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A good buddy of mine purchased a Shadow 750 as his first bike (he really wanted a Harley). Biggest complaints by him, it had to much plastic on it (not a problem to me), and was significantly underpowered. His uses were cruising and riding two up with his girlfriend (now wife). He got into an accident which totaled the Shadow and he replaced it with a Harley Davidson Dyna Wideglide. His likes, the HD could pull him and the GF effectively and didn't feel like it was being slowed down going uphill, other things of course he liked was the "lifestyle" that HD offered, the aftermarket support, lots o' chrome, and the V-twin sound...
For the record, this guy is about 6'1" and 250 lbs. My buddy who owns the shadow 1100 is about 6'1" and 170 lbs. If you can find a shadow 1100 i think it might work better and for longer too, not that the 750 is going to be a bad bike...but i think you'll outgrow it quickly in the same way a person would outgrow a rebel 250.
A good buddy of mine purchased a Shadow 750 as his first bike (he really wanted a Harley). Biggest complaints by him, it had to much plastic on it (not a problem to me), and was significantly underpowered. His uses were cruising and riding two up with his girlfriend (now wife). He got into an accident which totaled the Shadow and he replaced it with a Harley Davidson Dyna Wideglide. His likes, the HD could pull him and the GF effectively and didn't feel like it was being slowed down going uphill, other things of course he liked was the "lifestyle" that HD offered, the aftermarket support, lots o' chrome, and the V-twin sound...
For the record, this guy is about 6'1" and 250 lbs. My buddy who owns the shadow 1100 is about 6'1" and 170 lbs. If you can find a shadow 1100 i think it might work better and for longer too, not that the 750 is going to be a bad bike...but i think you'll outgrow it quickly in the same way a person would outgrow a rebel 250.
You know, that is what i concluded recently...that at least a 1000 cc Shadow would be better all around .
007.5 I am begging you to take the MSF course, which will do more than 2 things. One is you will get a better ins rate from the start, 2, you will get your drivers lic endorsed for bikes in the program. 3 you will have learned enough to maybe ride the bike home from the buyers house!
Do not get 1,000 ccs of bike for a first bike. The Honda 750 Shadow will be plenty of bike for no less than 1 year. Don't worry about how clean your first bike is either. since you WILL DROP IT. 99% of people drop there first bike more than once. Mirrors and levers get busted, the gas tanks get dented, and other things get scratched. Bank on it.
007.5 I am begging you to take the MSF course, which will do more than 2 things. One is you will get a better ins rate from the start, 2, you will get your drivers lic endorsed for bikes in the program. 3 you will have learned enough to maybe ride the bike home from the buyers house!
Do not get 1,000 ccs of bike for a first bike. The Honda 750 Shadow will be plenty of bike for no less than 1 year. Don't worry about how clean your first bike is either. since you WILL DROP IT. 99% of people drop there first bike more than once. Mirrors and levers get busted, the gas tanks get dented, and other things get scratched. Bank on it.
I certainly will my Friend ... it should be mandatory to take the MSC .
I certainly will my Friend ... it should be mandatory to take the MSC .
I will agree with that.
I am 59 soon to be 60 and when I began like others here there wasn't any training to buy for any amount of money what so ever. We had to learn things the hard way, and sometimes a wrong way. You don't have that excuse now.
I never took the course, but have read about the course as if I were taking it. I have since read a good number of books on How To Ride as well. If and WHEN you do, and you will, you will find bikes have other surprises, not yet at this time even fully understood.
Tank Slappers in one. That's a very bad day to suffer too. No man can stop the harmonic when it occurs. The ft wheel goes nuts and the rider is tossed off the bike if the harmonic is bad enough. Sometimes the bike goes down and then with no rider gets up and goes stright untill it hits something or runs out of energy. There are keys as to why this can happen all having to do with design, trail, road surface and harmonic vibrations, but no one knows the ALL of it, and so no one can design around it. This can happen to any bike, from crotch rockets to HD.
You will read about counter steering too, a must do, and if that doesn't bug the bee's out of you nothing will, but we all counter steer, or we couldn't ride at all. The thing is to go left you press the handle bars to the left, AWAY from the turn.... odd huh, but thats how we do it.
Doing that pushed the bike down on the left side wall, which drops the bike to the left and set up lean. The next thing you know you just made a left turn steering the wrong way.
On cruisers it is push and pull. The left turn is the same pressing down on the left bar, but pulling back on the right. The weight and size of the tire causes it to be more heavy of press and pull and most riders use both hands for that. That big fat ft tire and it's wheel are a little tuff in gyro forces to get to begin a turn started.
Yes if you end up as a rider you will out grow about anything. If you mature as a rider any smaller bike will suit a style. I know guys with HD, that also ride far smaller commuter bikes to work since they can take a smaller bike right into the office.
HD is far from the biggest bikes. My Nomad is longer and taller, and better suited to all day long rides of 400 to 500 miles in a day ride than HD is. The Nomad is apx 100 pounds heavier too.
At parking lot speeds it is a monster, and handles like a rock a real big rock.
On bad dirt roads here local in NH I can't controll the throttle well for all the bumps, pot holes and the way cars roll up sand and dirt to be like a corderoy road, and so I must shift to 2nd and lump along in places where I need to go slower than a man can walk. When I get bounced around hard enough I take the throttle with me. A Nomad is all about low end torque.
This is a shared problem with sport bikes, but the difference is with sprot bikes they won't go unless you are up in the power band at around 6,500 rpm. Gettiing a quivver in the throttle there on one is plain nasty. That type bike doesn't forget even minor sins.
My 30 year old son has one, and dear old Dad gets to try and ride it. When I do you can hear him mutter under his breath.. dad don't drop it dad don't...... LOL
He won't even consider throwing a leg over my Nomad. Oh yeah 59year, 5' 10" 150 pounds with my hair dry. I used to be taller but my back was crushed. I don't man handle anything. I let the bike know what I want and it plain does it. That takes time to learn to the point things just happen the right way on auto pilot. Like really typing well, your fingers just know.
I do not type, I hunt and peck, but my wife really types, and can look in my face typing and talk about something else entirely. That bothers me bad.
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