[FirstTimeBiker]

Hello everyone! I am looking into getting my first bike to travel cross country with. I do not know much about Honda motorcycles and have been doing quite a bit of research. I feel that if I had the opinion of some long term riders then I will be able to make a more educated decision to which bike to purchase. So I would love your opinion on which bike is better and will last longer or will have less problems! I know it all depends on the way the bike has been maintained and ridden but overall I would like your personal opinion on which of these two bikes you would rather purchase. Here is what I am looking at!

1985 Honda Shadow, VT700 Model 25,900 miles Asking price is $1,500.

Or

1985 Honda Sabre 700 V Twin motorcycle with 24,000 miles Asking price is $1,550

They both have similar mileage and are the same, and are both made by Honda. Thank you for any and all help and opinions on these bikes. I really appreciate you reading this.

 

[AloRaptor]

:welcomes: to the forums from Arkansas. Someone will be along that can answer your questions. In the meantime it would be good to post your location and riding experience.

 

[Easy Rider]

I am looking into getting my first bike to travel cross country with.

Welcome to the forum.
I have a tendency to be brutally honest; hope that doesn't offend you.

"first bike" and "travel cross country" are incompatible ideas......or at least they should be.

If they are in good running condition, that is EVERYTHING works and no repairs are needed, either of them should be good starter bikes, unless maybe you are a small person.


NEITHER ONE OF THEM would be good for cross-country trips though.
Each is almost 30 years old.

And a new rider should not be doing things like that in the first year or so anyway. Really.

A search here for other threads about "my first bike" would probably be informative.

 

[slozomby]

the shadow is a cruiser style vtwin.
the saber is a sportstandard 4 cylinder.
they are very different rides. and different riding positions. and that is very personal to the rider.

basically the saber is more powerful than the shadow. so for a 1st bike i'd recommend the shadow.

under 1000 miles a year means the bikes have sat for a while. so find out from the owners how long its been sitting in their garage. the longer a bike sits the more likely you'll run into problems.

 

[DrBob]

Easy Rider beat me too it: a 29 year old, new to you, <$1500 bargain-basement bike is a terrible choice for a cross-country trip. Reliability, parts availability, knowledge of your bike, and familiarity with any quirks are seriously lacking in a newly acquired bike of this advanced age.

Plus, sudden increases in usage patterns are very bad for a machine. The Sabre, for example, has racked up a whopping average of 15 miles per week since it was new. I don't know the details of your planned trip, but "cross country" indicates that you would be putting one hell of a lot more miles on it than 15 miles a week. If you were to say run it coast to coast and back over a two week period, you would be increasing the usage by about 20,000%. How well do you think a 30 year old machine would respond to that?

Either would be a good learner bike though. As for which one, well, they are radically different styles of bikes. For starters, they have very different seating positions, so chances are one will be much more comfortable for you than the other. One is a 47 HP cruiser, the other a 76 HP standard, so performance is radically different. Which one fits your riding style? As for reliability, frankly unless a model has a serious design flaw when dealing with a bike that is 30 years old 99% of it is how well the bike was used, maintained, and repaired over the years. Neither one of these models has a bad reputation at all, or any real design flaws, so condition of that particular bike is everything.

 

[Easy Rider]

Either would be a good learner bike though.

All of us forgot to mention:
The first thing you should do is sigh up for the MSF new rider course.....or equivalent....BEFORE you
go out looking for your first bike. That little bit of riding experience should give you a MUCH better
idea of what kind of bike your first one should be.

And then there is bicycle riding.
If you haven't done any recently, you should refresh those skills FIRST.

This is NOT the same as shopping for a new car.

 

[josephnai5428]

My biggest question was the Honda Sabre is a better motorcycle then the Honda Shadow my first bike I am an experienced rider but I don't plan a ride across country but I do ride on long trips I have a Harley Dyna 2013 but I did not know if a bike sit for a long time that's not good for the bike I never knew that it kind of the same with boats I live in New England and I was just thinking about something for running around I'm going back and forth to the beach talk to my three or four hours one way before I was back the other way

 

[Easy Rider]

My biggest question was the Honda Sabre is a better motorcycle then the Honda Shadow

The answer to that probably depends on the year model(s) that you are comparing.
In general, the Shadows are a bit under powered but rock solid.

Note: PLEASE put some punctuation or line breaks into your posts to make it easier to read.