I ain't getting any younger, and I've been wanting a Harley-Davidson for a long time. But kids and other things take priority, plus I just bought a truck a few months ago. My favorite Harley is the Fat Boy, but $18K - $20K is more than I can afford right now. I could get a Sportster, but to be honest I think the Sportster sits too high. A buddy of mine at work had a Sportster and sold it and bought a Honda Valkyrie. He said the Valkyrie rides better, has more power, and is less maintenance.

Some guys at work got together for a ride last Sunday and hearing them talk about it put me back on my "I want a bike" kick again. I go through this every year or so... but I don't get a bike and then I don't think about it for awhile.

I've ridden friends' bikes but the last bike I owned was a dirt bike. So I'm looking for an starter cruiser. I really like the looks of the Honda Shadow Sabre - 1100cc engine, water cooled, shaft drive. I have a buddy with a 750cc Shadow and he says he wished he'd got a bigger engine. Here's a pic of a 2000 Shadow Sabre selling locally for $5988...

[img]http://images.traderonline.com/EMedia/tarchive2/144/1129/00256616906.jpg[/img]

I was looking at the Suzuki Intruder and the Kawasaki Vulcan too. Anything I should look for or stay away from? Were there some bad years for certain models? You guys are a wealth of knowledge and experience and I'd appreciate your opinions. TIA

(BTW, my better half is all for it, but her company is on the verge of bankruptcy so her job is iffy right now. She would prefer I get a Harley too... her Dad has a Electra Glide... but too much money. I may have to wait a year or two, but I still need some idea of what to look for in case a deal comes along that I can't pass up. [8D])

[i]Edited to change the topic title.[/i] [whacko]

Ha, you're not middle aged. I have a Harley that sits in the garage. I ride a Trek 7700 bicycle all summer to keep my blood pressure down [BD]

Thanks for your replies. I appreciate it. Keep 'em coming.

realist, nice HOG man! Is that yours? Can I ride it? [;)]

TonyMontana, that's a neato ATV but I don't think I could take that thing on the freeway. [BD]

CAMPYBOB, "anything but vanilla"??? Que? [>:/]

mleaky & MissedAgain, thanks for the suggestion on the V-Star. That's a great looking bike, almost like a Fat Boy copy. I'll ride one before I decide to buy. Looks like it might come down to either the V-Star Classic or the Shadow Sabre.

varmitgun, I'll look at a Vulcan but I think I'd prefer a shaft drive. If I got a Vulcan I think I'd rather get the 1500cc too.

ARChoo, nice Intruder. Is that paint scheme Guernsey or Hereford? [:D]

Also, what is the advantage of water cooled vs. air cooled? Or disadvantage? Thanks again.

Here's a 2000 V-Star 1100 located only 40 miles from me. Only 900 original miles on the odo and he wants $6400 for it. Whatcha think?

[img]http://images.traderonline.com/EMedia/tarchive2/213/236671/00213445908.jpg[/img]

Is there a blue book for motorcycle wholesale, retail, and trade-in values?


Leadbutt, there are ALOT of custom bike builders in this area, and alot of sources for parts too. I've seen some of the custom bikes upwards of $35K or more, and they are some beautiful machines. I may want to put together something one of these days, but not at this time. I do like tinkering in the garage though. [:D] I'd like to see your chopper, so go ahead and email me pics if you don't mind. [email][email protected][/email]

I have a '92 Shadow 1100 also.  No trouble at all and about the same milage.  You may not know - but all '92s were set up for Californistan emmissions and you can take them off pretty easily.  Let me know if you want details.  Not sure about a noticable power gain because I changed some other things at the same time, but you at least get rid of that ugly cannister on the front.

[img]www.ar15.com/members/albums/Shadowblade%2FShadow1%2Ejpg[/img]

Arlo Guthrie! I haven't heard that song in ages!

BallisticTip, this one's for you man. [8D]


The Motorcycle Song
words and music by Arlo Guthrie

CHORUS:
I don't want a pickle
Just want to ride on my motorsickle
And I don't want a tickle
'Cause I'd rather ride on my motorsickle
And I don't want to die
Just want to ride on my motorcy...cle

It was late last night the other day
I thought I'd go up and see Ray
So l went up and I saw Ray
There was only one thing Ray could say, was:

CHORUS

This song is about the time that I was ridin' my motorcycle.
Going down a mountain road, at 150 miles an hour, playin'
my guitar. On one side of the mountain road there was a
mountain, and on the other side there was nothin' - there was
a cliff in the air.

Now, when you're going down a mountain road at I50 miles
an hour you gotta be very careful, especially if you're playin'
a guitar. Especially if that guitar is an acoustic guitar.
Because if it's an acoustic guitar, the wind pressure is greater
on the box side than on the neck side, because there's
more guitar on the box side. I wasn't payin' attention ..

Luckily I didn't go into the mountain - I went over the cliff.
I was goin' at 150 miles an hour sideways and 500 feet down
at the same time.

I knew it was the end. I looked down, I said ''Wow! Some
trip". I thought it...well I knew it was...I knew it was my last
trip, and in my last remaining seconds in world,I decided
to write one last farewell song to the world.

Put a new ink cartridge in my pen. Took out a piece of paper.
I sat back and I thought awhile. Then I started writin':
I don't want a pickle
Just want to ride on my motorsickle
And I don't want a tickle
'Cause I'd rather ride on my motorsickle

And I don't want to die
Just want to ride on my motorcy ...cle."

I knew that, it wasn't the best song l ever wrote, but I didn't
have time to change it. I was comin' down mighty fast.

But as you all know, and as fate would have it, I didn't die. I
landed on the top of a police car. And he died. I drove away
on the road that he was on. I came into town at a screamin'
175 miles an hour, playin' the motorcycle song.

I came into town, I jumped off my bike, the bike went around
the corner by itself, went up on the stand by itself, turned
itself off.

I walked over to my friend. He was standin' there eatin'
pickles. I said "Hi, what's happenin'?" He looked at me in the
eye and said "Nothin'".

You gotta sing it with that kind of enthusiasm. Like you just
squashed a cop...

CHORUS

©1968,1969 Appleseed Music Inc. (ASCAP)

[url]www.westcoastchoppers.com[/url]


(....when I win the lotto...watch out!)


edited to add..
[img]http://www.westcoastchoppers.com/images/bikes/sturgis_el_diablo/j.gif[/img]
[img]http://www.westcoastchoppers.com/images/bikes/smoothmama_dragon/a.gif[/img]

Santyth, you and Polyak aren't helping by posting pics like that. My old lady (biker lingo.. hehehe) would kill me if I dropped $20-30 grand and pulled into the driveway on something like that. She would at least beat my ass for not getting a seat for her to ride on. [;D]

dnra, yeah, you can call me a friend, and thanks for the tip. I'll be sure and check for drop damage.

LWilde, thanks for the story... I think. Now I have something to look forward to... I think... hehehe [shock]

Kurt! Nice HOG! I'm jealous!

CAMPY, like I said, I wanted a Harley but that's out of my budget right now. Maybe when I kick my youngest out the front door when he turns 18. LOL!

I don't want a pickle
Just want to ride my motorsickle... [8D]

Bikes are kind of funny-you can have the coolest best handling sport bike, but if your buddies all tiddle around on Harleys you won't have any fun riding with them. By the same token a Harley is no fun if your riding buddy is Campybob who wants you to spend the weekend with him mastering the strange foibles of that weird desmodronic valve system that Ducatis have.

I haven't ridden any of the real recent japanese cruisers-but you might want to look at one that is a few years old. Japanese bikes depreciate quickly so a year or two old bike is a good range to look at. Ask to see maintenance records, look for marks or repainting indicating that the bike has been down, but most importantly, judge the bike by the owner-just like guns, how a guy keeps up his house, truck etc usually give some indications as to whether he takes care of his toys.

I've had air cooled and liquid cooled bikes. Most modern bikes are fine with air cooling for more miles than you will probably put on it.

You are probably going to get a faster nicer bike for the same money if you get a japanese bike over a Harley.

I don't really have any interest in any of the cruiser style bikes, but that 1800 cc V-Twin Honda and the Honda with the goldwing engine-I think the Valkyrie is what it's called- are cool.

I was suprised that you thought the seat height on the Harleys was too tall. There is a sportster with a lower seat height, I think it's the Hugger. Probably a cruder/simpler, slower bike that shakes more and has a teeny gas tank, but it does have the "name" and you can modify it to your heart's content.

Well, me and the missus had another little talk about me getting a motorsickle, and this time wasn't so positive. [V] I said I would put two goals out there and if I reached them I wanted to get a motorsickle.

First goal was for me to get my weight under 250 lbs. I'm getting there, slowly but surely.

Second goal was for me to get promoted to supervisor. I was offered the job two years ago but I wasn't fully vested yet so I turned it down. No way was I going to throw out 9 years of service towards my pension. My manager and supervisors have been encouraging me to go for it when it comes up again and I have been told I was pretty much a shoo-in for the job. The extra take home pay would be about $500/mo., more than enough for a motorsickle payment.

Well, reality hit me with a sucker punch. The old lady wants to move to Vermont real bad and she thinks that extra money should go towards moving and house. She has a point. I want to move out of California too... maybe not Vermont but someplace east of here that's gun friendly. Hey, that's life. We all have to set priorities, right? So it looks like my little midlife crisis thingy is going on the back burner for awhile... again. [V]

On a more positive note, my buddy at work let me take his 750 Shadow for a spin yesterday. It rides smooth and it's comfortable, but as I said before, I would prefer a little more power, like a 1100.

Aimless - FWIW, the guys at my work frequently ride together on Sundays, and two of them have Harleys, and the others are Hondas, a Valkyrie and a couple of Shadows. To hear them tell it, they all had a good time and they didn't care what the others were riding.

BTW, West Coast Choppers is not far from me, in Long Beach. Coincidentally, the LA Times did a story on Jesse James in yesterday's paper. He's supposed to be in some special coming up on the Discovery Channel. One of these days I'll have to get down there and check out his shop. Apparently he gets visitors and tourists from all over the country.

They sound like good guys-you could still pick up a cheapo bike for $ 1-2K (Honda cb 750 springs to mind), own your toys, don't let 'em own you [:)]

I have heard rumors about these things you guys call wives, they sound demanding-oh well I'm running home for a lunch of hot dogs & Captain Crunch the joys of being a bachelor [8D]

Alright guys, this may just be a possibility here in the near future.
My buddy at work wants to move up to a Valkyrie or a VTX,
and if he does he would sell me his '99 Shadow ACE Dlx. 750cc.
He said he was going to test ride new bikes this weekend.
His Shadow looks almost exactly like this one...

[img]http://images.traderonline.com/img/5/plcnad/1310758/29118466_1.jpg[/img]

... except his has The Iron Horse saddle bags, the windshield is a
little shorter and has a green tint on the bottom, he added chrome
tips to the fenders, and it has a sissy bar, but not a Cobra light bar.
10K miles and he's going to ask $4400 for it. Of course this is all
contingent on if he gets a bigger bike or not.

This wouldn't be my first choice, but it looks like the price is right
and good enough for commuting to work and weekend rides until I
can get into something bigger. So whatcha think?

[i]Edit: Sorry for the big pic. I edited to make it easier to read.[/i]