Not the speed I expected.

[dentheman]

WW, I saved for over a year to pay cash for the Shadow, so I know what you are saying by no payments. When or if I get a new bike, it will be after months of saving, so no payments. A year ago I adopted the philosophy that if I can't pay for it, I don't need it.

The Shadow RS caught my attention because it looks more like a 'standard' than a cruiser, but I am not thrilled by the chain drive.

[Water Warrior 2]

Chains may be a little more labor intensive when regular maintenance(lubing /adjusting) is involved but not that difficult. A shaft is sweet and clean however servicing a shaft is far more work and expense if something goes south. A belt is a proven item for a street bike and a lot quieter and cleaner than a chain. As much as I like them(never had one yet)they are not cheap to replace and regearing a belt drive bike is costly and/or impossible due to parts availability from the factory or aftermarket.
I can get a belt drive conversion for my Vstrom but the cost is an insane number of dollars. I can wear out a lot of sprockets and chains before equaling the belt drive set-up.

[Dupo]

I am not a fan of that Shadow RS. It looks too much like the 'economoy HD' 883. They even moved the pegs back (hello 1980s!). Gave it that dumb shock placement that makes it look like it got hit in the rear (same as the 883 looks to me). Love the chain drive because it makes modding so much easier on the rear end (lowering, bigger tire, wider rim to name a few). But overall, ugh, not impressed.

Glad you got your situation figured out.

[alanmcorcoran]

Glad your bike is fixed (I rode a 750 in a big circle around Illinois summer of '09 and it would do 80 easy. I weigh 175 though.)
Re the "bigger is better" or "bigger is not better" I wanted to say this: Bigger IS better for some things: Acceleration, high speed cruising (hours at 80+), Two up riding, camping gear, wind, rough road and more. Bigger IS WORSE for other things: the biggest thing it's worse for is GAS MILEAGE. I have a big old beast I love to ride, but I go to the gas station a LOT. Get a real report on the cruising range of the bike. If it's less than 250 miles, think about your riding habits and how often you want to visit Mr. Mobile. Second biggest problem is - I can't pick it up. No way, no how, no video, no technique FORGET ABOUT IT. If she goes down, I'm going to need help. If it goes down in Death Valley, I got to hope some bigger fool comes along. For that reason, I generally don't ride on less travelled roads. Third: insurance. It doesn't cost as much to insure if you have three bikes and they're all not new, but it is more costly. Fourth: Tires. Not sure if you go through them faster but they are bigger and I think more expensive. Still, even with all of these issues, I am willing to bet practically everyone on this forum would love riding my Strat. Each person has to think about what's important to them. My solution has been to have three bikes, but that has issues too.

[Water Warrior 2]

Alan, you need some good crash bars on the Strat. I dropped Lynda's bike twice during servicing etc. The bars don't allow the bike to roll over completely on it's side and it was quite easy to just roll it back up on 2 wheels.