ABOUT WINGOVATIONS U.K.

Hi there, glad you could make it!

My name is John Evans, an Englishman living in Scotland and a longtime Honda GL1000 fanatic!

In 1975 I went from Glasgow to London to purchase what I believe was the first Honda GL1000 brought to Scotland.
Absolutely beautifull in it's Candy Blue/Green coat, it was looked on in amazement by the then population, as it was by far the biggest and heaviest bike available at that time.

It was also looked on with scorn by most bikers as a 'car on two wheels'! Considering that they had never ridden one, their opinion didn't count for much. Especially as most of their bikes simply couldn't keep up with it. Also, it was refreshing to have a bike that was not only quick but didn't need someone following behind to pick up the bits that had dropped off.

A time served design engineer, I owned a bike shop many years ago and ran 650 Triumphs, some of which were very highly tuned and extremely fast...... when they held together! So the Wing was a revelation of reliability, being very fast and superbly engineered, although 1970s suspension and disc brake technology did have a bit of a problem coping with the weight!

Fast forward a good few years, as family and other things get in the way of biking, and I buy another GL1000 locally. All the old passion gets re-ignited through the rebuild of this pile of scrap and building up a trail of contacts throughout the world during my searches for parts.

Although the youngest of the bikes I am trying to cater for is now 25 years old and the oldest a pensioner of 37, I have been surprised at the level of support and the amount of N.O.S. parts still available.

But there are some parts that neither love nor money can buy and too many otherwise saveable bikes are being broken up because of it.

That is now my purpose in life - to source, make, have manufactured, find alternatives etc. for as many of these unobtainable parts as I can, firstly for the GL1000 and the GL1100 then the GL1200 to follow, and put them here for all you fellow enthusiasts. Some are already in the pipeline, some just at the stage of enquiry.

For those of you with the mechanical ability to do so, there will be numerous technical tips for you to maintain your bike and also modify it if you desire. The vast majority of these are things that have tried and tested by me on my own bike, some will be information gathered from impeccable sources.

It pleases me greatly have Doug Snavely on board, bringing you hints, tips and parts from the States where most of these bikes were sold. Doug has nearly 30 years of experience with GL1000s and is currently constructing a mono-shock, 1200 engined, GL1000 cafe racer!

We'll get the pictures up of this when it's a bit nearer completion.

http://www.tailofthedragon.com/dragon_history_story.html

  'Not your Granpaw's Goldwing!'