Barn Find - Pacific Coast 800 - and review

ST13Fred · Mar 4, 2016

Re: BARN FIND Bike review Pacific Coast 800

ST Gui said:
Cool but not nearly as cool as the Honda 125/150 Elite's hide-away headlight. That's got to be one of the coolest tricks Honda's ever done to a bike.

Some Elite models also had on/off cooling vents. The flip headlight seems a little odd. Unlike (daytime) retracted Prelude lights the Elite lights would be down only when parked.....huh? Running w/no headlight would be dangerous.

Bones · Mar 5, 2016

Nice find. I had an '89 (Pearl White). Put a bunch of miles on it. There was a PC800 site where I found info many years ago, Internet Pacific Coast Riders Club. Other sites here: http://www.pc800links.net/

Don't forget, your PC trunk is a beer cooler. Load it up with beer and ice, ride to your campsite, pop the lid and there you go. In the morning, pull the rubber drain plugs in the bottom of the trunk and let the melted ice drain. You're welcome.

Also, on the underside of the trunk lid are a couple of rotating rubber bumpers that let you adjust how the lid rests when you close it, just like on the trunk lid of a car. Set them so they provide enough resistance that when you deploy the trunk release lever (by the fuel port) the lid pops up and you can raise it without continuing to hold the release lever.

I had my PC for 11 years and the whole time practically everyone who guessed what it was guessed BMW (Even though it said HONDA in big letters on the side!). For whatever that's worth.

Enjoy it.

ST Gui · Mar 5, 2016

Re: BARN FIND Bike review Pacific Coast 800

ST13Fred said:
Some Elite models also had on/off cooling vents. The flip headlight seems a little odd. Unlike (daytime) retracted Prelude lights the Elite lights would be down only when parked.....huh? Running w/no headlight would be dangerous.

You're unfamiliar with the 125 and 250 Elites. Running with no headlight would be illegal. The Elites' headlights opened up when the ignition was turned on and closed when the ignition was turned off. Nothing odd about it.

Joseph/TX · Mar 5, 2016

These really are great bikes. I had a girlfriend back in the late '90s that had one just like yours. We rode to Sturgis together from TX in '98. I was on my Yamaha XS 1100 and she had no trouble keeping up. (In fact, we both got souvenir tickets for doing 80 going through Wyoming). She left me for a 65 year old retired guy that had more time and money than me. Last I heard, he had bought a pearl colored '89 and they were touring Maine..

Anyhow, I miss the bike more than the girl. I rode it quite a bit, especially to go to work on rainy days because it was so much easier to clean than my bike. It got much better mileage than my XS, and had hydraulic lifters so no valve adjustments. About all we ever did to it was change the oil and plugs - I seem to remember that it had 2 per cylinder. Not the perfect bike for touring, particularly two up, but hard to beat as an everyday commuter, for someone that likes riding more than wrenching. Gonna get one when the right deal comes along..

ST13Fred · Mar 27, 2016

Re: BARN FIND Bike review Pacific Coast 800

ST Gui said:
You're unfamiliar with the 125 and 250 Elites. Running with no headlight would be illegal. The Elites' headlights opened up when the ignition was turned on and closed when the ignition was turned off. Nothing odd about it.

So the complexity of a design that is aerodynamic when sitting still does not seem a little odd to you? Huh. There's a Corvette owner in town that has been running for years with his retractable headlights up 24/7. Nothing odd about that either I guess.

ST Gui · Mar 28, 2016

Re: BARN FIND Bike review Pacific Coast 800

ST13Fred said:
So the complexity of a design that is aerodynamic when sitting still does not seem a little odd to you? Huh.

No not a bit odd. Obviously Honda wanted a feature that was unique. For all I know the headlight was manually switched on and off in Japan and similar markets where always-on headlights weren't required. A small change in wiring and it's US compliant.

ST13Fred said:
There's a Corvette owner in town that has been running for years with his retractable headlights up 24/7. Nothing odd about that either I guess.

There are a lot of people who don't bother to fix or repair systems if they can get by without doing so. The number is great enough that classifying the Corvette scenario as ODD is easily debatable.

Neither situation you mentioned comes remotely close to qualifying as 'odd' on my radar. One man's 'unique' is another man's 'odd' I guess.

thumperjdm · Mar 28, 2016

Re: BARN FIND Bike review Pacific Coast 800

ST Gui said:
Cool but not nearly as cool as the Honda 125/150 Elite's hide-away headlight. That's got to be one of the coolest tricks Honda's ever done to a bike.

Not to hijack the thread, but I won a 1986 Elite 150 in a radio station drawing while in high school. I rode the wheels off that little thing, and always loved the pop-up headlight and digital dashboard.

Motorcycle Dave · Apr 7, 2016

She left you for an old guy.... Damn... Hey but you still had the bike .
.

Joseph/TX said:
These really are great bikes. I had a girlfriend back in the late '90s that had one just like yours. We rode to Sturgis together from TX in '98. I was on my Yamaha XS 1100 and she had no trouble keeping up. (In fact, we both got souvenir tickets for doing 80 going through Wyoming). She left me for a 65 year old retired guy that had more time and money than me. Last I heard, he had bought a pearl colored '89 and they were touring Maine..

Anyhow, I miss the bike more than the girl. I rode it quite a bit, especially to go to work on rainy days because it was so much easier to clean than my bike. It got much better mileage than my XS, and had hydraulic lifters so no valve adjustments. About all we ever did to it was change the oil and plugs - I seem to remember that it had 2 per cylinder. Not the perfect bike for touring, particularly two up, but hard to beat as an everyday commuter, for someone that likes riding more than wrenching. Gonna get one when the right deal comes along..

Opelmel · Apr 7, 2016

I've had a couple of them. Great bikes, easy to ride but somewhat of a pain to work on with all of the (now aged) Tupperware. Fortunately they don't need much work.
Check out:

https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/ipcrc/info

STrep · Apr 8, 2016

Nice find. It has that nice Honda Red and sport tourer look.

Motorcycle Dave · May 29, 2016

I found out that that group has disbanded
everyone has quit riding or are dead

TPadden · May 29, 2016

Motorcycle Dave said:
I found out that that group has disbanded
everyone has quit riding or are dead

Naw - they're all Shriners.

George · May 30, 2016

Can't help with the current situation but here's an old pic of The Founder on his first PC.

IkeNTexas · Aug 8, 2016

There is a black 95 w/ 27K miles on it at Midland Powersports for $2499. I'm trying to convince a buddy of mine that he needs it.... LOL.

Barn Find - Pacific Coast 800 - and review

ST13Fred

Fred

Bones

Your Humble Scribe

ST Gui

240Robert

Joseph/TX

R.I.P. - 2016/11/13

ST13Fred

Fred

ST Gui

240Robert

thumperjdm

Naty Von Ozirisz 1997-2011

Motorcycle Dave

Opelmel

STrep

Motorcycle Dave

TPadden

Tom Padden

George

IkeNTexas