all of mine together, so I will tear the bike apart and do all the stuff on it that requires disassembly at once.
One of my favorite parts of the Wing though is the smoothness, particularly of the engine. V-twins vibrate so much that my hands end up going numb after an hour or two.
Do you work on any modern Wings? Like from '01 and up? Or only 2000 and older?
I work on my Wing, and occasionally help out on others!
HOLA ACABO DE COMPRAR UNA GOOLD WING 1990 PERO OIGO QUE LA TRANSMISIO HACE RUIDO SUNBA PODRIAS ORIENTARME PARA REPARARLA
I bought 88' GW as project, now road ready. I've found a dead spot in throttle (right at opening of throttle). When motor catches, there is too many RPMs on the throttle too get through the dead spot an still have smooth performance off the line! Is this a common problem, with fix? Thanks!
Topic of a future video!
Question! I have an gl1500 2000. The issue I’m having is when I go to turn on my cruise control it can around 30-45 minutes before the light in the dash comes on. What could the issue be?
That's going to take some diagnostic work. I would start by cleaning out the actual switch itself. I'd also post your question in the GL1500 forum: goldwingdocs.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=6
hello my name is Paul and I was going to Darkside my bike but I wanted to know I'm a little bit short and only have a 29 inseam and I would like to put a lower profile tire on my bike and I was wondering if 195 45-16 would be a lower profile and if that would work on my bike my bike is a 97 Honda Goldwing
Hey Paul, according to Goldwing Docs 175/XX/16 is the ideal circumference of a dark sided GL1500 you'd want to go with... the XX portion of the measurement is the width in % compared to the diameter(175cm)
Any bigger would rub any smaller should be fine as long as it's wide enough to seat (I didn't say "seat properly" because the car tire won't ever fully seat on the motorcycle rim due to the shape of the bead)
@@bigdean2937 would that be a lower-profile tired cuz I'm hoping I can drop at least an inch so that I can touch the ground properly
The height of the sidewall of a tire is a key component in ride comfort too, not just ground reach. The sidewall is the motorcycles first line of protection from road hazards, such a potholes of maybe small branches on the road. The small the sidewall ratio, the stiffer the hazard becomes to the wheel, which is then translated up through the shock to the frame to the seat to your butt.
A lower profile sidewall may increase your risk of wheel damage in the event of a severe strike against a pothole edge.
My 2 cents worth
Keep in mind also that by lowering the rear (and not the front) you alter the front fork suspension geometry, so the bike is going to handle a bit differently - specifically, you're increasing caster and trail, so you're increasing the force required to displace the front forks in order to steer or swerve.
How about finding a lowered seat?
I gotta stop licking my battery.... Damn it!!!
I don't have no turn signals no horn no head light left turn signals just keeps flashing
My 1999 1500 Honda goldwing has no turn signal head light on horn and the left turn signal is flashing
Don't lick your battery post. You have been warned. I did it once. But I'm okay. but I'm ok. but I'm okay. that I'm okay. but I'm OK.