On my way home yesterday (errands) in the Toyota I noticed a Honda cruiser go by. Then a Shadow in the parking lot. Then my newest neighbor went by on one. He was in full gear (points) and the jacket was Honda branded. The bike was quiet. Sewing-machine-with-thunder-down-under quiet. Silver in color. Very nice.

I know Honda's reliability first hand as far as cages and know it's basicly the same for their two wheeled stuff.

Now to the point:

Who here has owned and loved/hated Shadows enough to give a real recommendation on wether to pursue purchasing one ? (I only buy used, no I don't care about warranties)

Thanks. I may be able to shake this bug, but I don't think I want to.

i had a vlx deluxe shadow, an loved it till it was totalled out by a cager

Honda made some serious crap bikes though.
I had a VLX too, and it was a POS. Unnecessarily complicated and seriously crapped out.
Jordan earl dude - How was changing the oil on it dude ...
I have had 3 nighthawks, and would throw them all into a reliable but unimpressive category. That cam chain tensioner design was one horrible nightmare. So were the carbs that would not stop leaking between 1-2, 3-4 if you let it sit for more than a few weeks. I'd attribute it to keihein crap though. Cos my emiminator isn't that much better.
Most V twin cruisers have some flaws, the most serious of which are the fact that getting to stuff is just hard hard hard. Add in water cooling, valves that were hard to get to and stupid design (fuel pump for example, that huge ass plastic crap under the seat etc ) it makes a nightmare much worse.
I think an intruder 800 has some redemming qualities - the carbs are separate units, vulcan 750 - hydraulic valves, virago - air cooling and heck the easiest of the lot due to a wider V angle too ... 750 shadow - no idea, 600 is a POS. BTW a 600 also is weirdly heavy and very under powered.
Cool.
Srinath.

For 4 days during our local Motorcycle Rally the boss let me use a 03 or 04 I duno.. 750 Shadow ACE that we had at the shop... I LOVED IT! I put almost 400 miles on it in 3 days just around town   It had double backrests (SOOO Comfortable compared to the GS) It had plenty of power for me and was like a dream on the highway cruising at 70MPH. I wish that I would have bought it The only thing I didnt like was the pipe, they where Cobras and VERY LOUD!

Here is a pic of it (from my phone so not that great...



Anyway... I am fairly sure that if I get a cruiser ever it will be a Shadow ACE 

hey a better bike for the nigthhawk 750 is the boulevar 800. that is a cool bike i have rida lots of time and i love it .. also the only 2 brands i like for bikes are yamaha and suzuki ! honda's bikes get damage very fast . I dont have experience on VICTORY bikes but I like a lot the designs of the victory you can try any VIC .

but for the nigthhawk its a bike I never would buy !! My favorite cruisers are:


edited:
sorry when I said nighthawk 750 I was mean shadow 750 !!!!

Ironically ... these bikes have been around for so long, they are all really good to ride.
The things that separate them is the ease and need for maintenance and repairs and the costs of parts and service.
The boulevard 800 aka S50 I think - same as old intruder 800.
Cool.
Srinath.

QuoteJordan earl dude - How was changing the oil on it dude ...

wish i could tell ya, i had 3 free oil changes from when i bought it, an never made it to the 4th to do on my own

Thanks guys. I hadn't considered the annoyances of a v-twin for maintenance.

The Shadow really is a good looking ride imho.

I've always wanted a Nighthawk, but they're rare and expensive if found at all.

I know a guy in town that was trying to get rid of a pretty nice looking nighthawk.  He wanted $2500, but would probably take 2k

My dad and have a Shadow 600, it's really nice 20K on it now and only had a few problems, "batteries" becuase he left the key on. "Stater" becuase he jumped it wrong.  :thumb:it's really fur to ride.

My flat-mate had a Shadow 1100.  Carb'ed well, but way low on power for being an 1100...Handled like a pig, generally felt more like driving a car than riding a moto.

Was not too comfortable at SoCal freeway speeds on it, 65mph felt like "enough", whereas I can run almost all day on the GS at 80mph (traffic flow + 2-3mph for staying out of blindspots), or 85-90mph on the Ducati for as long as I want to keep pumping gas into it.

i had a 2003 shadow 600 vlx. it was about as dependable as a bike can get. i had it for 3 years & put 30,000 mikes on it. the engine can get 100,000 with proper maintenance. the 750's have a little more horsepower but it gets lost in the shaft drive. the steering was a bit heavy due th the rake, but it served me well. i upgraded to a m50, it was a much better feeling bike, but i don't think it would have lasted as long as the shadow. i sold that one & now i have the gs. the way i see it, buy a honda if you don't like to work on bikes & value reliability, buy a suzuki if you want to go fast in the twisties.

Oh my god, you guys are somehow all ganging up against me ...
VLX - oil changes, valve adjustments, spark plug changes (thar rear one is a masterpiece IMHO) carb work then seat removal and refitting, plus the low on power and heavy mofo all conspire to make a really pretty bike, just about disgusting to me.
Nighthawk's, fix the cam chain and keep using it and you're never going to have to get to the motor or carbs ... ever. Hydraulic valves and shaft drive pretty much do it.
The intruder 800 is the one V twin that has the 2 carb design ... will be somehting I should try out.
750 and 1100 shadow's no idea. They all run great. They all have handling that is about normal for their class of bike. really what separates them is the rest of it. Working on it, and I love the geniuses that say, I buy it to ride it not fix it. Basically they are paying the shop to fix it. Buy one with hydraulic valves and shaft and ride it forever, never maintain it mostly, fix when it breaks if you really want to ride it. Dont buy some crap that needs 5K valve adjustments and say you bought it to ride it. You bought it wihtout a clue as to how to ride it.
Cool.
Srinath.

i did do my own valve checks, not hard at all, need to adjust just once in that 30,000 on the vlx ( thanks to rotella synthetic i believe). it is a bullet proof motor design that was started much earlier & is used in several bikes ( honda hawk, trans alp, vlx, pacific coast 800) from the class of bike i am interested in (sub-800) hydraulic valves are hard to come by. even my m50 with fuel injection, inverted forks, shaft drive & sportbike wheels needed valve adustments. it was harder than the honda to adjust by the way.

Sub 800 with hydraulic valves - Nighthawk 650, 700, 750, Vulcan 700, 750, 800, Shadow 700, 750, suzuki madura 700, 750.
In essense you'd heen to compare a 600 shadow to its class of bike, AKA small entry level cruiser. Its not quite in the 700 class cos 750 shadows compete with 750 virago's, 750 vulcans and 800 intruders, Its competition is 535 virago, 500 vulcan, and 650 savage. Its simply handed a whipping by those 3 in the cost of ownership department.
Shaft or belt drive, and ease of maintenance on the other 3 are standard - OK new 500 vulcans are chain, old was belt. Those others also run better cos they weigh like 1000 lbs less.
Shadow definetly has the looks, nothing even comes close. It also ages well, a whole lot better than the rest with possible exception to the vulcan 500.
Cool.
Srinath.

'84 750 Shadows will bake your legs with the heat spill off of the radiator.

I rode an early model VLX and it handled like a dumptruck, terrible; even worse was that it doesn't countersteer, in order to turn left, you turned the bars left.    Scariest experience I've ever had.  When you've been riding for so long, and every other bike out there countersteers, this is a motorcyclist's nightmare; it'd be great for a car driver.