Total Motorcycle Community Forums

agraebner wrote:I woke up early and made it to the insurance office 5 minutes before they opened. I beat the rain like I planned. The new clutch felt great and the bike ran great with my carb work its a lot more rideable now ( I took out the stage three jets and put in a stage 2 jets.) I spent 3 hrs working on my nephews new to him car. We have it almost ready for inspection now. (only one door hinge to rebuild) I think I am going to be selling him my shadow He wants a bike. I have too many bikes. I haven't been riding the shadow so much since I got the nighthawk. He got a ride on the night hawk and decided quickly it was more than he wants power wise. What do you guys and gals think should I let it go? He really likes the shadow. What do you think the life expectancy is of the nighthawk it has 44k miles on it now. It burns no oil that I can see with dipstick in 750 miles I have put on it. It doesn't smoke at all and has no leaks at all. IT runs really strong and has no noises. A boss I had a few years back had a cb750 and a cb900 and both of them were bad oil users and both leaked too. They scared me of air cooled bikes.

I don't see why a properly maintained and non-abused Honda air cooled motor (especially the 750) would not easily go well over 100K. I've heard of some going a quarter of million miles. Yours certainly sounds like one in very good state of health.

Your Nighthawk should easily go 100K miles if maintained properly (and from the sounds of it you know how to do it).
Sell him the Shadow, if he wants a Nighthawk he can wheel and deal the Shadow for it!

agraebner wrote:I woke up early and made it to the insurance office 5 minutes before they opened. I beat the rain like I planned. The new clutch felt great and the bike ran great with my carb work its a lot more rideable now ( I took out the stage three jets and put in a stage 2 jets.) I spent 3 hrs working on my nephews new to him car. We have it almost ready for inspection now. (only one door hinge to rebuild) I think I am going to be selling him my shadow He wants a bike. I have too many bikes. I haven't been riding the shadow so much since I got the nighthawk. He got a ride on the night hawk and decided quickly it was more than he wants power wise. What do you guys and gals think should I let it go? He really likes the shadow. What do you think the life expectancy is of the nighthawk it has 44k miles on it now. It burns no oil that I can see with dipstick in 750 miles I have put on it. It doesn't smoke at all and has no leaks at all. IT runs really strong and has no noises. A boss I had a few years back had a cb750 and a cb900 and both of them were bad oil users and both leaked too. They scared me of air cooled bikes.

Before selling him either bike, how much riding experience does he have? Both the Nighthawk and Shadow might be a bit too much of a bike for a new rider to be able to handle safely and properly.

My nephew is turning 21 this year. He has been riding dirt bikes since he was 16. He can pass all parts of the standard motorcycle test on any one of three dirt bikes I have had him on. kx125 300exc yz250. I have had him doing a lot of different practice too. The very first thing I worked with him on was the slow ride because learning clutch control and balance is the back bone of riding IMHO. I cant believe they removed this from the MVA test for licensing. Last year he had a learner permit and rode with me to a parking lot on the shadow to do drills. I think he more than capable of handling it. He seems very good with the throttle and clutch immediately. He was a little concerned about the weight factor the first ride. Buy the time he made it to the parking lot on back roads you could tell he had it well figured out. His dream bike is a nighthawk. I had the chance to grab this one up for nothing cause the carbs were dirty and it didn't run. The man I got it from wanted a dirt bike for him and his son. After delivering the dirt bikes he asked me If I knew anything about carbs. It was on my trailer less than 10 minutes later and I handed him back 3 bills of the money he just gave me. I bought a cheap battery on the way home since no one had a good one. drained the carb refilled the fuel tank with fresh premium with sea foam in it. I let it sit over night while the battery charged up. I had it running without taking anything apart in 10 mins the next morning. After 50 miles it was running like, no better way to say it, A HONDA. I cant believe that It passed inspection so easily either. Its previous owner only rode it 50 miles in the year he had it. It had only 50 miles on new Bridgstone's and new brakes I took him for a few mile ride on it last night and he decided it was too much power for him so I think he has a very good mind for riding. The Shadow was my first bike, before this I rode my brother in laws bikes. The shadow felt like home the first time I sat on it at the dealer, The test drive felt even better. The only reason I'm even entertaining letting it go is riding two up with luggage its kinda like an ANT carrying 10x its weight. I can pick up a 1100 or 1300 some years older for same money I'll get for this as it still looks like new and has been crazy maintained.

Found out you can get a brand new 1300 vstar (by brand new I mean 2008 with zero miles on it) for $7,000 out the door.

I figured it was finally safe to do it, so I de-fueled the snowblower.

Forecast for Lumberton, NJ next week: Record breaking blizzards.

ITS FINALLY DONE. I had to re-thread the right side clip on a little for the new bar end. Everything went smoothly on the last parts. If I can figure it out i have a few more pics of it and the new to me Nighthawk.

I've never seen a FZR in Kawasaki Lime Green before.