Vintage Gold Wings are pretty hard to find in Europe these days?and in Slovenia, rarer than a Mormon bartender. So when news of a GL1000 ?Wing for sale reached Rok and Luka of Ljubljana-based Krakenhead, they jumped at it. Quite rightly, they figured it would be a great base for a ?big Kraken.?
The plan was to modify the stance, renew the major components, apply new paint, and put the ?Wing back on the road. But that didn?t work out. ?The bike looked like all other café?d Wings on the web,? says Rok. ?So we decided to take the bike to the next level, with more radical upgrades, and create something unique.?

The real work started. The forks were ditched and replaced by 45mm Showa items?the last ?conventional? setup that the Honda CBR line used. The brakes now looked too modern, so a set of discs was stolen from Suzuki?s old GSX-R1100 slingshot. ?That gave us performance brakes with vintage looks, but required a custom front hub that we had to model in CAD,? says Rok. ?After a few days we found a combination that would work with our discs, the forks, and Nissin four-pot calipers.?

Using Krakenhead?s 3D model, a local CNC shop created a new front hub from 7075 aluminum. Then both hubs went off to Central Wheels Components, who laced them to 17-inch rims: 3.5 inches wide for the front, and 4.25 inches for the back. The wheels are now fitted with Avon?s classic-styled but grippy Roadrider tires. Getting that wider back wheel to fit meant modifying and bracing the swingarm...