1986 Honda Shadow VT1100
As I have occasionally mentioned, I’ve spent a few hours this past year looking casually at bikes and dragging myself back from the brink of actually spending money. As the summer winds down my thoughts have returned to bikes so yesterday I trotted to a local dealership I frequented “back in the day”.
I vividly recall when Honda started the original “Honda-Davidison” trend in the 80’s with their Shadow and Magna cruisers and still favor the Honda Shadow line so that’s what I’ve been watching most of the year. After facing the fact that I’m a cheapskate and while I would love to have a bike again for the missus and I to poke around on I’m not willing to shell out a huge amount of money for something that’ll come out of the garage maybe one day a week, at most. So I started looking for older models I could buy inexpensively and at worst pay off in 24 months. Jokingly, I mentioned to a salesman yesterday that what I’d really like to find was a 1986 Shadow 1100. For some reason this Honda milestone model year has stuck in my mind for the last 20 years.
The sales guy took me back to the service department and there sits the exact model.
Sitting on the old machine reminded me of the shop I frequented as a teenager. It also reminded me that I prefer the way the older model sits compared to the newer Shadow models. Don’t get me wrong, I’d love to have the 2005 Shadow I looked at yesterday, but, the pegs are pushed so far foward it wasn’t nearly as natural feeling as the original.
Initially the missus didn’t (doesn’t?) understand why I would even consider purchasing a 20 year old bike. After some discussion we came to some conclusions more about our riding a bike again after so many years. Neither of us is getting younger and hour upon hour in the saddle just may not be as appealing after buying another bike as it was when we were still actively riding 15 years back. Both of us also work full time and on top of that the travel time especially for me eats another 2.5 hours of my day so the regular opportunity for us to actually get out and ride would be lmited ot 5 or 6 times a month. And that doesn’t seem to this old cheapskate to warrant investment in a $7k toy.
So we’re considering the investment in that light. If after a year we decide it simply isn’t as much fun for us as when we were younger we’re not stuck with payments. Conversely, if we really like going its a small amount of equity, especially since this model is becoming somewhat collectable, to trade up. Or, we like riding but can’t do it often - but we can do it on a much lower investment. All of these seem quite appealing to my inner cheapskate and child, both. Anyway, I have until the first of the week to make a decision and make the numbers work..