I had a day off work today, so I did what any car guy might do on their day off... I bought a motorcycle. I was in need of a moderate project, and this one was just right.

It is a 1985 Honda Shadow VT500C. Never thought I'd own a Honda. It's only 430 lbs (fueled) and 50 hp, but that power-to-weight ratio gets me from 0-60 in 5.3 seconds. Top speed is somewhere near 100, but I will not be testing that for myself.





These things go from $1500-$2500 (for a 1985) in good driving condition. I got mine for $400 because it runs fine, but has an overheating issue. I'm 99% sure only one head gasket went bad, but I'm in the process of dropping the engine to replace both head gaskets, valve cover gaskets, and to replace the water pump, which will pretty much completely eliminate any issue that would cause overheating.



Other than that, the chassis has 35,000 mi on it as of when I bought it, and the engine was completely rebuilt on the top end, only being driven for about 1000 miles before the overheating began. I have full service documents for it, so I am fairly confident that it was well taken care of. It is just my job to get it back on the road. It's been sitting for 3 years, waiting to be completed. Hoping to have it running (and keeping its cool) by the second week in June.