Honda Shadow 750cc
Smoke and Chrome Mirrors
Jack Hondason and Seth Davidswin
The Honda Shadow certainly looks the part. It’s low, it’s big and it’s heavy. It’s splattered with chrome and has wide, swept-back bars. If you pull up at a coffee shop, you’ll get admiring glances from people commenting about your ‘Harley’. By the same measure, Harley riders will give you glances which contain absolutely no admiration at all.
The reason for all this is that the Shadow is playing a part and, even though it plays it well, it’s not the real thing. But, the real question is, does any of that really matter?
Cocking your leg
You don’t throw your leg over a Shadow like you would a more traditional motorcycle, unless you’re very short indeed. It’s so low that getting on it is like lowering yourself into a comfortable chair. The seat itself is so soft, so easy and so inviting that it puts most coffee-shops to shame.
Getting it up off the stand is a bit more of a challenge than with other, more regular motorcycles. It’s low and the weight is distributed with the care and consideration applied to Chinese manufacturing. Getting it upright is a bit of a wrench and rolling it around in a parking area is less fun than waking up with a hangover.
The machine has a V-twin engine bolted into a steel frame. It has very little in the way of sophistication and makes very little actual power. It puts out less than 50bhp and not much more torque than the average big single. Even worse than that, it has a reliable, but power-draining, shaft-drive to send what little performance it musters to the steel back wheel. You can’t expect it to deliver very much and it doesn’t let you down in this regard.
Wrist action
Opening up the throttle does release a respectable little snap and the bike takes off rather well, certainly better than you would expect. But, just as the bike feels like it’s actually going to be rather fun, it runs out of steam and the power melts away to a very responsible level.
Corners should be horrendous but it goes around them fairly easily. Belying its gigantic heft, the handling feels neutral and it sticks to the roads rather well.
Riding the thing around town, even towns congested with traffic, this motorcycle feels very competent. The culture-shock between ‘proper’ upright motorcycles and this melts away fairly quickly and the experience doesn’t feel too unfamiliar.
Certainly the bars are too wide, the pegs are too far forwards and the seat is too close to the ground but it’s easy to ignore all that and just get on with things.
However, for all this, the Shadow is a Honda. When you look under the surface, you start to see that this isn’t what it looks like at all.
Not that terrible...
Overall, this is a good owner’s motorcycle, one that really looks the part. Sadly, the part it looks like usually isn’t actually as good as what Honda have managed to deliver at a lower price-point.
Owners of these kinds of cruisers are usually more interested in the branding, the look, the style than the practicality, reliability and usability of their machines. There’s nothing wrong with that, it’s just that Honda have delivered a practical bike into an impractical segment of the market.
For a first time cruiser owner, this is an excellent choice. For a person who’s learned their lessons the hard way on less friendly machines, this is one that won’t give you a hard time. It might be a little lazy and laid-back but it’s a very useable machine that won’t break the bank.
No, it isn’t quite what it pretends to be, but maybe that’s not such a bad thing really?
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