So, My dad has a Honda Shadow from the early 80's, and I have always wanted to refurbish a car/vehicle of some sort. My bud is an avid auto junkie who has a 94 camaro he's dumped like 25 grand in, and is always working on it. Mainly I need some hobbies. The question I have is; would it be a waste to try and refurbish this thing? it's been exposed to the elements for some time, idk if it runs, my dad has some of the parts for it. If I do go through with this I plan on getting a store room or my car loving buddies house (who's loaded) and might get a garage put in at so he can work on his car. It's never been wrecked, just exposed to mother nature for some time. Mainly I want to do it 1. the expierience 2. a F*CKING badass hobby and 3. I'll have a sweet cruising motorcycle. My friend suggested I should just buy a working motorcycle. What say you noobfest?

I think Gman had/has a Honda Shadow. Maybe he could give you a fair assessment if he wants lol

It depends, honestly. What model is it? Do you have a title for it? Is it covered with rust? Is there any frame damage? Does the engine turn over? How much do you know about bikes? The great thing about Honda bikes from the 80s is that there are tons of them out there. One in pretty shitty condition normally goes for about $500. Fix it up nice, though, and they're pretty solid rides. They can sell for about $3-4000 here if they're very nicely fixed-up. There's obviously not a huge profit margin on them if you want to flip a bike, but they can be fun and rewarding, especially if you can turn it into a cafe racer.... or especially if it's not a shadow and is a Magna (lots of people mistake them for each other). If it's a magna, that shit is BOSS as hell.

Hell it hasn't been started in some time. My dad says it's a shadow, and he bought it during the Carter era, so it's a tad weird. I need to get all the specs from him. Here's a really shoddy picture of it. I do believe he has the seat/gas tank/ and some light fixtures for it. I do believe he has the title. My plan first and foremost is to get it out of there and into somewhere where I can get it under cover. My license and Insurance for a motorcycle I figure I can get along the way. Also, I do not know much about bikes, like I said though, 2 of my friends have rebuilt entire cars, one of them has rebuilt 2 motorcycles. It's something I want to learn/teach myself.


BAM!! figured it out! wiki-"In 1983, Honda introduced the Shadow series of motorcycles in an attempt to address the needs of the American cruiser market with the "VT500c" and "VT750c". However, due to tariff restrictions in the United States on imported Japanese bikes over 750 cc, the VT750c was reduced to 699cc in 1984 and was sold as the Vt700c." This is what my dad has. Because he said he bought it when there was a tariff on engine size. this is what it is I believe.

your gonna fight a cactus for a bike watch out the mexicans are watching you.....

yeah...you know all of those redneck's you always think of with a bunch of worthless shit lying in their yard with tall ass grass? yeah...that's our 40 acres. 4 dead vehicles, a few tractors, farm implements, old buildings. the works...lol

looks like a turd dude find a bike thats not in that bad of shape these kind of projects can get out of hand and cost way more than they are worth take it from a guy who has an 1980 yam 850 special,78 firebird and a 80 jeep cj7, find something that needs some cosmetics and minor repairs to do for your first project.

you could probably buy a nice bike for what you'd have to spend on that one.. my suggestion? pull the motor/trans, the tank, the radiator, swingarm, strip the frame, ebay the pieces and go from there.

yes very good idea there probably are a lot of people trying to restore them and cant get certain parts that are not available any more ,plus that will give you extra money to get some thing in better shape keep everything tho because you never know wat part some one might need

All that thing needs is a thriller jacket and a new power supply and you're good to go my friend.

so.. new tires and tubes, a new chain, new fluids, and a fork rebuild will run you close to $600-700. A battery will be $100 easy, and the title transfer (depending on where you live) will probably be $50 or so... that being said, if there's nothing seriously wrong with the engine, you can probably get it going for around a grand. If you can get it for free, there's still some profit to be made I think. Spend a couple hundred bucks on paint and chrome and you've got yourself a $2500-3000 bike.

p.s. I just got my Honda running again after letting it sit for over a year. Took a half a bottle of B12 Chemtool, 2 new sets of sparkplugs, and a battery but it's running like a F*CKING champ now. It's a 2003 VT750CD -- gonna be selling it to lone_mortal for $2500 (a little over a grand less than what it's worth 'cause he's my bro and I want to get him on a bike).

Werd. That's what I was the most curious about. I want to keep it, it was my dads, not to mention its a cool piece of history. I knew it wouldn't be cheap. I'd go buy a bike, but I don't want to buy one. I want to rebuild this one like I said for the fun, experience, and because it was my dads.

word. Good luck to you ;)

Ever hear the motorcycle joke? This girl who just turned 16 wanted a car so shen went and asked her dad if he would buy her a car and he said if you suck my dick I will buy you a car she said hell no and walked out, after a day or two of thinking about it she really wanted a car so she decided she would suck her dads C*CK. she goes in and starts sucking and says this tastes like shit. Her dad says yeah your brother was just in here, he wanted a motorcycle

LOL spidey