Starters are very reliable on GL1000s, but it’s nice to have a back-up. The back-up kick start lever is found only on ’75-’77 models. Honda deemed this extravagant redundancy was unnecessary and dropped the feature on later models. I’ve actually needed the kick starter on several occasions to make it home when some aspect of the very reliable electric starting system failed. I also use my kick starter for another reason: it’s a good test of your bike’s overall state of tune. If it will start with the kick start lever, then you have a well tuned bike! There are many maintenance operations (like setting timing) where the kick starter provides some nice convenience.
Kick Start Lever Storage Location [Read more…]
I find the factory recommended idle mixture screw setting specs to be very close to ideal. They are listed here for the Honda GL1000.
Idle FUEL Mixture Screw on Honda GL1000
I do usually richen them up an extra 1/8 to 1/4 turn (out) to compensate for the leaner modern “gasoline” which is diluted with ethanol in most US markets.
But sometimes, you just need an excuse to do some high performance tuning on your bike! 🙂
Internally Collapsed Header on Honda GL1000?
Collapsed GL1000 Header
Example courtesy of Steve Seamans of NGWClub Forum
Did you know?
Every ‘cross-point” screw on every Japanese designed motorcycle from the 1950s right up to the newest bikes in the showroom today were manufactured with a unique JIS screw head design we don’t see on products made here in North America. JIS stands for Japanese Industrial Standard.
Here’s a list of specific recommendations I’d like to share with any new owner of an early Honda GL1000 (1975-1977). These are based on my many years of experience owning, riding, restoring and servicing these bikes. These address frequent questions I get and incorporate preventions for most of the common problems I’ve seen over the years.
Advanced technical features abound on the GL1000. Even by today’s standards, the bike continues to impress. One simple example: the very positive side-cover latch hardware.
GL1000 Side-Cover Latch Hardware
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