Gold Wing Sale To Benefit Charity

TORRINGTON, CT – It’s never easy parting with an old friend, so I wasn’t surprised Sunday when I looked in the rear view mirror and saw a sad-faced Phil Pepper giving his 1977 Honda GL1000 Gold Wing what might be one last fond look.

Friend Brian O’Neil and I had just loaded it on to a trailer to take it to mechanic Tom MacBurnie in Winsted to see if it was running and, if it wasn’t, what it would take to make it roadworthy. Our hope and goal was to have a running bike to auction at the annual Possum Queen pageant in Litchfield on New Year’s Day.

Phil Pepper and his 1977 Honda GL1000 Gold Wing

This tale actually has its origin in spring 2012 when Pepper contacted me for advice on selling some bikes that he had – the Gold Wing, a 1973 Honda CB 350 and a Honda Trail 70. He was getting on in years and didn’t plan to ride again. The bikes, which I wrote about at the time, were soon listed on Craigslist. Two sold, but the “as-is” Gold Wing didn’t.

If memory serves, Pepper then spent $1,500 getting it running, which included new timing belts, and listed it again. No takers, probably because of a too-high asking price, so it sat and sat and sat in a heated shop. Now, he’s decided to donate it to the Possum Queen, and that’s why O’Neil and I went to retrieve it.

While it had been running recently, it wasn’t at the moment, and I’d run down its battery trying to get it to fire. Perhaps the gas was bad. A few days before we picked it, O’Neil and I had drained the gas tank of fumes and removed the side hard cases and racks.

Upon arriving at MacBurnie’s, he attached a battery, added some fresh petrol, pulled the choke and hit the starter. It took a few seconds but the engine fired. Unfortunately, there was gas spewing from an unidentified location. We opened the air box and removed the air filter to discover gas sloshing beneath. Checking the exhausts, we discovered that three were hot and one was cold, meaning one cylinder wasn’t firing. A stuck float in a carburetor?

MacBurnie estimated that parts alone for a rebuild – he suggested doing all four carbs would be wise – would run $160.

Further inspection by MacBurnie revealed a ground from the Vetter Windjammer fairing attached to the negative battery, meaning that the wiring would need some going over. We already knew that the front brake was frozen and that a new battery would be required. MacBurnie said it would likely take $1,000 minimum to get the bike ready for auction if he were to tackle it.

At that point, O’Neil and I did the math and figured it unwise to invest in the bike not knowing what it might bring at auction. A 1965 Honda C110 that was auctioned last year brought $2,575, well above the $1,000 reserve. (See story here.)

2015 Possum Queen auction winners

The Gold Wing might be a different matter. While the NADA book value on the bike is $1,535 in good condition, we were concerned that if we shelled out $1,000, we might not make it back because the Possum Queen crowd isn’t necessarily into motorcycles.

We then headed to Cornwall, parked the Gold Wing in Brian’s garage, and backtracked to a late afternoon meeting of the Possum Queen committee at the Litchfield Inn. After conferring with event co-chairman Bill Neller, it was decided to list the Gold Wing on Craigslist for a reasonable price – reasonable for a knowledgeable buyer yet high enough for the charity to make some money – in hopes of selling it before the pageant, provided Pepper signed off on the plan.

Pepper did, and the listing went up this morning. The price is $750 or best offer. Here’s hoping. If you have a question, text or call me at 860-485-3118. And, please, share the Craigslist post with any possible buyer. It’s for good cause. The Possum Queen is a 501(c)3 charity that has raised nearly $300,000 in its 25 years of existence.