'84 Aspencade

This is the next bike that we acquired.

It is a 1984 Honda Goldwing Aspencade. In the Goldwing lineup, the Aspencades are the premium of the group. The '82 has an 1100 cc horizontal four cylinder engine. The '84 has a 1200 cc horizontal four. The horizontally opposed engines are very smoth with almost no vibration. Very different from a Twin, Triple or V-Twin.


Acquisition of this bike was the same as the prior two: Ray did the research and negotions and I did the grunt work and transportation.

This bike was much closer to Grand Rapids that the other two. It was in Grand Ledge which is only about 40 miles from Grand Rapids. So, rather than renting a trailer, I figured I'd ride it home provided it was acceptable. Almost all of my communications with the owners was via e-mail. The owner of the '84 described the bike as 'cold-blooded'. This can mean a lot of things, but he assued me that the ride to G.R. would not be a problem and it would probably be good for the bike to get some highway miles on it.

Compared to my Valkyrie and my previous Yamaha, this Goldwing is total luxury. The seat is very cushy, there is even a drivers backrest and backpad and armrests for the passenter. The handlebars are at a very comfortable angle and you almost sit below the windshield with just the top of your helmet sticking out. With the full fairing there is almost no wind unless you open the vents in the dash. People describe the Goldwing as a two-wheeled car, but if you are going to travel any distance (such as 3,500 miles) this is the way to go.

The owner said he had the bike gone over by the local Honda dealership and I looked well cared for. We haggled about the price a little and he settled for a lower price if I didn't take the helmets with the intercom equipment. Not a problem for me, I'm not big on wearing somebody elses helmet anyway.

The temperature was a 'brisk' 45 degrees as I pulled out of his driveway.

I figured out quickly what he meant by 'cold blooded'. You couldn't idle the bike, even when warm, without having about 1/4 choke at all times. Even at cruising speed the bike stumbled and sputtered without choke. My first stop was a Meijer gas station to top up the tank and put some fuel conditioner in. I was hoping that having been recently 'gone over' by the Honda dealer all that would be required was a clean out of the carb jets; oh foolish me.

Beyond the carb issues, the bike ran very well. When I got home I comented to my wife that I couldn't rely on the digital speedometer; it said I was going over 80 mph many times on the trip home. Kathy confirmed that no, I had really been going around 83 - 84 mph for much of the ride. This bike is so smooth and with no wind blowing on you, you have no idea how fast you're going.


After getting home, I ordered new batteries for the '80 Yamaha and both of the Goldwings. Both of the Goldwings has reasonably new batteries, but this small investment seemed a good decision faced with the trip.

I knew I was in for a carb rebuild for the '84, so I ordered rebuild kits for both of the Goldwings. As it turned out, I only needed to rebuild the carbs on the '84; the '82 was solid. One interesting thing I found out in rebuilding the carbs; if the float needle valves are not worn, don't replace them. The new ones in the rebuild kit were slightly larger in diameter than the originals causing them to 'stick' closed and not allow any fuel into the bowls. This I did not discover until after the carbs had been installed and I tried to start the engine. The good thing is that the second time you remove the carbs, you are much faster than the first time. I had read on another forum where you should leave an entire weekend to rebuild the carbs; for me, this was about the right amount of time. I could probably get it done in 1/2 a day now, but lesson learned. I was glad I hadn't put the fairing back on prior to test starting the engine. It seems that any work you do on these bikes requires removing the trunk, seat, false tank, fairing and glove boxes.

I also replaced the timing belts, spark plugs and synched the carbs. I'd always thought that synching the carbs was a hoax. I'd done it on my '67 MGB and it never seemed to make a difference. But on this Goldwing it was amazing how much more power you seem to have and how much smoother it runs now after synching. I got a fluid synchronizer from MotionPro, and it works excellent. There was very little calibrating required and the flud was easy to read and very stable. The only challenge was getting the vacuum ports out so I could connect the hoses to them. I kind of used my phillips screw driver like an impact driver, tapping on the end with a plastic mallet while I turned the screw to keep from stripping the heads.

On other 'enhancement' I made to both of the Goldwings was to add a spin-on oil filter adapter.
These bike originally have a filter that looks like a car air filter and is a pain to service. The adapter just spins into the filter bolt hole, and you just put an automotive oil filter just like changing the oil filter on a car. I order two of the adapters from Randakks and was very happy with the quality of the item, service, quick shipping and overall good experience. I could have put a 'plain' oil filter on the bikes, but the chrome item looks pretty cool. Anyhow, here is a close up shot of the filter and adapter.

Another 'mod' I had to make to the bike was to remove the drivers floorboards. The bike came with floorboards and a heel/toe shifter. On the initial ride home, I kept getting my toe caught between the shifter and left cylinder. I figure if I'm going to spend many days on this bike, the floorboards had to go. I ordered a set of original foot pegs on e-bay (somebody probably doing the opposite of what I was doing) and threw the floorboards in the shit-can. I probably could have put them on e-bay or craigslist, but I couldnt, in good conscience, be party to anybody having these things on their bike. Dan said that floorboards on a bike look like orthopedic shoes; very profound.

Here is a shot of my helmet and intercom. Since this will be coming of the Goldwing and on my Valk, I wanted what I found to be the best: a Chatterbox GMRS X1 with Bluetooth. This thing will synch with my phone, MP3 player, GPS, allow me to talk to other bikes via the Family Radio frequency and talk to Kathy on the rear seat. I've got to take the manual with me to utilize and configure all of the features - quite a device.

This is the other piece of 'cool' technology that I put on the bike. (again, this will come off and go onto my Valk or in one of the cars).

It is a Garmin Zumo 500 GPS. This unit is specificaly designed for motorcycles. It is waterproof, vibration proof, receives XM radio (optional), XM weather (optional), XM trafic (optional) plays MP3's and will synch via bluetooth with both my phone and helmet.

I won't transmit the XM radio to the helmet so I've got a cable hooked to the audio out on the Zumo and the Aux in on the Chatterbox. I opted for the XM radio even though I've got over 60 CD's worth of music on an 8GB SD card. Getting support from Garmin on configuring the XM radio was quite a challenge. I spent the better part of an evening directing their tech support guy to where on their site the install instructins were to connect the XM antenna to the Zumo. But, once it was set up, the performance has been outstanding. I can hear audible prompts as to the direction to go while listening to either the MP3's or XM radio. One gotcha to be aware of is that the Zumo only supports MP3 format. So, if you've got any WMA or iTunes music, you need to convert them to MP3.

On my Valk I've go Avon Venoms for tires. This Goldwing has Dunlops. Good looking tires with a good tread pattern, but for my riding style, I definitely prefer the Avon's.

As you can see from the first picture, I've got my duffle bag strapped onto the passenger seat. I loaded the trunk and saddlebags with all of the gear that I'm taking and took it out for a spin this afternoon to see how it handled fully loaded. I rode over to top up the tank - $4.05 a gallon for midgrade - gag. We're figuring 3,500 miles at an average 35 mpg. That's 100 gallons of gas - $400 bucks. Oh well, I'm still expecting to turn a profit. Maybe small, but a few bucks.

Fully loaded the bike handles fine. With all the stuff in the trunks it seems to take some of the weight off the front end; easier to steer. Braking and exceleration are fine. These are pretty heavy bikes to begin with, so not much change with a couple hundred pounds of stuff.

That's pretty much the extent of the mods, enhancements and additions I've made to this bike. There seems to be a slight batter drain (not unusual for these bikes) so I'm bring a batter charger, extension cord and a solar trickle charger for when we're viewing the sites 'off-bike'.

So, I'll end this post. Beth, Dan and Ray are due any time, then the fun really begins.