Trying to choose a bike

[1st_bike]

Hello,

I am very new to motorcycles, and just finished a Safety Riding Course, and now looking to get my first bike. I was thinking to get some older Japanese bike with around 600-750cc engine. Would like it to be easy to ride and maintain, since I will be doing all of the repairs myself. Not looking for anything special, just to ride around. Are there any specific models that I should avoid, rare once that would be hard to get parts for. I had that problem with cars before, and don’t want to deal with it again. Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Ilya.

[nstout]

well i have been doing alot of research on bikes for some time now. I can honestly say that each one are about equal. Yamaha's have kinda of crappy transmission. They all tend to shift hard and around 20K miles they have tendencies to slip out of gear at high speeds. Other than Yamaha Honda has the king of the six. The 600RR is the fastest 600 around and very durable. if your looking for a 750 you have to either go with Suzuki or Kawasaki. Personally I'd go for the Suzuki it was named the Sport bike of the year in 2005 or 2006 dont remember. The early model Suzuki GSXR 750 with Fuel Injection 98-00 were the "S-RAD" models they didnt have as much horspower as the newer version. After Suzuki dropped the S-rad Team they upped the horsepower by about 10-15 hp. So a late 90's gsxr 750 has about 135 hp and the newer ones have about 147. You could go with the Suzuki GSX 750 Katana but why. Its a girl bike. Really for a bike that will be durable, fun to ride, easy to work on, i would go with a 2000 Honda CBR 600 f4. In 2000 Honda had the cbr600 f4 which was carbed, and they had a CBR600 F4i which was fuel injected. Now the carbs are more maintenace, if you have someone who knows carbs you can get a carbbed engine to run faster and more responsive than a injected bike. Personally I just bought a Triumph Daytona 1200 Its a fun bike but definatly not for the beginer. Hope this helped and ride safe.

[1st_bike]

Thanks for the reply. I should of mentioned it earlier, but I am looking for early to mid 80's bike, due to the small amount of money that I can spend($1000). Any info on those years?

[CB750F]

What are you lookin' at? The Suzuki GS series bikes are pretty good as are the Kawasaki KZ 4 cylinders, the Honda CB and CX series and the Yamaha XS series bikes. There are good bikes made in those years and there are a few ones to avoid. If you have a few ya been lookin' at post them here and I'll try to give you an opinion.

[1st_bike]

Thanks for the reply.

I just bought a bike. It's a '83 Honda Shadow 750. It's in a pretty good condition with about 27K on it. Looked like a good bike to me, and it've been hard to find a good cheap bike lately. I missed out on two other bikes this weekend, because by the time I got email replies from people and email or call them back the bikes would be sold already.

So, now for the next stage, what do I need to do, if anything before I start riding it? Also is there any known common problems with those those bike that I should check for?

One more thing, are those Shadows 6 or 5 speed? The guy I bought it from says it's five, but on the internet on different sites says that it's a six.

Thanks,
Ilya.

[CB750F]

5 speeds I think. Some of the older 600's were 4 speeds though.

[Uesque]

One more thing, are those Shadows 6 or 5 speed? The guy I bought it from says it's five, but on the internet on different sites says that it's a six.

Thanks,
Ilya.

My wife's '85 500 Shadow is a 6 speed, but it's 5 plus an overdrive. If yours is like hers, there's an OD light on the dash.

[1st_bike]

Thanks for your replies guys, I just got on a bike and counted and came up with five and no OD, so five it is. I wonder why a lot of web sites say it's a six speed.

I got a question about rpm at idle. When I start my bike I have to use choke, which is fine (it's 24 years old) and it starts right up. As the bike warms up I gradualy close the choke untill comletely closed. At that point the bike idles at 1,000 rpm. However, after riding for about 5-10 minutes it starts to idle at around 2,000 rpm, and stays that way. Can anyone tell me what is the problem if any?

Thanks,
Ilya.

[CB750F]

Nothing is wrong just it's fully warmed up by then and will idle a bit higher. You can turn the idle down a bit if ya want. My Virago did the same thing. You'll have to find a happy medium with the idle.

[1st_bike]

I suppose that could be the reason. I will play around with the idle. Where is the screw that controls the idle located? Also, I found the sticker on the frame that says that in neutral it should be idling at 1,000 rpm. Should I try to get the idle closer to that?

Thanks,
Ilya.

[CB750F]

The idle screw should be near the carbs, exactly where I'm not sure but you should be able to turn it with your fingers. Ya might want slightly higher than 1000 RPM as older bikes tend to have a hesitation when the idle is that low. Shoot for 1200 RPM and do some experimenting.

[1st_bike]

I will try it out today, thanks. Also, I just rode to work, and noticed that the rpm at idle got even higher as the bike got warmer, by the time I got to work it was around 2,500-3,000 rpm, and at times it kind of goes up and down with in that range. Someone on another forum suggested that it idles higher as it warms up, is it right?

Thanks,
Ilya.

[CB750F]

Yeah it could. You may need to have the carbs adjusted though.

[1st_bike]

I didn't get around to play with the idle screw, because my battery died while I was at work yesterday. I guess the tail light stayed on for some reason. It never happened again. Anyway, someone helped me out with a push start, but it died again when I stoped. I guess I should've kept the revs up. So then I pushed it back to work and by that time the battery was so dead that none of the lights would turn on. Then I tried to hook up a charger to the it for a little bit, nothing. Then I went home and also bought a bike battery charger. Tried charging the battery over night, and it was still not compleltely charged and when I conected it back today it was still just as dead as yesterday. Do I need a new battery? It's only a couple of month old.

Thank,
Ilya.

[Uesque]

Check your key position, Hondas have a parking light option that allows you to leave the taillight on for visibility. I had the same thing happen to me when I brought my wife's Shadow to work one day. You have to be careful to get the key in the steering lock position without being in the park position. And if yours is like hers, it doesn't run worth a damn when the battery is low.

Guess Harley does have some advantages over the sophisticated technology of the Asian bikes.

You should probably have the battery load tested to see if it's OK, but I don't know a whole lot about them.

[1st_bike]

Thanks for reply,

I think this is what happend. I don't the manual so I didn't know about the tail light, but someone at work mentioned it to me too. I still don't know how come the battery doesn't charge. It've been charging here at work since 7:30, and all night last night and still not charged. The charger has a load test option built in, and it seems to pass.

Thanks,
Ilya.

[CB750F]

You may have got a bum battery, it's happened to me before. Also if the battery is funky sometimes it will affect the idle, usually it will make it lower though due to not enough energy is being made at low RPMs by the charging system to make a good hot spark.

[1st_bike]

So I guess the battery was ok. It just took about 16 hours to charge. I took it to the batteries plus too, and they said that the battery is fine. The problem is when I connect the fully charged battry nothing happens. The bike is completely dead like there is no battery. I noticed it after one of the push start attemps, but thought that the battery got completely drained. Any ideas what I should do, how can I troubleshoot?

Thanks,
Ilya.

[Uesque]

Do the lights come on at all?

If so, and please don't be insulted, but have you checked the kill switch? I do that all the time. Flip it a couple of times to make sure it isn't caught halfway on. Also your transmission, the wife's Shadow will only start in neutral, which I think is a safety hazard, what if you stall it in traffic? My Yamaha wouldn't run in gear with the kickstand down, might be something else easy to check. After that you're going to have to start checking the wiring.

If you get no lights, I'd check your terminals first. Then the fuses.

[1st_bike]

Uesque,

No worries, I forget about it sometimes. I think I found the problem. I checked the fuse, the only one I was able to find, please let me know if there are more. The one I checked was blown, so I connected alligator clips just to see if the lights would come on, and they did. Now I am going to put a little piece of wire in there and see if it starts. Thanks a lot for all your help.

Ilya.

[Uesque]

Uesque,

No worries, I forget about it sometimes. I think I found the problem. I checked the fuse, the only one I was able to find, please let me know if there are more. The one I checked was blown, so I connected alligator clips just to see if the lights would come on, and they did. Now I am going to put a little piece of wire in there and see if it starts. Thanks a lot for all your help.

Ilya.

I still haven't found them on her Shadow, there's a cover labeled Fuse on the handlebar mount, but I can't figure out how to open it.

And I wouldn't recommend the piece of wire, replace that fuse so you don't catch on fire or something.

[Maico Shark]

If I could butt in here....Ist, did you say you bought your bike over the internet without testing it first? Am I missing something here or is it possible to sell used bikes to newbies over the net? In my opinion the first place to adjust the idle on a multiple carb bike is the adjuster at the throttle cable where it comes from the twist grip...that way the carbs stay in sync. It's possible the carbs are already out of harmony with one cylinder set higher than the others. Variable idle speeds are often a sign of a leak at the intake..."sucking air". Buying a used motorcycle from a stranger over the internet without a test ride is the craziest thing I've ever heard of. Buying ANY bike without a test ride is financial Russian Roulette.

[CB750F]

You should always adjust the idle using the idle screw. Most modern bikes the carbs are linked together so you really can't knock them out of sync. I know the older Yamaha 2 stroke twins or any with a cable coming out of the top of the carb you used the adjuster up by the grip.

Some shops, depending on what type of bike, won't let you test drive even if ya have a licence. Kinda sucks but I can see their point to a certain extent. You can buy a bike over the internet without even seeing it and have it shipped to your door. I wouldn't do it.

[1st_bike]

First of all, I didn't just buy a bike of an Internet without cheking it out. If you are familiar with Craigslist you would know that it's mostly local ads, and most people do not ship things, especially bikes. Second, I'am not a good rider, and if I was selling a bike I wouldn't let someone like myself test ride it. I did however had the guy start it and then followed him on a highway at a pretty decent speed. If he was going to trust his life on that bike on a highway it couldn't be too bad. Plus I knew where he lived at and worked at, and he seemed to be a decent person. So far I don't have any problems or complains about the bike. I adjust the idle with the idle screw after I start it and it runs just fine.

[1st_bike]

Uesque,

I realized that I do have an OD light, how do I turn OD on, and what does it do? Is it like an extra gear, or can I go through all five in OD?

Thanks,
Ilya.