I know this can be a somewhat hard question to answer, but how many miles on average should one expect out of an '80s goldwing? I would like to buy one but don't have a lots of cash to fork out. Been looking at a few. Seen one pretty nice one in my range with just over 100,000 another with 150,000. Seems like a lots of miles for a bike.
Guess while we are at it, What would an overhaul cost?
Just looking for a general idea. I know each bike would be different. Heck, have seen some with 30,000 being sold for parts.
How many miles before overhaul
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FuddyDuddy
- Posts: 1
- Joined: Tue Jul 12, 2011 9:53 pm
- Location: Springfield, MO
- Motorcycle: Looking to maybe buy
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dingdong
- Posts: 4183
- Joined: Thu Apr 08, 2010 8:35 am
- Location: Oklahoma City
- Motorcycle: 1976 gl1000
1993 gl1500A
2004 NRX1800 Rune SOLD
Re: How many miles before overhaul
I have heard claims of Wings still on the road with upwards of 300,000 miles. Personally I wouldn't buy one with 150k miles. 100k I might consider but not without checking the compression and a thorough inspection first. Most other fixes can be done relatively easily but rings and valves will be expensive. Price is the final consideration for any high mileage Wing. At 150k they would almost have to give it to me.
Edit: 30,000 miles isn't even broke in yet "for the engine."
Edit: 30,000 miles isn't even broke in yet "for the engine."
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larryakruse
- Posts: 9
- Joined: Sat Feb 27, 2010 9:45 pm
- Location: Metairie, LA
- Motorcycle: 1979 GL1000
Re: How many miles before overhaul
Hey Dude,
If you have any mechanical ability look around for what looks like a dog of a bike. Look at the pics in the member pics area for "larryakruse". This bike has 32,000 something miles on it and I bought it for $100.00 USD. At the time it did not run but for $100.00 USD I took a chance I could get it going. It tested at 187 PSI on 3 cylinders and 145 on the last. That is normal for a bike that has sat up for any amount of time as the valve that is open will rust up a bit. Well, I decided to put a '81 gl1100 carb on it as the orig. need to be rebuilt anyway. Then during testing it didn't start. Checked the points and what do you know? They were 40 deg. past TDC. No wonder the guy I bought it from couldn't get it to work. Eyeballed the points back to TDC and it started on the first crank from a new battery. I let it idle for 20 min and then after it cooled checked the compression and got 187 an all cylinders. It shifted through all of the gears with no noise and there were no leaks anywhere. Now it is almost rebuilt into a very cool Ratwing.
Is this normal? I would say yes. You just have to look around a bit to find a project bike but for the Goldwing and the bulletproof engine it has the bike can look like a pile of junk but it just needs someone to love it up a bit. This is of course just an opinion based on my observations but it is working for me.
If you have any mechanical ability look around for what looks like a dog of a bike. Look at the pics in the member pics area for "larryakruse". This bike has 32,000 something miles on it and I bought it for $100.00 USD. At the time it did not run but for $100.00 USD I took a chance I could get it going. It tested at 187 PSI on 3 cylinders and 145 on the last. That is normal for a bike that has sat up for any amount of time as the valve that is open will rust up a bit. Well, I decided to put a '81 gl1100 carb on it as the orig. need to be rebuilt anyway. Then during testing it didn't start. Checked the points and what do you know? They were 40 deg. past TDC. No wonder the guy I bought it from couldn't get it to work. Eyeballed the points back to TDC and it started on the first crank from a new battery. I let it idle for 20 min and then after it cooled checked the compression and got 187 an all cylinders. It shifted through all of the gears with no noise and there were no leaks anywhere. Now it is almost rebuilt into a very cool Ratwing.
Is this normal? I would say yes. You just have to look around a bit to find a project bike but for the Goldwing and the bulletproof engine it has the bike can look like a pile of junk but it just needs someone to love it up a bit. This is of course just an opinion based on my observations but it is working for me.