my marriage is kind of in the shitter so I'm looking to have some fun and do something I always wanted to. I'm planning on taking my temp test this weekend and I'd like to buy a bike before the end of June. Right now I'm looking at a 2006 Honda Shadow Spirit or Suzuki Boulevard c50t. They're in the $4k price range I'm looking at, and all the bike guys I work with say Honda and Suzuki make great bikes. Do any of the riders here know much about them?
Depends on what you want from a bike really.
Jap "Harley" look alikes are nice bikes, and as long as you stick to the right ones, will be a lot cheaper to run than the real deal.
My only experience with them though was the Yamaha Dragstar 650cc I owned about 15 years ago, and while it was a fantastic bike as far as riding and looks, it was an unreliable piece of shit due to stupid design with the regulator/rectifier positioning. Only new bike I have ever owned, and it was the most unreliable.
Personally I have always been a Honda man, and that Yamaha defection was purely based on it being a better looking bike than the Honda equivalent. But it was enough to send me running back to Honda.
Of course I grew bored with the custom style and moved onto sports bikes.
One thing pretty much anyone will tell you about Hondas are they are bulletproof. Barely anything goes wrong with them seriously as long as they are looked after properly.
Just make sure you really want to get a bike, and its not just some mid life crisis type bullshit. Most biker deaths here are 40+ men who have never ridden before and suddenly get the urge as they get older because their penis is shrinking, or something like that.
I have been riding for 27 years now, and I am still not dead .. I think.
