My stable of ponies

[Cerpin Taxt]

Top image, from left to right:

1979 Honda CX500 Custom
1981 Honda CX500 Custom
1988 Honda Shadow VT1100C
2005 Honda Metropolitan
2007 Honda Metropolitan

I'm actually soon to be selling the scooters to pay off what I laid out for the 2 CX500s. Short explanation is that the GF just got her endorsement, so she's graduating from the scooter to the big girl bike. I took the opportunity to snap a pic while I still had them all in one place, though.

 

[JulesMaximus]

Just curious, why do you have 2 versions of the same bike?

 

[ISAslot]

Need a 1990 (or 1986) Shadow to complete the collection

 

[Cerpin Taxt]

Just curious, why do you have 2 versions of the same bike?

Same reason there's 2 scooters: my girlfriend.

She lives downtown and doesn't have a car, so a couple years ago I convinced her to get a scooter so she can get around town. She rides the hell out of it. I got one too because, hey, it's actually pretty fun and we could go on scooter rides together. Also, I wanted something to tinker with and I modded mine up pretty good: Custom intake/exhaust, re-jet carb, aftermarket variator tuned with slider weights, etc.

Having the same bike as her lets me learn about servicing it so it can save her the costs of taking it to the shop. That's really the bottom line.

So now that she's graduated to a real bike, she doesn't need the scooter, which means I don't need the scooter, either. Funny thing is that the scooters each cost just about as much as the bikes did, so it's more-or-less a straight across trade.

 

[Cerpin Taxt]

The CX500 is an awesome bike, btw. Liquid-cooled, shaft drive, transverse engine a la Moto Guzzi. Gonna mod it up a bit, cafe-style. The Shadow can be my highway bike and the CX500 my town bike like the scooter was.

 

[Cerpin Taxt]

Need a 1990 (or 1986) Shadow to complete the collection

Actually, I'd really like to pick up a mid-80s Honda Sabre.

 

[Legios]

I see you are in the PNW, do you ride in the rain a lot?

 

[JulesMaximus]

The CX500 is an awesome bike, btw. Liquid-cooled, shaft drive, transverse engine a la Moto Guzzi. Gonna mod it up a bit, cafe-style. The Shadow can be my highway bike and the CX500 my town bike like the scooter was.

That's cool. I was just curious is all.

Post pics and build thread of the café conversion, I would love to see it. :thumbsup:

This is totally bitchin!

 

[Cerpin Taxt]

That's cool. I was just curious is all.

Post pics and build thread of the café conversion, I would love to see it. :thumbsup:

This is totally bitchin!

I'm familiar with that bike. There's a build thread for it out there somewhere, and I'm sure some simple googling would turn it up. You'll notice its drum brakes back AND FRONT. I don't understand that.

There are some cool cafe conversion build threads over at www.cx500forum.com if you're looking for a time-waster. I don't know how intense my mods are gonna be -- basically just a new seat and some clubman bars or clip-ons. Some new paint and she'll be ready to go.

My gf's bike looks almost exactly like this, except she's still got the stock seat and bars:

 

[Cerpin Taxt]

I see you are in the PNW, do you ride in the rain a lot?

I'm not a daily rider - I have a car, and I just ride for fun. If I can avoid riding in the rain, I will. Conversely, if it's nice out, I try to make a point of getting on the bike to go somewhere.

Put some euro bars on mine yesterday:

 

[Scarpozzi]

I made the mistake of getting married before I bought a bike....now I'm not allowed.

Around here, drivers are even less-aware of bikes than in the rest of the country. It's dangerous enough being in a car or truck these days.