Two Wheeled Terror

Look what found a new home in the garage!

(Click for photos)

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I've been looking, and had my heart set on a blue Honda Shadow Aero, mostly for the styling, the chrome, and the shaft drive. But this Saturday this 2002 Shadow Ace came up in the Statesman classifieds. Low mileage, right color, definately better price.. so we placed the call to see about seeing the bike.

Turns out it was owned by a woman in far South Austin, and it hadn't been sold yet. When the time came, we took the truck & some riding clothes just in case.
Arriving at the house, the gardens were a bit overgrown, and the doormat said "A word of advice, suck up to the dog."

Lets see, dogs, woman, bike. When a woman opened the door, I said "Nice to meet you 'A'", and she said, "No, I'm 'B'. I'll go get 'A'". The math I did in my head checked out: this bike comes from a good family.

They opened the garage, and it was pretty much a done deal. Looked great, good shape, right size. Chaz and I both took a ride on it around the block. It was significantly heavier than the bikes we did class with, so it took some getting used to. OK, it wasn't a shaft drive, but hell, $2300 less that I was willing to pay for the Aero means I've got some money to put into getting helmets & gear. :-) I tried to negotiate a lower price, but she stood firm, and I was willing to pay it given the fact that it was the right color and it had probably been in the contingent of 'dykes on bikes' at some point!

The women worked as nurses on the night shift at Seton, so we didn't get to come back and pick it up. Instead we arranged to have it picked up Sunday. I tracked down a colleague from work that owns a Shadow and he was more than happy to be the driver.

Sunday came and everything pretty much clicked. Our driver got it up here in short order and undamaged, and gave us a report on how it handled. He approved it without hesitation. Chaz & I spent a few hours toodling around the neighborhood, probably annoying the neighbors as we missed turn signals and hit the horn a few times too many. We didn't take it far or fast, given that we don't have gear yet. That will come and we'll get some good practice in. I did learn how to stall it really easily by letting the clutch out when I had the brakes on. Whoops.

We'll go this week to get helmets & a jacket & engine bars, but not till Tuesday. Cycle places all take Sunday & Monday off.