[Clay Dowling]

I’m riding a 750 V4. Smooth power delivery, at no point does it try to launch me off into space. And while I ride a bigger bike, I wouldn’t think of getting on a CBR600. They’re beautiful bikes, but just watching video of them I can see that they’re more than I can handle. Maybe someday, if I can get some training specific to sport bikes, but not this year, and not next.

[Clay Dowling]

I’ve had really good luck with the Akismet module. The nature of some of my sites requires anonymous commenting, and Akismet dealt well with the crap-flooding I was getting. I would get a few hundred spam messages in a day, and Akismet made them all die. Or almost all. Every now and then I have to train it on a new batch.

[Clay Dowling]

Bike came with crash bars, which was cool the one time that I’ve dumped it. Makes it easy to stand the bike back up and protects the 200lbs of chrome on a Magna.

Swapped out the cruiser screen that the former owner had put on because it caused wind buffeting and seriously impeded visibility with my full-face helmet. Replaced it with a flyscreen (Ben has a review from me on this) from National Cycle, which made the bike a lot more comfortable for me to ride and gave it a sportier look.

I want to swap out the stock seat for a Corbin or Mustang, with preference going to Corbin. Unfortunately the owner of Corbin is looking to sell his company, which isn’t going to make getting one of his seats any easier.

Current plan though is to get a pair of bicycle shorts with the padded seat, which is supposed to make riding a lot more comfortable.

[Clay Dowling]

I thought that was mostly the dude holding the throttle.

[Clay Dowling]

I’m a huge Honda fan, principally for the bullet-proof nature of their engines. Most metric bikes are like that though, so I wouldn’t let that sway you too much.

My starter bike was a Honda Magna, on the recommendation of a friend. It’s heavier than the Shadow 600, and heavier than really recommended for starting. What I found was that I needed to go out to parking lots and quiet side streets to practice my low-speed maneuvers. You’ll want to do that anyway, with any new bike, but I found it was very necessary to learn what to do about the increased weight.

The weight isn’t impossible to learn, and I found that I adapted to it pretty easily. But definitely dedicate time to learning how the bike handles. I found that I could get my Magna around in the same tight circle that the MSF classes use for their figure eights, once I adapted to it and developed my confidence in the machine. In fact, I think that tight circle is easier on my bike than on theirs.

[Clay Dowling]

When you get your ride, send pics.

[Clay Dowling]

I’m envious of the route. I drive through very flat farmland, nothing stellar about the ride. Having twisties most of the way to work would be awesome.

[Clay Dowling]

I’ve had to do it a couple of times, and I really really hate it. Not for the social issues, I just hate being on a bike and not being in control. Scares the piss out of me. It’s like being on a roller coaster without the comfort that the rails are going to keep you on track.

I might be more comfortable about it now that I’m a rider, but I was not happy riding bitch.

[Clay Dowling]

But not as extensive as you might think. Honda Rebel and Honda Magna are both absent from the list (or at least the VF750C version of the Magna). But as Jon D. said, recall is different from life-threatening problem. I noticed that there were plenty of recalls for things like incorrect manuals.

[Clay Dowling]

A friend is still riding his 1983 Nighthawk and doesn’t have any problems on the 100 miles of highway he rides every day. It’s a 400, but that’s still pretty small. It was originally his dad’s bike, now it’s his, so they obviously hold up really well.

[Clay Dowling]

I’m six foot. I’m riding a Honda Magna. It has the exact same seat height as the Rebel, and the same seat position. Haven’t noticed a tendency to cramp up yet, and I have an hour commute. A friend is 6’2″ and rides a V-Star 250. He went to that from a 400, and likes the 250 a lot better.

Don’t believe the hype about 250s not working for tall people. They work fine.

[Clay Dowling]

Can ride it to a parking lot for you, where you can practice. One of my friends offered to do that for me, before he knew I had a church parking lot close by.

[Clay Dowling]

The Rebel isn’t on that list. And the list goes back to the 1970s.

[Clay Dowling]

I don’t mean to run down your ride. I’m sure it’s a great bike. But in February of 2009 I don’t think you can really provide any real long term reliability information about a 2009 bike. In 2014 you can provide some useful information.

I’m riding a 12 year old bike and it’s bullet proof. I have a friend who recently sold a 1979 Goldwing that was bulletproof other than needing carbs rebuilt from sitting idle for a year. A decade or two, you’re talking about a reliable bike. Four months, that’s not reliable. That’s “good so far.”

[Clay Dowling]

“Speed: +Intruder-leaves everything in it’s class (exept a Magna) in the dust.”

Which brings to mind: see if you can find a Magna. Obviously, by the picture I’m biased. Beauty is that the Magna, while fast, isn’t prone to launching you into space. If you go fast it’s because you meant to go fast, not because you twitched the throttle when you flew through a cloud of june bugs.

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