The Times, They Are a Changin'

Some old ridin' buddies went on a poker run today. They met for breakfast at Cracker Barrel in Lexington, then on to Midway for their meet up.

I was invited. I didn't go. We not exactly, "didn't go"; I met 'em for breakfast and rode with 'em to the meet up.

A couple of these guys have been faithful riding buddies for many years, and leaving them with the poker run organizers I felt like I was abandoning them to a nursing home. What can ya' do?! I talked until I'm blue in the face, but they are beguiled by the flatulent, toothless pachyderm. So, abandon them I did, lest I fall along side them into the morass of fatman's whimsy where reason may not reach and from which there is no salvation.

UPDATE:
I heard back from one of the old-folks. It seems one of the harley ridiers t-boned a roadside tree. From the description it sounds like another Harley rider 30 mph freeze-up. Popped over a hill, saw a curve and a driveway equipped with optional 16" ( " means inches, SB) diameter tree and fixed his paniced gaze upon the tree. You know the rule, look where you want to go. He looked, He went.
Bike is wrecked. Head is bashed, brain is scrambled (it was before) since he wore no helmet. I am told he had no idea where he was, what he was doing, what day it was, or how he got there. He was alive when they hauled him off, though his breathing was laboured and he was wheezing badly.
He sure looked cool w/o his helmet on. Bet his family will think he's cool, too, when they have to wipe his ass because he shits himself now.


Ride safe y'all. And ATGATT; You're worth the trouble.

JACIII

Counterpoint: Honda Shadow 1100 (Sabre)

Ok, 'tis my turn at bat, so to say , 'specially since Bill 's bloviations are done and Nate got in his first salvo on this here deal, Neither on the topic at hand , btw, but I digress . JAC, first of all kudos to ya for taking the time to do a real-deal from the saddle test / your perspective of riding a bike that is not what you would normally ride, but did it with us in mind, a most noble endevour, fo' sho'. Now, to the VT1100 . The ergo's may not be too your liking, but it is de rigeur for " cruisers" , damn I hate that term, but they are made for easy ridin', and no, the aint got the handling thing down to a tee, a good set of tires helps, but the mushy factory suspension needs some help too, Gold valves make a Big diff. The neck bearings could prolly stand a snuggin, too. Are they good bikes ? yes, for the value and their intended use, absolutely . Do I think they are better than a Harley, no.
Brand X

Off Topic: That there's a pic BrandX sent me of some of his kin roundin' up dinner. Always wanted to try 'gator.

Alien Abductors Are Pussies

There's a new airplane terrotist threat so, you guessed it, we need to tighten security at airports! Bend over boys, those "black wands" will soon be put to more probitive use and unlike our pals the alien abductors the rent-a-cops won't have to flit about procuring their own probe-ees. They're linin' up like cattle in a chute for the procedure.

Oh, and somebody please tell me why exploding ragheads need to actually board a plane to slaughter civilians when several planeloads worth are lined up for the taking? Are we gonna have an airport security checkpoint checkpoint?
That's it, line up, single file! Be patient, pretend it's a breadline in the old USSR. There now, we'll pretend it's an interesting historical exercise instead of a mind-numbing, dehumanizing exercise in futility.

Bike Review: Honda Shadow 1100 (Sabre) Conclusion

Sorry I took so long to finish this up.

... I rode the Shad'er for about 50 miles, took my youngest daughter for a spin. She liked it. The oldest sneered at it and went back in the house.

Something I noticed while doin' some city ridin' on this thing is that cruiser riders are real catty toward each other. They don't necessarily wave back and they do a lot of checking out the other guy's bike out of the corner of their eye. 99% of the time anybody on any motorcycle waves to me, on the SwampThing, on the Voyager, on Big Red, but not on the Shad'er. Weird, huh?! My theory is that cruisers are all about looks and all about looks is a distinctly feminine perspective so, of course they're gonna act like bitches toward one another.

Finally, there is no question the Shad'er is well built with all the fit and finish you expect from Honda. That said, it is a royal pig on the road. The front end manages to be heavy and unstable at the same time - neat trick that. The riding position is bizarre and no one who has ridden a modern bike with a rational riding position any length of time is gonna tolerate the gynecological exam riding position (or in Nate's nomenclature the "flying squirrel").

Conclusion: The Shad'er is an OK bike for What It Is. Now, "What It Is" is an antique motorcycle with a few (very few) refinements. I can understand a motorcycle company that has never designed or manufactured a modern, competent motorcycle (Harley) turning one of these out, but not one of the Big Four. Their engineers had to be taught how to make a bike this inept. Sadly that is what the American market demands a lot of. Go figure.

If you took a poll of random Joe on the street:"What kind of motorcycle would you like to have?" Most would answer some form of cruiser, so it is true most people would like to have a cruiser. It is also true that most people don't know shit about bikes.

Bill, Bill, Bill.....

Here's some input on the cruisers of yesteryear from Bill:

I'm not aware of a decent "cruiser" made today. They took the decent engines (which MUST, MUST, MUST be a water-cooled V-4) and wrapped all this ugly plastic around them. I've never been impressed with the Shadow, or any twin for that matter. They just can't spool up fast enough, what use is being on a bike if you don't have power on tap? It's like being in a car except you get wet when it rains. My Magna (sadly gone lo these many years) could cruise happily all day at 120, and it'd get there in a hurry. If you didn't mind shifting gears it could hang in there at 150, but was a bit buzzy and the wind was beginning to be a problem, and if your balls are bigger than your brain it can hit 180.

The older cruisers handled pretty well, too. Dragging foot pegs is a constant problem, but with minimal countersteer and reasonable body english you can throw one through a decent line on a curve (just ignore the sparks and they'll go away).

When Harley came out with the V-Rod Honda was wonderin' what all the fuss was about since they already made that bike 20 years earlier and no one (hardly) bought it.

I like havin' you around, Bill, so rather than figure yer blowin' smoke up my ass about the 150 MPH Magna, I'll mark it down as hyperbole. It reminds me a lot of most older fella's I know who remember their old cars/bikes as a lot faster than they really were even allowing for optomistic speedos.

Dad still swears he drove his old '46 ford 130mph throught the mountains of Tennessee on the way to Florida to elope with Mom. We just smile and nod. What are ya' gonna do?

Bike Review: Honda Shadow 1100

I spent the day on a cruiser. I know, " It must be snowin' in hades!". Well, first thing is first:

JACIII Review - Honda Shadow 1100

First thing I noticed was the handlebar controls , mirrors, and gauge (singular) were all in the right places. Fit and finish, from the paint to the shiney bits is nearly flawless with only age blemishing the Shad'er, and then inconspicuously.

It's carbeurated, so I set the enrichener and hit the starter. Fired right up. The Cobra pipes have a nice snap on-throttle, but off-throttle there's a kind of hollow gurgling sound. Weird and out of charecter.

Time to go! I notched it into first (once I found the shifter up by the front wheel) flipped the enrichener off and fed in some throttle as I eased out the clutch. Easy, smooth take off. No surprises, no faltering engine. The Honda has plenty of oomph to get out of its own way and no feathering of the clutch is called for.

Once out on the road I had to make myself short-shift it as I am used to SwampThing's 7500 RPM redline which isn't much, but Swampy's a screamer compared to a cruiser. No tach, but I figure it cruises 65mph at about 2500. It's entertaining trying to get it to lug at low speed. It'll do it, but you have to try to make it happen. Basically, it doesn't much care what gear it is in.

There's not much grunt down low, but it tractors out pretty well. The top end is, well, . The Shad'er fills in the torque curve at the midrange, though. It's has some passing power from 45 to 60, but you are still at the mercy of traffic flow rather than its master. Momentum is your friend as there are no sudden bursts of speed, quick direction changes, and you're not gonna bleed of spped at a steep rate, either. Plan ahead. Sorta like towing a travel trailer.

This is one heavy steering bike. Between the 'flying squirrel' riding position and the big inputs required to make this thing turn, I can understand why cruiser boys don't ride very much. I had to hold it into the turns with continuous steering pressure. No 'set it and forget it' here I'm tellin' ya'. You're probably thinkin' it's the compromise cruisers make to be stable at highway speeds, right? Wrong. This thing tracks every ripple, rut, seam, and crease in the roadsurface. SwampThing is more confidence inspiring on the interstate. That said, the Shad'er is pretty happy clippin' along at an indicated 80mph. Past that it starts gettin' squirrely; vibratin' and waggin' it's head. Some of this could be the old-style tread pattern on the tires, but then again it might not be.

I pusuhed it up to and indicated 100mph. 100 is no place to stay for long on this thing.

I'll have more later on the Shad'er. For now, though, some explanation is in order.

It's snowin' in hades because I leant SwampThing out to a friend of mine so he could take his son out on the trail on his little JR50. See he rides (I use the term loosely) a cruiser so he would not have been able to take the boy ridin' someplace besides his back yard unless SwampThing stepped in.

I got to worryin' about somenoby else bein' out in the woods on my bike so I called him and told him to bring me his bike so I could hold it hostage. That way he might think twice before gettin' careless with ol' Swampy. I figured I could always run his bike through the creek if he mistreated SwampThing. Swampy came home without much more than a broken turn signal lens and he coughed up the $30.00 right quick so I have no complaints.



I found this while looking for an image of the Shad'er.
Caution: Not work safe!