Finishing touches included sealing the carburetor flange into place with RTV blue silicone, and squirting the whole she-bang with high dollar (ninety-nine cent) flat black paint straight from the rattle can! Ya' jus' can't beat the look of flat black and polished aluminum!

As you can see, the assembly really doesn't look all that bad painted flat black and partially hidden from view. The carburetor sits sideways on the intake, placing the throttle and choke assemblies at the front near the radiator and the idle adjustment screws conveniently located the side of the arrangement. The large black hose at the left is the fuel line running from the stock fuel pump up, up, up to the fuel inlet near the top left side of the carb. I was concerned about the pump pumping, but so far it's doing a good job. The smaller black hose at the bottom middle of the carb is the hose running to the vacuum advance.

Better shot of the fuel inlet. The carb sits very close to the top frame rail. I was concerned about it rubbing against the rail over time so "fixed" the problem with my small sledge hammer by "squishing" the frame rail over a tad. =)

You can see my handy work just behind the regulator/ rectifier (I removed it before wacking off on the frame rail) =)

Not bad looking, huh? God, it sounds great! Reminds me of the big block Impala I had as a teenager! The throttle response is just amazing! Franentake lives, but the SHAKEDOWN has just begun...

Next step: Grabbing my cell phone (just in case) =) and burning the rubber of the thing to break it in... Or just break it? Long term concerns center around my ability to completely seal the intake and keep it sealed. It should be interesting to see how the PVC and Nylon holds up to time, temperature and fuel... More updates to come!

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What's it cost to build the damn thing!? Updated 1/27/2007

So far, this has been an extremely affordable endeavor... Piece-by-piece costs are:

• 3 tubes of RTV Blue Silicone (re-gooped the intake after 1 year...added 1 tube of RTV)-$12.00

• 36 inch piece of 1 & 1/4" PVC--------------------$2.35

• Holley Model 2110 Carburetor(with shipping)--------$62.00

• Rattle can flat black paint-------------------------- .99

• Miscellaneous bolts & such (scrounged at home)-------free

• Nylon plates cut from scrap (found behind food store)----free

• Fuel line (left over at auto parts store)----------------------------free

• Air Breather Assembly (junk Triumph part)---------------free

GRAND TOTAL----------------------------------------> $77.34

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Shake Down Run #1

Dateline June 11th: Spent the morning making a throttle cable mount and choke mount for the carb. Both came out remarkably well using junk laying around the house. I utilized the Holley's stock accelerator assembly and ran the "pull" cable to one end of it and a small spring to the other to act as a "counter". Removed the "push" cable from the throttle and threw it in the pile of other goodies I don't need anymore and began fabricating the choke cable. Used a choke cable and assembly from a junk Honda CX 500 (Similar to the choke assembly found on a Goldwing). Fired up the grinder and fabricated a mount which is bolted to the lower frame rail in between the right side intake runners. After making sure choke and throttle operation were spot on I fired up the bike and WOW! I never thought adding a different carburetor set up would have THAT much of an effect on a motorcycle... To be fair, the old carbs were pretty shot, but it was like riding a brand new motorcycle. Top speed was somewhere at, around, or over 100 mph (stock speedo gauge only goes to 85 so that's an estimate) and I hit 65 in second gear.

Some people who have attempted a similar conversion using a Volkswagen carb have complained about a rough idle as the bike "loads up" if sitting for too long. I calculated the CFM and the Holley 2110 is a bit larger than the stock carbs altogether (about 165-175 CFM) but shouldn't load up all that quickly if I added and subtracted right. I didn't give the critter much chance to sit and idle today =) but am planning on riding the bike into town tomorrow morning (God willin' and the creek don't rise). Played around with the fuel/ air mixture screws to drop down the idle a bit (that may be something to work on as well). Stock air box (now manifold) seems to be holding up well. I was amazed after "flogging the dog" as hard as I did that the intake runners and manifold/ carb combo were nice and cool at shut down... The REST of the bike sure wasn't! =)

Shake Down Cruise number 1 is "officially" in the books... Now lets' see how she does in a more "civilized" manner around town.... More to come soon.

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Shake Down Run #2 (added 6/12)

Sunday morning dawned hot and humid with storm clouds on the horizon and I debated on whether to tempt fate once again and continue with my shakedown of the new carb/ intake combo. I burned a little sage to dispel the evil spirits, said a few words to Wingolana, Goddess of Goldwings, and swung a leg over... The bike fired to life at the touch of the button and I (literally) was able to idle without choke after about 30 seconds. The bike performed well around town. It DID load up a couple of times at the longer stoplights but the bike didn't quit and I was able to "clean its throat" with a couple blips of the throttle. I don't mind the bike loading up a bit and may just leave the fuel/ air mixture alone for now. Off idle acceleration from stops is just amazing! I was running a set of GL 1000 carbs on my bike before this transition (no accelerator pump on the older carb sets) and there is a world of difference between the stock carbs and the Holley. The most "niggly" concern I have is a very high pitched whine from the carb throat when I get on it a bit. All in all, I am very pleased and more confident in the carb. intake assembly after today... Long term experimentation will determine if this design holds up or becomes troublesome over time. I'll keep you appraised at regular intervals. Until then, I can recommend this design as a viable alternative for mounting a single carburetor in place of the stock originals...

Choke knob is peeking out under tank shell.

Long Term Test Update (addded 1/27/2007)

It's been awhile since I updated this page with the on-going results of my carb experiment. Since the conversion, I have put just over 1,000 miles on the Goldwing. The bike is still running like a champ. In fact, it is running better now than it did when i first completed the conversion. This is due, in part, to a small intake leak which was sealed this past spring which had developed between one of the nylon plates and aluminum airbox. As you may recall, I "mated" the intake runners to the stock airbox through the use of nylon plates held in place with screws and lots of blue RTV. Over time, the nylon has cracked in a few places where the screws go through the nylon and secure the the nylon to the aluminum body. The nylon cracked allowing a small intake leak to develop which cause rough idling to occur. I re-tourqued the screws holding the nylon in place and bought another tube of blue RTV and gunked the whole she-bang up again. Since the spring, the bike starts in an instant, idles without choke in literally seconds and SCREAMS down the road. I plan on removing the manifold again this spring to check for any additional cracking, but I started the bike up this morning and she ran just as well as she did when I parked her for the winter. I'll tell you, this is one conversion which I have been very pleased with.

Long Term Test Update (addded 7/27/2009)

With about 7,000 miles on the carb setup, I have to say that I continue to be impressed with its performance. The bike has actually smoothed out a bit the more I have ridden it. I recently bought a '82 GL 1100 Aspencade (stock engine with about a ton of chrome goodies on it)... OH MY  GOD, what a SLUG compared to my rat! The combination of the bags and extra "garbage" on the bike coupled with stock carbeuration definitely makes it a "tourer" and not a "go-fast" critter. I LOVE ridin' FUBAR around town and on Poker Runs. It sounds grat and gets looks and questions all of the time. The garbage wagon will stay stock. A carb rebuild kit from Randakk's Cycle Shop (not cheap but from what I hear, worth it) should bring the garbage wagon closer to the performance of FUBAR. I do not regret this conversion at all! =)

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