New to me 05 gl questions

[doncan2]

Purchased 05 with 55k miles from original owner. Very clean and well maintained. Couple questions, the fork is little harsh compared to the rt I was riding. You can feel every little bump or crack in the road. I know people on this site say you should rebuild fork at 50k. Don’t know if these have been. The bike has after market mufflers. Very noisy especially at speed, even with ear plugs. Can you put some kind of baffle in the muffler maybe at the end. It is almost un rideable with these mufflers. Thanks

[Kurt J]

Best thing to do is just go threw the bike for your own piece of mind. Do a service on her so you know for yourself it has been done and what has been done. Or go threw the service records if the PO had them to give you. Mufflers.....it is just up to you on what you want to put on it.....myself if I wanted a loud bike I would had bought a HD.


Cheers

[DaveO430]

Good chance the anti-dive valve on the left fork is stuck. You can buy a spacer for it off ebay and other places but a plain Honda oil drain plug washer works just fine. If you know what brand the mufflers are maybe you can contact them about baffles.

[Steve F]

I had the forks rebuilt a year ago, and it turned out the anti-dive valve was stuck and they replaced that too. I'm glad I had it done when I did since the slider bushings were Juuuust starting to wear through the Teflon coating. Too much more and that would have been expensive.
The exhaust can be put back to stock fairly cheaply if you look through the "for Sale" pages for used exhaust, since there are some guys that put on aftermarket exhaust quite often, and sell their stock systems cheap, like $200-300. Just look around and you'll find a set. Putting in a baffle in your existing pipes wouldn't be an option.

[littljoe]

I had the front shocks rebuilt with the traxxion kit just springs and sliders $400. Made a world of difference for me and passenger.

[Viking]

As far as the mufflers go, you might offer, anywhere you can find GL1800 owners, to trade straight across, those noisy pipes for stock ones. Some GL1800 owners want a louder bike and might really appreciate the opportunity to get them for nothing, just trade. (I, however, am not one of them as I like my wing quiet.)

[GoldWingrGreg]

If there is no exhaust leak, and your mufflers are noisy, most likely they are aftermarket. Some aftermarket companies make replacement inserts for their mufflers when the old ones go bad. If you know what brand they are, try going to their web page.

As for your poor ride; unfortunately, after about 20,000 miles on GL1800s the ride quality begins to worsen. There are several parts that most often contribute to this. First is that ADV (anti-dive valve). The easiest way to test if that is a direct problem is to unbolt it and go for a ride to see if your ride quality has improved. Another are steering head bearings. To test those, on a flat road, get up to 50mph in 5th gear and take your hands off the bars allowing the Wing to decelerate. If the bars start wobbling, chances are tapered steering head bearings will fix that. Ones that are worn out allow for to much looseness and can amplify bumps. Lastly are the springs. After about 20k on both front and rear the OEM springs begin to soften, and provide a poor ride. On the front, Honda provides a "sacked spec" but don't go by that. I'm sure yours will measure-up just fine, but new ones will make a world of difference. Some choose to install a better quality springs like ones Traxxion makes.

Most important, be sure your tires are aired correctly per the sticker under the trunk lid.

[Steve F]

DONCAN2, I sent you a Private Message regarding an exhaust system I found for you to look at. He wants (I think) $125, and no dents either!
Steve F