1981 Honda Gold Wing

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Well, it's time to clear things out a little bit around here. I have two older Gold Wings (I refer to them as 'Old Wings') in the garage and I honestly only need one of them. This one is the newer, and prettier, of the two (the other is a 79 still in it's original paint). Having run both of them for a few years, I find I prefer the 79, so it's time to send the 81 on down the road. If anyone doesn't know, the second generation of the Gold Wing is more 'laid back' than the original. The engine is tuned to be more of a puller and the ride is much smoother given that it sports air shocks. The original was meant as a sport bike, so that pretty much says it all. I bought this one from a Gold Wing specialty shop in Granite Falls, NC back in August 2006. It had been *completely* gone through at the time, and it was as close to a new 1981 Wing as one was likely to find. That, is why I bought it actually. I already had the 79 but simply could not resist a 'new' 81! When I say gone through, I mean it: Engine work, clutch, gearbox, carbs, control cables, forks, rear shocks, new, tires, wheel bearings - the works. Well, the shop was called Wing Works, and that's what they did - only worked on Wings. I'm sitting here looking at the title, and it does not mention the mileage the bike had at the time I bought it. I'd estimate that I have put around 20k miles on it since then. This is a good time to mention the mileage. The odometer reads 50963, but I had to replace the speedometer assembly last season when it started whining like I was sporting a siren. The new one had 15780 fewer miles on it, so I attached a tag to speedo housing and another tag under the fuel door so I'd always be able to arrive at the bike's true mileage later. That is 66743 miles. Other work I've done this year is to mount a brand new rear tire - it has all of 11 miles on it at this point. I've also put in all new brake pads and a brand new battery. The front tire lasts for 2 1/2 rear ones, and the rear I pulled off was not completely worn out. I know all about rear bike tires and wanted to save the new owner from having to deal with one this riding season The front one has more than enough wear left in it to see this new rear one worn to the cords. ;) I just changed the oil and filter this afternoon as well. I even filled the gas tank. So, this bike is primed and ready to go anywhere in the country it needs to go to. Get on it and ride off into the sunset, as it were. :) Now, the bike is not perfect. It has a couple of 'dings' on it. I took extra photos of them. One is a small crack spot on the right-hand side cover. The other is the right-rear turn signal, which as a piece missing. How that happened is interesting: I live on a farm, out in farm country. As you might expect, we have a lot of deer around. One evening, I had stopped to let some deer cross the road and this young doe decided to run right into my side! Now, I was stopped, and she didn't hit hard enough to knock me over, but her nose put that crack in the side cover, and when she bolted to her left, she popped the RR turn signal right off (they're rubber mounted to do just that) - and a piece of it went missing. Neither thing was bad enough to prompt me to do anything about it. The signal stays on and there are always new repro ones here on eBay if it bothers anyone. Some of the aftermarket chrome items might want replacing, depending on the new owner's desire. I'm referring to the valve covers and the air 'wings' and grille for the radiator. None of those things were chrome from the factory, so they do show a little age although you have to be right up close to see it. Well, that's about it. It's a good, solid bike waiting to give a new owner many seasons of riding pleasure. Revisions: Oh! The seat. This has the usual cracks in the vinyl seat cover where the horizontal meets the vertical on both the right and left sides at the operator's position. I have them covered with gaffer's tape (aka fancy duct tape). They look pretty ugly when left alone, as the yellow foam shows through the cracks. The solutions are to (a) buy a new seat, (b) have the old one recovered or (c) simply cover the things up with duct tape. I find that the seat is still plenty comfortable, so I chose to use the low-cost duct-tape fix. I do need to mention it though! ;) I also forgot to mention that the reserve price is $1500. For less than that, I think I'd keep it. I like to put the reserve amount in the listing, as it saves a lot of emails! As far as pick-up goes, I'm pretty flexible as long as it's paid for first. ;) On Jul-08-10 at 13:35:23 PDT, seller added the following information: Location Error: The listing picked up Raleigh as the location, but it's actually Kipling some 30 miles South of Raleigh. I can't seem to change this, though. On Jul-12-10 at 14:46:49 PDT, seller added the following information: I managed to find some photos I'd saved of this bike from when I bought it. The odometer reading at that time was 46263. Now it's 66743, so I have rolled 20,480 miles on it since Wing Works had reworked it. So, my estimate of the mileage I have put on it during my time with it was right on the money at 20k or so.