Craigslist Vetter Haul & A Couple Questions.


Streetfools

Grasshopper
Ok Guys...

I hit the mother load this morning. I tagged along with a friend to a craigslist ad for a 1986 Yamaha Venture. My buddy ended up buying the bike and when we were about to leave I was bullshitting with the seller about the 1979 GL1000 project I have and how I just put a Windjammer SS on. He said he had some Vetter stuff up in the attic of his barn, so for the hell of it we went and looked. He had 2 Windjammers with brackets, lowers, and cycle sounds. He also had a full set of luggage with brackets, and a spare set of wheels for my GL. I was getting pretty excited, then he told me how much he would take for all of it.... $100 later I was loading the haul into the back of my truck.

I got all the stuff back to my garage this morning, cleaned it, and started to mock some of the luggage onto my bike. It looks like the brackets for the side bags are not the correct brackets for the GL1000, I may be able to modify them to work for me, but they are definitely not right. Everything seems to be in great shape. I'll have to replace the locks on all the bags as the previous owner never had the keys for any of them, but that doesn't seem like a big deal.

So for the question. Is there any way to identify what bike the brackets I have were meant for? And does anyone have a set of GL1000 brackets they would be willing to sell or trade for?
 

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brianinpa

Five Star Vetteral
Country flag
That's a nice haul! Hard to say what bike the bag brackets would be for, but it doesn't take much to modify them to make them fit any bike. There weren't many, if any, for a 1200 GoldWing when I was looking, so I modified the only ones I had... yeah, GL1000.
 

Streetfools

Grasshopper
Thanks for the info, I figured that was the case. I didn't even wait for a reply. There weren't any eBay so I knew I was stuck with what I had. So I compared the brackets I had to the ones that are in the GL1000 installation guide and went to fabricating.
 

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Alan 63

Learning the Ropes
Country flag
That is a very nice installation you fabricated, also what an incredible find. I'm in hope of finding a cycle sound locally, to save shipping costs.
Alan
 

Streetfools

Grasshopper
That is a very nice installation you fabricated, also what an incredible find. I'm in hope of finding a cycle sound locally, to save shipping costs.
Alan

Thanks! It's coming along. I'm in the process of making some new brackets for the trunk right now.
Where are you located? If you're close enough we could figure somethinGetting out. I'm in Upstate New York.
 

roncar

Moderator
Looking closer at the front wheel, I have 'NEVER' seen whatever these are on the wheel.

78frontwheel.jpg


Check if a magnet will stick to the spokes. If NOT, I would not use that wheel as it was recalled. I only say this because it's something I haven't seen before and I'm curious if it's an identifying feature in addition to the magnet test.

http://www.ngwclub.com/File Share/1000tsb/1000#9.pdf
 

Alan 63

Learning the Ropes
Country flag
Thanks! It's coming along. I'm in the process of making some new brackets for the trunk right now.
Where are you located? If you're close enough we could figure somethinGetting out. I'm in Upstate New York.
I'm in Saskatoon Saskatchewan , canada
 

Streetfools

Grasshopper
Looking closer at the front wheel, I have 'NEVER' seen whatever these are on the wheel.

View attachment 1967

Check if a magnet will stick to the spokes. If NOT, I would not use that wheel as it was recalled. I only say this because it's something I haven't seen before and I'm curious if it's an identifying feature in addition to the magnet test.

http://www.ngwclub.com/File Share/1000tsb/1000#9.pdf

OK, I didn't know anything about that! So the wheel in the picture above, the spokes are steel. The little things you circled appear to be plastic covers that say Honda. With that being said the wheels that are currently on my GL1000 are both completely aluminum.
 

roncar

Moderator
OK, I've just never seen those plastic covers.

The recall ONLY affected the 1978 front wheel. They redesigned the spokes for 1979 and went back to aluminum. So...1978 front has steel spokes. 1978 rear, 1979 front, and 1979 rear have aluminum spokes.
 

Streetfools

Grasshopper
OK, I've just never seen those plastic covers.

The recall ONLY affected the 1978 front wheel. They redesigned the spokes for 1979 and went back to aluminum. So...1978 front has steel spokes. 1978 rear, 1979 front, and 1979 rear have aluminum spokes.

Cool. The spares I bought I believe we're off a 1978 now that you mention it. The front is steel and rear is aluminum.
 

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Streetfools

Grasshopper
Cool. The spares I bought I believe we're off a 1978 now that you mention it. The front is steel and rear is aluminum.[/QU
Amazing find! I really like the white luggage.

The white luggage is growing on me too! I was going to pull all the covers and paint them black, but I may leave them now. The only problem now, is the white paint is in rough shape, I may be able to shine them back up but I'm not holding my breath.

I got the mounts all made & modified to fit my bike. Now all I need to do is replace the tail lights on the trunk; unfortunately I am missing one of the round lights.
 

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Streetfools

Grasshopper

The trunk is definitely a vetter trunk too. The previous owner just took the hole sissy bar off of the donor bike and left it all attached. The brackets that held all the luggage and racks to the bike were definitely from another variety of motorcycle, but after a little cutting and welding, we're in business. See above photos.

Thanks for all the help.
 

roncar

Moderator
The trunk is definitely a vetter trunk too. The previous owner just took the hole sissy bar off of the donor bike and left it all attached. The brackets that held all the luggage and racks to the bike were definitely from another variety of motorcycle, but after a little cutting and welding, we're in business. See above photos.

Thanks for all the help.
Yes a Vetter trunk. I was trying to identify the mount and all I could see in the pic was chrome bits sticking from under the trunk. No Vetter mounts were chrome, AFAIK. I suspect, again guessing as I can't see it, the chrome part looked something like this (Honda calls it BUMPER, REAR) from a GL1100.
s-l500.jpg

...I got the mounts all made & modified to fit my bike. Now all I need to do is replace the tail lights on the trunk; unfortunately I am missing one of the round lights.
Which lights do you have? No pic of them so I can't see.
http://www.vetterowners.com/threads/trunk-tails.982/#post-7286

I don't have any more spares of the 'older' style, but have some of the 'newer' style.
 

Streetfools

Grasshopper
Yes a Vetter trunk. I was trying to identify the mount and all I could see in the pic was chrome bits sticking from under the trunk. No Vetter mounts were chrome, AFAIK. I suspect, again guessing as I can't see it, the chrome part looked something like this (Honda calls it BUMPER, REAR) from a GL1100.View attachment 1972
Which lights do you have? No pic of them so I can't see.
http://www.vetterowners.com/threads/trunk-tails.982/#post-7286

I don't have any more spares of the 'older' style, but have some of the 'newer' style.

You're correct. The chrome piece that I took off the trunk rack that came with it is exactly what you have linked above. I made my own riser that clamps to my stock GL1000 bumper.

As for pictures of the tail lights, I don't have that shows the lights all that well. I have attached a couple below that roughly show them.

Edit: I am only missing one tail light. The other missing light was in the trunk.
 

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roncar

Moderator
Looks like you have the newer style (plastic) light assemblies. I have 4 from a trunk that the bottom is busted out around the mounting holes to the rack. I just pulled the lights and the bases on all 4 have cracks in the plastic. Nothing broken off, but I'm not impressed with their 'light assembly' selection. Then again they are ~40yo.:confused:

Nothing as bad as this post (pop rivets will still hold them on) http://www.vetterowners.com/threads/my-trunk-arrived-fixed-broken-light-brackets.919/#post-6690 and when the lens is on, none of the cracks are visible.
 

Streetfools

Grasshopper
Looks like you have the newer style (plastic) light assemblies. I have 4 from a trunk that the bottom is busted out around the mounting holes to the rack. I just pulled the lights and the bases on all 4 have cracks in the plastic. Nothing broken off, but I'm not impressed with their 'light assembly' selection. Then again they are ~40yo.:confused:

Nothing as bad as this post (pop rivets will still hold them on) http://www.vetterowners.com/threads/my-trunk-arrived-fixed-broken-light-brackets.919/#post-6690 and when the lens is on, none of the cracks are visible.

The lights I have are the fully plastic ones, that I do know.

I am half tempted to replicate this solution, looks very clean and adds a modern touch:
http://www.thegsresources.com/_forum/showthread.php?186608-Replacement-for-Vetter-trunk-lights
Plus LED will help with the already lackluster charging on this bike, haven't decided yet. Would you be willing to part with one of your spares should I go that route?

Thanks.
 

roncar

Moderator
I have seen that solution before (online, not in person) and think it looks nice. I'm just too cheep to put ~$40 into lights if I don't need to.

I have yet to convert to LED and have so far not had an issue. I know though that the alternator output on GL1000's is barely more than the bike needs in stock condition so going crazy on electrical draw is not an option.

Yes I can part with any spares I have on hand. Two of the three trunks I have use the older "metal" style base. As the diameters and lens depth are different, these lights won't mix-n-match for aesthetic reasons on those trunks.
 
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