Old vs. new tail light

Bike tucked into it's home in the garage for the winter while I work on the body in the basement

New tail light mocked up in Photoshop

I found a tail light that will fit inside the chopped fender so I took a picture so I can mock it up in Photoshop

The seat has been further contoured with an electric carving knife and a coarse sanding disc. That looks better. Now I have to do something with that rear fender, tail light carbuncle

I removed the repair and sanded both mating surfaces down to bare ABS. I lost the locating landmarks when I cleaned up the area but I thought I could tell where the pin should go. A piece of ABS plumbing pipe was cut into 1/8" by 1/8" strips on a table saw to make welding rods. The pin was then welded in place with a soldering iron and the welding rods. I should have tacked the pin in place and checked it on the bike first because now it is slightly out of position. With a little dielectric grease on the pins though, the cover fits fine.

The one pin on the right sidecover had been broken and badly repaired. The repair involved a piece of copper rolled into a "U" that was soldered to a flat piece of copper. The "U" fit inside the pin and was held in place with two cotterpins. The flat piece was epoxied to the inside of the sidecover. The whole thing was wrapped in duct tape which was removed for the picture and the pin was still loose.

Too chunky

I cut down the seat but I felt so guilty afterward that I won't do it again. The seat is 25 years old and they don't make them anymore. It is ugly though...

The new bars have been removed and painted. This is what they look like compared to the stock bars

New bars installed. The cross piece was cut out. It looked like it had been welded in by a chimp.

Headlight mounted and a plexi cover made to replace the stabilizer weight. Mismatched rat mirrors in place also.

These are the bars I am going to use. They are the only ones I could find that have a long enough straight section on the throttle side. I know I could just get shorter grips but the bars were cheap.

I'm mocking up an interesting headlight I found in a parts bin. I don't know what it is off of.

I took a crowbar and started prying things off. When I was done, the bike, now sitting higher on it's suspension, seemed relieved

My first road trip was to Brantford to visit my bro who has just bought a Ural... I don't get it either...

I decided to get another bike after a 25 year bike free period and what better way to ease back into it than with a 1982 Honda Goldwing Interstate, a 25 year old, thousand pound, over the top, dresser. The last bike I had a quarter century ago was a Yamaha RD 350 so this giant bike plus many years of not riding makes for an intimidating experience. I wanted to practise by doing laps around the backyard before I took it out onto the street but the poor bike bounced and rattled so much I had to stop. It's not really built for off-roading. Thankfully when I took it on the road to get it safetied, it was much happier.