I pulled the front wheel on the Goldwing yesterday (a first for me) to get started replacing the worn tire and found that I had a leaking fork seal on the left side so, while I was at it…

I took the wheel down to a dealer and had them remove the old bearings – $10 + tax – which I thought was very reasonable. They said they had trouble getting them out and had to heat the wheel so I’m pretty glad I didn’t attempt the removal; I’d mostlikely still be cursing it. Took the wheel back home and installed the new All Balls wheel bearings. It’s a strange design that calls for two bearings pressed into each side of the front wheel. I also installed new dust covers.

Then I went ahead and removed both forks. Figured since the bike has 93,000 miles on it they’re probably due for a rebuild anyway. I’ll probably go ahead and add Progressive fork springs while they’re apart. The shop said they’d do the rebuild on them for $85 each (labor) which doesn’t seem like too bad a price. I’m a bit hesitant to tear into them myself but I’m told that the task isn’t really all that bad so I may just go ahead and have at it.

I will probably go ahead and replace all the front brake pads while it’s torn down, too. They look like they probably have some life left in them but new ones don’t cost all that much and it’ll be easier to do now that I have everything apart. Plus, I can’t be certain that some fork fluid didn’t contaminate the pads on the left side.

I also mounted my new Harbor Freight changer in the driveway. The bolts I got to go into the concrete anchors were a bit too long so the changer wasn’t as solid as it should have been but I was able to remove the old tire and get the new one mounted. I’m going to have to replace the concrete anchors and get some shorter bolts before I do the next tire. Still, it was with great satisfaction that I aired up the new tire and I smiled as I heard the double “pop” that told me the beads had seated properly on each side of the rim!

While I had things apart I removed the steering stem to replace the bearings with All Balls but found that a previous owner had already installed them and though they were a bit dry they seemed to be in great shape so I greased them thoroughly and reinstalled them.

Today I got all of the parts ordered for the forks so, hopefully, I can get this thing all back together next weekend and, again hopefully, it’s gonna feel like a new bike.

It was a pretty good day…