GoldWing World    

I rescue Vampirella from neglect

I was living in Bedford TX and riding an old GL-1000 I'd purchased from a friend and kept noticing this 1200 that apparently had been forgotten.  It sat, uncovered and missing several parts outside an apartment complex. I started leaving notes with my contact information asking if it was for sale ...

After a month I received a call, the original owner had stopped riding about 2 years before and she had set there every since.  I never did discover what happened to the missing parts (backrest, armrests etc.) but I did rescue her for $2,000 plus a couple weekends of work.  After cleaning her carbs and putting fresh gas and tires on her I had a REAL late-model Gold Wing, even if it did look a bit rough.

Vampi: the makeover

Have you ever had one of those weekends?  I was coming home on my 84 Aspencade which I had owned about a year when the stator went out.  Parking it for a Friday and driving my truck to pick up the parts someone hit the bike on the left front bending the mirror, cracking the fairing a little and chipping the already bad-looking paint - a minor clip but ANY hit and run accident makes me mad, especially when it's on my baby!

I had been planning on rebuilding the bike (which was not named at that time) during the upcoming winter months, but had a trip to Virginia with the R2 unit (my Wife Gail) already planned so I HAD to fix the stator.  I guess I griped so much that Gail had an inspiration: she told me to "do it up right" while I had the old girl down, and so the rebirth began!

To begin I stripped off all the plastic, then removed the engine and began cleaning. She REALLY needed a good bath, as you can see.

I made a list of all the things I planned on doing (many of which I already had purchased for the planned for winter-makeover) and came up with the following:  New Progressive shocks on the rear, new paint and repair on the fairing, clean and paint the engine, frame, and wheels, new wheel bearings all around, new timing belts, thermostat & hoses, clean out the carbs, replace the filters and vacuum lines, gas lines, clean and rebuild the brake systems, new battery, new stator and regulator (I soldered the wires in this time) new K&N air filter, and a new clutch since I was cracking open the engine.

It took three weeks of nights in the garage after work and two complete weekends, but I got it done in time for our Virginia / Tennessee trip.  In fact I had a whole 2 weeks prior to the trip to test it out!  I even took the opportunity to paint the engine with fresh Aluminum and high-temp Gold paint.

Seen here in the next few photographs are images of the engine, which I later replaced due to some studs which broke off (under proper torque) probably due to the neglect of the original owner.

Now back when I worked as a mechanic I was taught not to work on the suspension, brakes, engine and transmission (much less the electrical and body) all at the same time. This is not considered "safe" . . . but the night I announced that I was finished and ready for test runs (I had done one before I called it "finished" and then had to bleed the brakes as they were not firm enough for me) my wife said we should go on a ride with the Venture Touring Society.  That night.  An 80 mile ride.  Well, I explained the dangers and that I didn't think it was wise and that I hadn't fully tested out the bike nor done any parking lot practice with the new progressive suspension and guess what: we went anyway.  Thankfully Vampirella (as I had taken to calling my "new" Gold Wing) proudly showed her stuff, except for a leaking oil seal from the afore-mentioned broken stud.

Two weeks later we went on a 3000 mile trip through Virginia, Tennessee and then back to our home in Dallas (Farmers Branch) Texas.  Vampi made me proud of her on this trip, but I realized that even a Corbin saddle is no excuse for not stopping every 150 miles or so!

Here are a few shots of my first and 2nd "test runs" after the frame-up rebuild.
 

What I did next was put some graphics I created and turned into Decals onto the old girl.  Naturally since I had named her after my old flame “Vampirella” I had to go with those images.  They actually came out pretty nice, although they were burned away in a fiery death in Seattle Washington in 1998 some months later … right AFTER I found and installed a brand new engine to fix an oil leak.  I know, kind of extreme but I’ll go into that more later.  First check out the images I had put on her and see what you think.  One on the tank, and one on the front fender:

Vampi and a very sick Gail go East

The trip to "Buntontown" TN and on to Virginia was on, but Gail (bless her heart) got food poisoning the day before we left.  She refused to cancel, and despite my many attempts to make her let me take her home or for her to fly home insisted on collapsing on the back seat for hours on end waiting for the long breaks we had to take for her to recover.  needless to say she didn't enjoy this trip as much as I did.

We stopped first at Elizabethtown TN which had records and books about many of my ancestors, including John Wheeler Bunton who had moved to Texas and proposed the bill to create the Texas Rangers.  It was a fun stop-over and I ALMOST bought a history book about the town as it had some information on the "Bunton's" and their "bunting" ancestors derived from Scottish ancestors the Graham clan and imortalized in the baby's lullaby "little baby bunting." We then went on to BuntonTown TN, which was little shall we say "small" but hey, not everyone has their own town!

Reborn from the Flames:

Now I mentioned a new engine, as it turns out once I’d done all this work I discovered I had a slow seep, and when I went to remove the valve cover to replace the gasket the bolt broke off.  This was the 2^nd bolt that had done me this way (one happened during the frame-up rebuild too) and I was ticked.

I had seen an add for a new in the crate 1987 Interstate engine on the internet and I arranged (for $2,000.00) to get it shipped to my house.  Out with the old (which I sold for $500.00) and in with the new, just in time for a trip to Colorado, then on up to Seattle Washington … where a backfire caught my air filter on fire and damaged the plastic and wiring harness.  GRRR … but I fixed her back up, sold her to a friend in Seattle then bought my GL-1500 “Phoenix” which you can read about on this web page if you like.  Here is a shot of the engine in the frame:

As I mentioned after I got my ‘new’ engine and beautifully restored bike to Washington state I had a little mishap.  But that is not the end of this tale!  A year later my friend in Washington mentioned he was upgrading to a 1500 and was willing to sell Vampi back to me cheap.  As it happened a gentleman who had delivered a wing to a fellow WOTI (wings on the Internet) member named “Pappy” that he had intended to buy (read about it on the WOTI archives) was being given a chance to pick up “Silver” as the 1100 given as a gift to Pappy was called but he needed a way down to Texas.  Vampi had a rider!

After I got her back I cleaned her up a bit, the saddlebags had been replaced due to a minor bump suffered in Washington so it and the false tank cover (replaced due to the fire) were no longer Foxfire Red Metallic, so I got them close with a spray can and then sold her to my best friend Scot Staggs. 

LOST AND FOUND

Clyde Eubanks is a guy who lost his saddlebag lid from his GL-1200 in  NW Washington earlier this summer. Here is the strange tale of how a Texan visiting this fine state came to return it to him one morning  early in October 1998:  

My company had requested my presence for several months over the summer at our Pacific NW main campus to assist with a beta project.  Knowing that the NW has the best summers in the world (and Texas the  worst) I begged my wife to let me go; and then saddled up my bike (an  84 GL-1200 Aspencade) and took off. My wife accompanied me on the first leg of the journey along with several of her Woman on Wheels friends to go to their annual rally - held this year in Canon City Colorado. From there I came on up to Redmond Washington on my own, with my wife returning to Texas with her fellow (all female) bike riders.

I completed the trip up in 18 hours enjoying the countryside, a blown truck tire right ahead of me, a twister touching down less than a mile away during one rainstorm I outran and in general the best ride of my life only to have disaster strike the day after I reached my destination! My beautifully restored 84 GL-1200 backfired (later tracked down to a bad reed valve on the secondary air intake system) and a breather-box fire ensued. Thanks to a passing motorist named George Hammel I saved the bike, but not before quite a bit of damage was done.  Several weeks and many tears later I had an insurance settlement and a plan to restore the bike, but together my wife and I decided it might  be best to sell the bike to a local, and see about upgrading. I had just installed a new (from the factory crate) engine less than 4,000 miles ago, so it was worth restoring. Added to that I offered my services as mechanic to whoever bought the bike. A fellow employee chose to do so and later sold her back to me.

To fill my need for two-wheeled transport I got a 95 Aspencade, Candy Red  which I promptly named "Phoenix" both in keeping with my tradition of  naming my bikes after female comic book heroines (the old bike was  called VAMPIRELLA from the Harris comic book character) and to the  fitting concept of something being reborn from flames. I won't get into which bike I like 'better' but suffice it to say I put 3200 miles on this new bike in the next month and a half while exploring the wonderful sights and twisty roads of the Pacific NW. And I managed this while working 10-hour days and some weekends! Enter Clyde Eubanks.  Unbeknownst to me Clyde had experienced a bit of bad luck with HIS  GL-1200 about the same time as I had - it seems while travelling up  I-405 near the I-5 intersection he had lost his right rear saddlebag  cover. I discovered this when I saw a flash of red by the side of the  road ahead while travelling north and thought "Hey, that's GOLDWING  red - I wonder what it is?" Braking quickly so I didn't have to walk back so far I found the lost lid and the search began.  I contacted the Wings On The Internet (WOTI) list serve, the GWRRA  list and all the local chapters and dealerships and let them know I  had found someone's lid, and if they could tell me the side and color  I'd ship it to them. With the exception of an email from a fellow GWRRA member named Jerry saying he had seen the bike in Bellevue my  search resulted nothing. My return trip to Texas fast approaching I contacted a local chapter's representative about continuing the search for me, put the lid in my saddlebag on the 1500 and took it to work to deliver to the gentleman in question. Getting busy I did not complete  the task, so Friday morning on the way into work the lid was still in  my bag when I saw approaching a Maroon GL-1200 Interstate, after the  customary 'hello' wave I noticed in my mirror that his right rear lid  was missing. I was ecstatic! UNBELIEVABLE! Quickly cutting a U-turn  (thank goodness for the parking lot practice with this new bike) I  raced after the man in question (whom I later found out was named  Clyde Eubanks) and caught up with him just before he entered the  Bellevue library to access a computer he had time scheduled on.  

And that is the tale of one saddlebag lid in Western Washington and the strange series of events that led to a Texan tracking down the owner and returning it. Life really is stranger than fiction at times! Now I have to prepare for my trip back down to Farmers Branch  (Dallas) Texas and a joyful reunion with my wife Gail - away from the  driest summer in Seattle's recent history but never far from the  wonderful memories of this area I will carry with me for the rest of  my life. Keep the rubber on the road and your eyes on the horizon.