Phat GL: Formerly known as the 82 Bagger

[txtriathlete]

Found a pretty well preserved 82 IS a few weeks ago. $400 and a 5 hour round trip to get it but it looks pretty clean. 45,000 miles, I believe it based on condition. Hasn't run in 10 years, was originally parked due to "carbs". Got it back to my shop and started taking it apart to see how bad it was.



Tank was half full of really old nasty fuel. Drained it (stunk up the shop) and now will pull the tank for derusting. Pulled out the carb rack, surprisingly not too bad. Some varnish but not near as bad as some I've gone through. Pretty much everything will need to be touched: brakes (end to end), plugs/wires/coils, fuses and stator connector - although this one looks good and not burnt. Water pump, neutral switch and belts. Hoping not to have to pull the heads, but that's easy enough to do later once its running if I have to. There's other stuff I'm forgetting but if you've restored one of these you know what's there that has to be touched.

So, no cool pics of that mundane stuff cause shoptalk has many more and better pictures of that stuff than I can put together.

[txtriathlete]

After some angst about cutting up a perfectly good 82 IS, I pretty much went with my heart and decided this will be the underpinnings of a Goldwing Bagger (name TBD - she hasn't told me yet). Many cool bikes in the gallery to inspire, but here's where I'm at so far.



I wanted a deep skirt/long rear fender in back, and happened upon this very nice Indian Chieftain one on the local marketplace. A fair amount will get cut off the front, its super long in the photo so you'll have to use your imagination.

I like the fender but not with the IS bags. Oh well. I had some other bags in the storage I bought for a Yamaha XS1100 project a while back, they look much better I think.





I like how they somewhat mirror the fender line. I think the front of the bag captures the lines of the side cover well also. I had the taillight on a shelf (another earlier project), I think it will work well for this. I think the bags will end up with some sort of semi-hidden, not obvious flush mount LEDs that will light up for stop. The silver trim on the fender will all go away, the color scheme is some flavor of dark metallic orange/copper/bronze with blackout trim instead of chrome. I really like the orange Honda put on the 1800's, that's my anchoring point.

Here's a rough mockup.



I like how the lines go from a high "point" on the top front of the faux tank down to a low point on the rear of the bags and fender. Kind a cool parallelogram.

[txtriathlete]

For the front, I think I'm going with a headlight bucket (large "missile type if I can find it) and signals (same) instead of a fairing. I have two used plexies from other bikes, so thought I'd use one of those and see where it leads me.



I like this one best. Its an old one from my Valk IS.



Black line will be the top of a (blackout) trim piece that will mirror the contours of the bottom of the shield. The cross hatch is an estimation of what I'll have to trim to get around the light bucket. The shape will be a short tombstone style once I remove some of the angle on the sides.

Gauges will have to change also, Simple white on black or vice versa - retro idea.

I want to have an onboard radio deck (bluetooth) and a place for my phone which I use for maps and music.

I'm thinking about an alternate carburation setup, with two Webers or similar mounted outboard of the frame over the heads. If so, that leaves a lot of room to do something under the false tank. I could probably tuck a head unit in there. If I mounted it to the lid then it would lift up and be viewable when I open the lid, as opposed to mounting it vertically. The amp I just bought to go in my jeep is small enough it would probably also fit in here. Not sure about where to put speakers tho.

[txtriathlete]

To change the stance I'm going to use shorter spring style shocks in the back and get a longer fork (2-4 inches) or a bigger front tire (19-20). The guard and badging will come off to make the fender clean. Stainless brake lines. Speedo cable tied up tighter to the fork I think, unless I can find an electronic speedo to replace it.



Bike has a fork brace on it, I think I am going to fab a mounting bracket for driving lights that bolts to it.

Wheels - I like the 83 spokes, and if I don't find an oversize front wheel that works , I may go that route. Although most baggers have apehanger bars, I really don't like those. I've opted for a flatter "beach bar" look that I think will work well with the retro theme. And I'm keeping the downturn stock exhaust unless I can find some nice fishtails.

Anyway, that's the plan, although no plan survives first contact.

Thoughts? On to maintenance and repair tasks...like pulling out the entire rear end to get to the tank...

[Track T 2411]

Sounds like a very well thought out vision. I'll give you a few quick observations. On the wheel concept... there are very few, if any, bolt on options for the 1100's. The '80-81's did use a 19 inch front Comstar vs. The 18 on the '82. Of course, almost anything is possible if you have the fab skills and/ or money.
The turn down tail pipes are add-ons that slip over the end of the stock straight muffler.

[txtriathlete]

Finally got caught up enough to resume tear down on the old girl. Got the wheel, swing arm, and tank out yesterday along with shocks, battery box and rear brake system. Tank is bubbling away on the bench derusting.

Does anyone know of a "plug and play" rear aluminum spoke wheel that will work? Lester mags are an option if I can find them. Also looking at the wheels from an 83. Other years? Other Honda MC wheels that might work?

[CrazyJerry]

Tank is bubbling away on the bench derusting.

txtriathlete, what are you using to derust your tank?
Picked up an '82 Interstate and just finished the fuel system (tank and cap got vinegar, rack was stinky and stuck with varnish so it got boiled.) The fuel pump was a mess too, but luckily it came apart ok and the one-way valves had to cleared/cleaned.
-
~CrazyJerry~

[txtriathlete]

Using the electrical process described in the shoptalk section - "Magical Tank Derusting". I haven't pulled the fuel pump apart yet. Not sure if I am going with the stock carb rack or something else since this is a customization project, so I haven't gotten too far into them yet.

[230Rocket]

They must've done a lot of variations to a plot of parts on these 80's Wings. My 82 IS had turn down mufflers but they weren't the slip-on type, just straight through pipes, so I just cut the ends off! Now wears slash cut shortys. It also had a completely different multi part fork brace that I kept. Anyway, I like your plans, bagger style will work great coz as soon as we strip these things naked we need throwovers and duffle bags for any trips!

I'll be following along coz this bike in Wineberry red is exactly how mine started out - and it needed just about everything reworking or replacing! Here it is in LA at Caddo Lake on a recent trip to the NTNOA Lake of the Pines Rally.

[txtriathlete]

Nice! Thanks for sharing.

So far I've got the tank cleaned, painted and reinstalled, likewise the brake caliper, MC, swingarm and battery box. Basically all the stuff I had to remove to get the tank out has been cleaned and/or rebuilt. I am the destroyer of (spider) nations!

Time to make a decision on the rear wheel and shocks before I move on to the front end. I bought a front 83 wheel from eBay, I think I am going back to get its partner. Simplest way to get the look I want I think. Not sure on shocks, any recommendations? I want the back to sit low - tail dragger style. I toyed with the idea of keeping the air shocks to be able to adjust up and down - ride vs. show - but they are quite ugly, although the huge fender may cover part of them.

[Track T 2411]

The stock air shocks (except '83) require air pressure to function properly. The springs are simply too weak to ride without air, so the 'adjustability' factor really isn't there. Just saying...

[txtriathlete]

The stock air shocks (except '83) require air pressure to function properly. The springs are simply too weak to ride without air, so the 'adjustability' factor really isn't there. Just saying...

Yep, that was my take on it also. The thought was to ride with pressure in the shocks like normal, but then be able to let the air out and have the back end drop or settle when it is parked, like at a show. Like they do with bagged suspension hot rods. I don't know if the stock air shocks would lower the back end of the bike that far down - I want to basically be able to put the top of the tire in contact with the top of the fender when I drop it - to fully compress the swing arm.

Now that I have the back end more or less back together (minus wheel and tire) I can measure the distance between upper and lower shock mounts when the swing arm is fully compressed, that should give me my "compression limit" for when its parked. Then I need air shocks that are the same (or slightly shorter) than that distance...or as close as I can get.

I also need to install a small compressor to reinflate the shocks once I'm ready to ride it again. I've seen a variety of mini-pumps out there that I could hide in a saddle bag that might work. Or I might try to find a compressor from a later year wing. IIRC, my 1500 had an onboard compressor but I don't remember now what it looked like or how it was connected or mounted.

[txtriathlete]

This is for my as yet unnamed bagger bike project. My goal is to raise and lower the rear of the bike with an airbag suspension. This is going to be a "show and go" bike, so I will need to be able to adjust the ride height to "normal" for cruising with the usual ride damping capability and then be able to drop it down to maximum swingarm/tire/fender clearance when parked. To do this the shock length needs to be 9" fully compressed and 12" at ride height, so 3" adjustability.

This could go a couple of different ways. Either cut down the spring length to get full compression and then use air to reinflate to ride height or just gut the shock housing entirely (remove seals and springs) and find or make airbags to go inside the shock housing.

Serious Question - does the air in the stock air shocks support the weight of the bike or is it the springs? Does the air provide suspension height/stiffness or just damping?

There are aftermarket airbag shock kits I can buy, but I wanted to see if anyone has modified the originals with success before I go that route. I would like to find some info on what is inside the air shocks in order to better understand what my options are. I can find pics and exploded drawings of the seals but not much on the springs inside the tubes. I've seen posts alluding to changing out the springs but no real detail on "how to".

[Track T 2411]

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This is my setup for rebuilding 1100's air shocks, and the guts you'll find inside. '80-82's springs are quite soft, and require air to not bottom out while riding. They don't fully compress to bottom out with no air with just the weight of the bike. Damping is achieved by the inner oil filled 'shock' in the second pic. Air provides suspension in addition to the springs.

[txtriathlete]

Thanks that helps. It took me a hot minute to figure out how to get the smaller shock apart from the larger chrome housing. Here's the goods after complete disassembly.

I ended up making a small jig to compress the springs so that I could pry out the small snap rings. The small snap rings are the two up by the chrome canisters in the top picture. The two legs go down inside the shock tube and sit on the large washer above the springs, the u-bolt goes through the shock eye. Once the nuts on the rods were hand tight, I was able to tighten the nuts on the u bolt enough to compress the springs and expose the snap ring. Once the ring was out all the other pieces more or less came right out.

I was surprised the caps were press fit into the top of the chrome housing - thought they would have been threaded - but it all came apart ok.

The two small black bushings that I think are originally hard rubber bumpers are toast - kind of the consistency of jello. Hopefully I can find them somewhere.

Not entirely sure how I will mod these to get to a 9" compressed shock. Oil, air and springs...