Bike Talk motorcycle forum

Hi, I’m a new rider looking to buy my first bike. A 1983 Honda Shadow 500 has recently caught my eye and I’m wondering if this would be good for my first bike. It looks like its in really good shape and the seller is saying it is mechanically solid. I’m just wondering if this would be a good bike for a new rider and if it would be reliable given its age. I don't want something that I would have to constantly fix.

Thanks

So here's the pictures of my bikes as promised!

Here's some before pics of the '03 Honda Shadow;





Here's what it looks like now;



Not done with it yet, but she's road worthy! Thinking about adding a sidecar for the canine!

Here's the '06 HD Heritage Softail;



And then I went and purchased a '77 Yamaha XS750 for $200. It don't run and has a few things that need to be worked out, but I'm looking forward to turning it into a chopper! Here's pics;
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Lets see if we can liven the place up and get some posting going,

Post up a meme thats funny, try not to get to political we all get enough of that daily.

Bocephus - LaGrange

My friend has a 1988 Flhtc with a stock EVO engine in it . He wants to change the valve seals without having to pull the heads. He's got the rocker covers off now. I told him , back in the day, we used to take car engines and put the 1st cylinder with both valves closed and take it's spark plug out. We'd then attach an air compressor to the spark threads, with an adaptor, inflate it with air which would keep positive pressure in the cylinder and not allow the valve to move when compressing the valve springs to remove the valve "keepers ". Is there any way to do something similar on this EVO engine to change valve seals without pulling the heads? Has anyone done this?
Thanks,
Snyde