Honda PC800?

singleslammer wrote: I still want a nice one but I can grab a 90's goldwing for similar money. You will have to give us your impressions after riding for a bit.

Happy to do a review, but my opinions may not be especially useful to the seasoned 2-wheeler. It's my first bike and I'll be taking the course this summer. But I will be pleased to both do a ride review as well as a "build thread" while I'm getting it set up.

"Build thread" is in quotes because I have no grand plans to do anything beyond making it a known reliable bike and freeing up some amps with an LED update and adding a voltmeter to be safe.

It already has a radio (factory Honda one), Corbin seat, throttle lock and it looks like a set of handlebar risers too.

I may add heated grips if the amps look good after the LED update. Radio will go bye-bye anyway because it's the 21st century.

I have some other ideas for farkles and crazy, but I need to ride the stupid thing for a while before I can justify making any changes of that magnitude on a 27yr old bike.

Another issue that I found was that it is quite tight for people over 6'. I am 6'2" and my knees hit the front fairing a few times while test riding.

Since all the original images in this thread are now defunct I had to reference the googles to see WTH you guys were talking about and came across this illustration that makes the bike seem like the stuff of 90's anime mecha. Which of course I immediately thought was cool and now-must-ermagerd-share.

That is all. Carry on.

BTW - congrats on the purchase akamcfly.

That's a nice illustration of one!

I've always loved them and thought they were perhaps the most practical motorcycle ever made. Just wish I was big enough to fit one better.

I've never given the PC any thought, really, but now that I've looked - I see it as the bastard lovechild of an innocent scooter who maybe trusted too much and a gold wing with some mental deficiencies that took advantage.

It seems like a sturdy, reliable, passionless, expressionless tool for getting somewhere far away. As a commuter I think... probably great. As something you get out of bed at 5am on a day off to ride nowhere and everywhere all day - probably about as welcoming as warm, flat, skunk beer.

warm flat skunk beer isn't pleasant. The PC800 is. It's not exciting, that's all.

If you will, think of the PC800 as a dark beer.

I always looked at the PC800 as a very fast and stable scooter.

Not sexy, not exciting, but fun, reliable and day in day out pleasant to deal with.

You always get off of a PC800 with a smile on your face. You can't always say that about a GSX-R1HurricaneNinjaKatanaMonsterSpeedBazillion.

I once took a spirited ride through Vermont with a few friends, blistered through the Green Mountains on a BMW K-100rs. I giggled when a friend of a friend rolled up with a cream color PC, meh, he knows the way back.

Sumbich if he didn't jump out front and make everyone try to keep up! It was more rider than bike, but I was impressed given the diversity of fast in the pack.

Dan

Being new to motorcycles, I figure this is appropriate to my choice of the Pacific Coast. It actually cost me $1300cdn, but that's pretty close to $1000US. :D

The ad was on kijiji and it caught my eye, but I hadn't the $ to make a move on it and didn't want to waste the seller's time. Then the ad disappeared. I was sad, but not undaunted. I ran my own ad to find the guy and the bike. Sure enough, he gave up on selling it and was surprised that someone would try to find HIS old weird bike.

I will be picking it up in a couple weeks. I put a deposit on it and we agreed that I can get the bike when the ground isn't so soft. Around here, they even have truck load limitations this time of year when everything's thawing. No sense ripping up his yard or running the risk of stucking the trailer or worse. I have the service manual, spare windshield and tool kit in my car, but the bike will stay safe at the seller's place for now.

congrats

Picking it up today with my brother - he has the truck. I drive a chrysler.

I will make a "resurrection" and build thread when I start picking at it.

Pictures?

TRoglodyte wrote: Pictures?

When it happens. Haven't left the house yet. Unless you want pictures of the Chrysler - I could take some of those but it's not very exciting.

Three hours each way to buy an old unpopular motorcycle. No major surprises other than a set of truck bed ramps for an atv are no good for a bettery-less 600 lb motorcycle. We got it though, with the help of a strategically placed drainage ditch.

Other things of note - it has a set of risers for the handlebars which seem to mess up the choke pull tab. It also lowers the key switch making it a bit of a pain to turn. It also has the lower portion of a rifle windshield on it. The Honda windshield is in the Chrysler's trunk. I may see what a replacement screen for a rifle windshield costs. Whoever had it before this guy, farkled it a fair bit.

Panel alignment seems to be because they tried to pull the battery for winter and didn't know the order of disassembly. There's also a screw missing in one spot where it sags. Happy that's all it is. Needs a bath and polishing though.

As for the battery, it came with a fairly new AGM battery. I didn't want to install it and try the starter without knowing myself how to remove the panels in the right order.

I'll get some pics of the "baby beluga" posted tomorrow if I have some time.

Cool, hopefully you got it for a song as it seems the previous owner was a bit of a dunce.

Edit, noticed the price up top. That seems like a good deal as I found one for $1800 last year that was likely rougher than yours and needs some attention to the carbs.

Not sure about the dunce assessment, but he definitely didn't know the bike very well. The original owner was pretty fastidious and put a bunch of notes in the service manual. The guy I bought the bike from only had it over the winter and decided the bike was too small for him. He has a goldwing now.

That's a bit of a relief knowing that other than (poorly) removing the battery, nothing else was done to it. I expect that also means the fuel wasn't drained or stabilized for the winter, but we'll see what happens. I'm a patient guy with a manual.

How is it running?

Flight Service wrote: How is it running?

Haven't touched it

I put the battery on the tender and it's happy. I ended up helping mom Saturday, and doing chores and run club (I'm also on a serious health kick) Sunday.

This weekend is my MSF course and chores (as usual). Living alone and working full time (aka being a grown-up) sucks. Work all day, gym, cook, eat, sleep, rinse, repeat...

I have time to get it running as I want my M2 before I plate it. it may need a new rear tire too, but I budgeted for contingencies. I just need to make a little time to pick at it.