Gearing up my GL 1000

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fletchman919 wrote:

This is my first shaft driven bike, so I don't know where to begin or if it's feasible to gear up. I want more top speed on the highway. What can I do aside from slitting the cases and swapping out gears?

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Crank open the throttle... Not being smart.. but seriously... All the wings are geared to get upclose tothe 125mph range and 80+ all day long is not going to hurt it.. If you are looking for other reasons.. like maybe engine noise or better economy, maybe somehard partsswap can help.. and if you can't get those speeds now with what you have, you are not getting the performance it was made for, you probably will need to do some maintenance on things like carbs, ignition, valves, etc....

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Check out a thread started by joedrum. He is gearing up a 1000.

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back in the day, or as don cmlean said... "long long time ago..." you could get replacment gearing for the rear end.... gave you a little more power and was noticible at start up, and, for those with sidecars, was a real help...

but I am with sandiegobrass on this...

besides, split the case, and what you will end up with is a split case, I doubt you will find any replacement tranny gears to change out

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k1w1t1m wrote:

Check out a thread started by joedrum. He is gearing up a 1000.

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hadn't seen that... and more than gear swapping... but interesting.. HERE

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sandiegobrass wrote:

fletchman919 wrote:

This is my first shaft driven bike, so I don't know where to begin or if it's feasible to gear up. I want more top speed on the highway. What can I do aside from slitting the cases and swapping out gears?

Click to expand...

Crank open the throttle... Not being smart.. but seriously...  All the wings are geared to get up close to the 125mph range and 80+ all day long is not going to hurt it..  If you are looking for other reasons.. like maybe engine noise or better economy, maybe some hard parts swap can help.. and if you can't get those speeds now with what you have, you are not getting the performance it was made for, you probably will need to do some maintenance on things like carbs, ignition, valves, etc....

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At 70 mph, the rpm's are around 4,000. I know that's not a lot, but the engine seems to be working hard past that point. If I chop the throttle, it's like an engine brake. I'm using my bike for long commutes and plan on 75 mph the entire commute. My bike is pretty old and I don't feel comfortable running it harder that that. Maybe I'm just paranoid! I also read that the mpg drops significantly past 65 mph and from what I can tell, this is true. I thought I could possibly swap out the rear wheel assembly for a bike that was geared higher. Or possibly install taller tires. Thanks for all the advise.

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k1w1t1m wrote:

Check out a thread started by joedrum. He is gearing up a 1000.

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I seen that, but there wasn't much detail in the thread that I read. It would be great if he would reply.

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Somehow I didn't read the thread in it's entirety the first time. That sounds like it would be too much work. I was hoping for a simple swap of parts and no bugs to work out. Thanks for the help!!! I'll just live with what I have.

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The only advantage I can see to taller gearing would be fuel mileage. You're right, it does drop like a rock when you get to 75 or 80. You're certainly not going to hurt the engine by cruising at 6000 or 7000 RPM all day long but your traffic tickets are going to be really expensive.

Q

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Q wrote:

The only advantage I can see to taller gearing would be fuel mileage. You're right, it does drop like a rock when you get to 75 or 80. You're certainly not going to hurt the engine by cruising at 6000 or 7000 RPM all day long but your traffic tickets are going to be really expensive.

Q

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Fuel milage is on top of the list for me. I drive a hour one way to work. Fuel milage was actually the leverage with my wife when I talked her into buying this bike. As it turns out, the bike isn't getting much better than the Volkswagen Beetle I sold to buy the bike. :action: I got 33 mpg out of the only tank of gas I run through it so far, but most of that was around town. My bug got 30 mpg on the highway at 65 mph. I'm hoping for closer to 40 mpg at 70 mph with the Wing.

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Hmm, sounds like you need some maintenance! My 1100 gets 42 mpg all day long and I run mostly in the 68-72 mph range. Another thing, don't hard twist the throttle over 60 just ease into it those higher speeds, I breathe( twist release twist) mine quite often to get a smooth flow at high speed. Once I have the speed I want I just float the throttle to keep it right there

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Q wrote:

The only advantage I can see to taller gearing would be fuel mileage. You're right, it does drop like a rock when you get to 75 or 80. You're certainly not going to hurt the engine by cruising at 6000 or 7000 RPM all day long but your traffic tickets are going to be really expensive.

Q

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youwon't gain much on mpg on your vintage wing... my 05 hd does far better than my 1000 when it comes to mpg at that speed

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wodam wrote:

Hmm, sounds like you need some maintenance! My 1100 gets 42 mpg all day long and I run mostly in the 68-72 mph range. Another thing, don't hard twist the throttle over 60 just ease into it those higher speeds, I breathe( twist release twist) mine quite often to get a smooth flow at high speed. Once I have the speed I want I just float the throttle to keep it right there

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I'm pretty sure it's running correct. I haven't hooked anything up to it, but it sounds , looks and feels good. I haven't been putting around on it. I'm in the throttle most of the time while taking off, but I don't usually go past 4,500 rpm's.All of the miles were in town or on back roads in the country. I don't know much about these Wings yet, but is it possible that your Wing is geared higher? Or are you just easier on the throttle? My bike runs at 4,000 rpm's at 65 mph. haven't rode it to work yet, so I don't know how many hwy mpg it gets yet. Do you get 42 mpg in the city also?

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BTW, I'm having a blast on this bike! It starts up conversations everywhere I go and always gets looks. This bike is the most fun that I've owned so far, and this is bike #34.

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You could put a size taller rear tire on it and gain a little in the MPG department maybe. It should do way better than 33 though. My 83 interstate would not get less than 42 no matter how hard I rode it.47 if I kept it below 70. The 81 std. got 44 thrashing it hard on back roads but I never got it out on an open highway and ran at speed for any distance so I don't know how it would have done.

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My 79 will get about 43 mpg at a steady 65 mph and I've gotten as high as 53 mpg just putting around at 50 mph. Does about 35 mpg cruising at a steady 80 mph. This is a stock 79 with full Vetter dressing.

BTW: My 93 Suzuki Swift car get's better mileage than the old Wing.

Q

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Okay, thanks guys! I will go on a long ride this weekend and see exactly what mine gets on the highway at 70 mph. If it's below 40 mpg, I'll look into what the problem is.

Just wondering, how many mpg are the newer Wings getting?

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I found this helpful for mpg info. http://www.randakks.com/TechTip68.htm

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My previous 78 and the 78 I have now both would get their best mileage at 50 mpg.Going easy up to that and riding very conservatively I could see 47-48 mpg. Anything above that and it goes down. At 80mph (indicated) closer to 75 actual I would average about 33 mpg. Both of my bikes were in very sharp tune with freshly rebuilt carbs and stock exhaust systems.

Seems like the 1100's werebetter and the earlier 1000's were worse. I have ridden with both and there is a noticeable difference at the fuel pumps.

Now one thing I did find interesting was riding with Cyborg last year. He runs a 78 with a 16 inch rear wheel and taller gearing so at cruise he was almost a 1,000 rpm higher than my stock bike. His fuel economy was very very close to mine on the thruway.

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My 75 GL1000 gets about 33 mpg in town commuting. I did a 150 mile ride with some guys a few weeks ago and got 40 mpg sticking to 55/60 mph. That's about as good as it gets with a GL1000.......