Here’s What We’re Gonna Do

Cruisers and choppers.

Choppers and cruisers.

I've been wanting a motorcycle since about 1994, when I took the motorcycle safety course through the Air Force back home in California. Back then, I debated whether or not to trade in my truck for a sportbike - a Honda CBR600 f2. Looking back, especially when I consider that my truck was my only method of transportation at the time, it was an idea which I am kind of glad I didn't follow through with.

I've ridden a few motorcycles that friends have lent me for an hour or two, but it wasn't until 2005 when my father-in-law picked up a 2005 Honda Shadow Aero, that I really got a lot of experience with riding a bike on a regular basis.

For a first bike experience for someone with virtually no mechanical ability, the Shadow was a good bike, with a maintenance-free shaft drive. My father-in-law did all the maintenance on it regardless, so I didn't have to worry about it much. I was able to take it out whenever I wanted, which was quite often.

I'd ride around Omaha to work and back, I'd ride from Tecumseh to Omaha, back again, to Lincoln and back again, Beatrice....you name it, I rode it.

I loved it.

There were only a few problems:

1) It wasn't really mine.
2) The Honda Shadow Aero is only a 750cc engine and wasn't really enthusiastic about getting up over 60. Oh it'd go up to 80 or so in a pinch, but it was very sluggish once you hit that big 6-0.
3) Cheap saddlebags - Again, I couldn't complain since it wasn't really my bike, but my father-in-law put some bags on it that couldn't be locked and weren't very secure.

Despite those problems, I really enjoyed the time I had with that bike, until my father-in-law ran into a deer with it. That's another story.

I picked up the chopperfanatic.com domain name a while back, and have been saving it from then until now - until I was actually ready to start looking into picking up a motorcycle.

After talking it over with the wife a few times and getting her approval for the whole thing, I finally decided that now was the time to share a bit about the process of selecting and buying a motorcycle of my own while I'm going through it.

Once I buy this motorcycle, I'll document my rides and maintenance, putting it all up here.

Because I use eBay so often, I've got a section of the site that shows choppers of all kinds that are for sale on eBay. I'll be modifying that section of the site so that it shows regular cruisers and other bikes I'm interested in as well.

Soon I'll be adding a forum and a classified ad section, so visitors and regular readers can talk about bikes, swap or sell items or just hang out.

Hit me up if you have any ideas or thoughts about what you want to see.