New member here. Was looking to buy a Honda Magna to replace my '97 Honda Shadow Spirit 1100 (which I still have). Had owned two V-Maxes previously - a used '86 bought in '90, and a new '95 bought in late '96. After looking at Magnas (I consider them a little brother to the Max) for over a month, on a whim I texted a friend of mine whom I knew had a Max awhile back. Asked if he still had it, and whether he'd consider selling it, and his response was, "Yes, sir". What does that mean? Called him for clarification, and he told me he had cancelled the insurance less than 2 weeks ago, and had bought two new tires for it a few months ago, and was gonna get it running and sell it. Hadn't been started in almost a year, and he had only put about 200 miles on it the 2-1/2 years he'd had it. '89 model, only mods I see are aftermarket blinkers, has 23,760 miles. No dents, scrapes, etc, chrome looks good, engine paint just fair. He assured me it used to run pretty good, but admittedly not as well as my old bike (which he had ridden several times).
So, I went to see it the next day. Looked ok, but was in no shape to try to start it (battery, carbs, etc.). Now for the million-dollar question - how much? I almost fell over when he said - "a thousand bucks". I'm sorry - how much? Did you say $1,000? Yup, that was right. Well, I thought about that all of 1/4 of a second!!!! Hell, yeah, I'll take it!!!
Got it home this Tuesday, and been draining gas, pulling apart carbs (on bike), and performing shotgun and peashooter cleanings 'til I can do them in my sleep. Using info gleaned from this site and others, have been able to do quite a bit of maintenance w/o a manual in my hand - including a reverse bleeding of the clutch. Would have never thought of that!
Anyway, took it for a 10-mile shake-down run this afternoon. Not running 100%, but good enough to scare the crap out of me once! Forgot how quick these bikes are when V-Boost kicks in. On a 40* cloudy day with a sub-par rear tire in second gear @ 8,000 rpm spells fishtail at 75mph!!!!!. Not sure how I survived having two of these in my twenties, but I assure you I'll spend much less time in V-Boost now!
Glad to be back on a Max, and looking forward to sharing info here - both ways. Been reading all kinds of stuff here the last few days. A great group of posters that I feel privileged to be joining.
Sorry about the long post, but I know a few of you snow-bound riders might appreciate a good story!! Be safe!
