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Hey guys, new to the forum, good to be hear. I figured I would turn for some advice as I am in an internal debate. I currently ride an older dual sport, but I plan on making the step from this bike to around a 1000cc cruiser. I have yet to have any riding experience on any metric cruiser lines, so my judgments are not profound. I have ridden the Harley Road King regularly, a very nice machine, and that is more or less what I am judging my decision off of. I want to go cross country a year from this June and I am starting now to get things ready.
I am about 5' 8" 220 and my budget is around 3500-5000, clearly not a road king budget. The bikes that have really gotten my attention have been the Shadows, Vulcans, and V-stars. All machines are very impressive, they are affordable with low mileage often and have many accessories. I am in no rush so I can wait for the right bike with accessories to come along. I plan to do aftermarket exhaust, and certainly plan to put a great deal of miles on with a passenger.

What do you guys think based off me and my intentions? I would love to hear from anyone that owns a metric cruiser, thanks bigmarc

For that kind of money you could get your hands on a Shadow 1100(Sabre). All reports are that it is a nice bike. Honda stopped making the engine in favor of the VTX 1300 though.

I'd agree with a Shadow 1100, V-star 1100, or even one of the larger bikes in the Suzuki lineup like a C90 (about 1300 ccs).
For that money you should be able to find any of them used fairly easily.

siralienj wrote:For that kind of money you could get your hands on a Shadow 1100(Sabre). All reports are that it is a nice bike. Honda stopped making the engine in favor of the VTX 1300 though.

+1 - if I went cruiser i was really thinking about this one.

RhadamYgg

thanks for the input, Shadow Sabre seems to be a very nice bike and they are very available. I would love to get some Vulcan, V-star input if anyone has it

I have a V Star but I just bought it used about 3 weeks ago. Since I am in MN the weather has not allowed me to do much riding but what I have done has been comfortable and fun so far. No long trips however to tell about.

I have an 02 Vstar 1100 Custom and couldn't be happier with it. I ride it to work every day, as well as putting a hundred or two miles on it on weekend days off. It has 87,000 miles on it, but looks and runs like new. It has proven itself for me.

02custominfl wrote:I have an 02 Vstar 1100 Custom and couldn't be happier with it. I ride it to work every day, as well as putting a hundred or two miles on it on weekend days off. It has 87,000 miles on it, but looks and runs like new. It has proven itself for me.

(!) That's some gonzo miles! It would probably take me 20 years to put that many miles on a bike.

Then again, at the rate my wife is pissing me off - maybe I'll just be one of those guys that doesn't do much at home and just ride off.

RhadamYgg

not sure if you've heard about the recent study done at harvard concerning marriage... there are many interesting things. but one of them being that the first 9 years are the hardest. this should be great news for my wife and me because our 9 year anni is this july 1st. only thing is, the best year isn't until year 35.

Every make of bike , feels a little different on you are sitting on it so try them all. For billit proof I would go with the Honda 1100, I had a 1985 back when new and never had any trouble from it. It not like a bmw but a hole lot cheaper to maintain. I had a BMW great bikes .