Looking for performance

[Wangthang]

I have a 76 that I'm trying to get to go faster. I have done the electronic ignition swap, Weber carb switch, and am in the process of putting Lester wheels on, i did the EBC pro lite rotor swap, and put the old girl on a diet. What would you do the get it to go faster, weigh less, and stop faster?

[dontwantapickle]

how much faster are you looking to make your bike go?

[Rat]

Stainless brake lines help the stopping part ....

Gord

[low-side]

Aftermarket exhaust will be lighter and likely flow a little better. I haven't had these heads off so I don't know if pocket porting or chamber reshaping is desirable. Plastic and aluminum are your friends when it comes to weight savings (seat, fenders, aluminum bars, etc). I honestly don't see getting the weight much below 500 lbs on one of these. Engine by itself is over 200 lbs. Twin piston calipers with stainless lines up front won't add much weight and will stop much better. IMO, the best thing that you can do to improve handling (with stock fork) is cartridge emulators and a fork brace. Next would be some quality shocks out back. Good luck with it.

[robin1731]

Ports on the head are already too big. So port work isn't worth it. Yeah you could reshape the ports. How much time do you want to spend for very little return. Without big cams/valves you don't gain enough to be worthwhile.

Nitrous is the easiest bolt on power you can find.

What would I do. Get a different bike and ride the Goldwing for pleasure. You could spend thousands on a GL and it will still get spanked by a good modern 600cc bike.

I still build race engines/bikes. And very hot street engines/bikes. Lots of time and money involved. After so much work the bike isn't fun to ride on the street. You don't jump on and ride 50-100 miles in August.

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[Wangthang]

Clarification. What i am looking to do is try to be faster than my friends that roll Street Glides...fear the stage two lol. Every saturday the bar down the road has drag races. Surely i can get the gl to run with a 775lb Harley.

[robin1731]

Well, since you say you have drag races every Saturday I'm guessing you go to a track someplace? If not then it's just a street race. Sorry but as 30+ year drag racer I hate when people/police/media call a street race a drag race. There is a difference.

That said a well tuned stock GL1000 should be all you need against a stock Harley. If not then a small shot of nitrous will do a lot for little investment. And you won't hurt anything if it is done correctly.

Now, if they Harley guy has spent a lot of money. It doesn't matter what you do. I've known the guy in this video for over 30 years. This was the first pass on this bike in December of 2018. He has built several since that run over a second quicker. And they are very streetable.

To run even close to that you'll need a pretty stout budget. And the HP you need will start breaking things in the stock chassis. And the drive shaft won't last long. And it will be hard to ride every day. See where I'm going?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0kARXtp66Eo

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[Shadowjack]

Swap a 1200 engine into it.

[SnoBrdr]

Stainless brake lines help the stopping part ....

Gord

and dual-piston front brakes.

[Fred Camper]

Have you compared it to another GL1000 known to run well? It could be your not getting stock performance due to ignition or carboration issues?

[ericheath]

Harley guys want to drag for about 1/16 mile, a city block or two. You won’t beat them with a stock or mildly modified gl1000, maybe if you are doing 5k launches. Bye-bye clutch.

Ask them to to race you moving 25 mph, side-by-side, let him start first, you’ll hear him. Keep your revs high and he’ll be surprised.

An 1100 or 1200 in your 76 with a 16” Lester will scream partly from the extra cc’s but also from the gearing differences.

[low-side]

I love my wing, but it can't compete with a Street Glide with a Screaming Eagle kit. It's not even close in terms of initial take off or roll-on. You could buy a low mile 900 Hornet for less money than you would have in making the Wing competitive. If you want a 70's Honda that embarrasses big Harleys build a hot CB750. Lighter and a whole lot more go fast goodies available.

[Don R]

The 1200 swap would be fun. Or find a late cb1100 and dress it up like a 750. I'd put a Nos kit in a saddlebag with a handlebar arming switch for a one block squirt. Hard to hide with Webers though! My buddy put a delkevic header on a GL for a customer. He said it was light and sounded awesome.

[ericheath]

I’ll bet you’re like most and aren’t in the power band of these bikes. Peak torque for yours is around 6500. If you’re going to shift so you hit second gear at 6500, you’re going to turning well over 9000 in first gear. If you do it, it will jump when you hit second gear. If you don’t dare take your bike to those revs, you simply won’t see what they have. If your motor is in good shape, it will take the revs.

With peak torque at 6500, it takes a long time in first gear. That’s the problem. If you haven’t put on a Lester 16”, that can help quite a bit and if you put on a lower profile rear tire it would be better.

Harley built bikes to get off the line and they do. Honda built bikes to scream, and they do.

[Old Fogey]

It would not surprise me that Eric has nailed it! All the forums have guys wanting to gear up their bikes because 'it's revving so fast, like cruising at 4k!!' This seems to be particularly an American thing due to the prevalence of low revving V-twins. It's not anything like that over here where we are so much more used to the sound and feel of sport bikes.