- Joined
- Oct 16, 2024
- Messages
- 336
- Location
- Cumming, Georgia USA
- Bike
- ST-1300, VT-1100c
- 2026 Miles
- 001270
Who likes the Honda Shadow line of V-twin cruisers ? I’m talking the older ones with carburetors, not new ones with fuel injection.
I got a 1996 shadow VT 1100 C2 ‘ACE’ as my 1st street bike. I didn’t really want something that big, but it was a good deal and I couldn’t turn down the opportunity to snatch it up cheap. And between my teenage dirtbike riding experience from 30 years earlier and the fact that I weighed half as much as the Shadow 1100 did (300 pound man on a 600 pound bike) found I could control it pretty well.
I experimented with a 1998 Harley-Davidson Sportster 883 and I owned it for about three months at the same time I had the Shadow.
I decided to keep the Shadow and sell the lighter, skinnier, lower-seat Sportster.
Then I got my 2007 ST-1300 and joined at this forum in the fall of 2024. Put my 1996 Shadow up for sale right away and found a buyer for it in February 2025.
Distracted driver ran a red light without even touching his brakes and totaled that ST out from under me shortly before Christmas. Being out of work and having no disability benefits and no insurance settlement …
I picked up a cheap bike to get back to riding. and what I ended up with is another Honda Shadow —this time a 2006 shadow spirit 1100 and it only has 17,000 miles when I got it New Year’s Eve. (2 months ago).
The 1996, as it looked shortly after I took a red spray paint can to it, and added three more inches of padding on the seat — not to make it softer but to make it TALLER.
The 2006 one I have now:
I got a 1996 shadow VT 1100 C2 ‘ACE’ as my 1st street bike. I didn’t really want something that big, but it was a good deal and I couldn’t turn down the opportunity to snatch it up cheap. And between my teenage dirtbike riding experience from 30 years earlier and the fact that I weighed half as much as the Shadow 1100 did (300 pound man on a 600 pound bike) found I could control it pretty well.
I experimented with a 1998 Harley-Davidson Sportster 883 and I owned it for about three months at the same time I had the Shadow.
I decided to keep the Shadow and sell the lighter, skinnier, lower-seat Sportster.
Then I got my 2007 ST-1300 and joined at this forum in the fall of 2024. Put my 1996 Shadow up for sale right away and found a buyer for it in February 2025.
Distracted driver ran a red light without even touching his brakes and totaled that ST out from under me shortly before Christmas. Being out of work and having no disability benefits and no insurance settlement …
I picked up a cheap bike to get back to riding. and what I ended up with is another Honda Shadow —this time a 2006 shadow spirit 1100 and it only has 17,000 miles when I got it New Year’s Eve. (2 months ago).
The 1996, as it looked shortly after I took a red spray paint can to it, and added three more inches of padding on the seat — not to make it softer but to make it TALLER.
The 2006 one I have now:
