Went on our 700 mile ride for my wife's birthday from Olympia, WA to Portland, along Columbia river to Tri-Cities and then up past Hanford nuke site to Yakima. There in Yakima was a fella selling a PC 800 on Craig's List. He was encouraged to show the bike and let me ride it, even if I had no idea whether I would like it, let alone buy it.
It is the right size and weight, as far as that goes it is perfect. I ran it down the road onto the freeway and back. It has a nice smooth acceleration. No kick in the pants at any particular RPM, like the NH does, so less fun, but not a bad thing. It was smooth and quiet at 70mph and had no real lack of power at that speed either. It does not tell you when you are in the overdrive gear, so a few times I was lifting the shifter, just to check. But it did run at about mid tach at 65-70 mph so there was still some headroom. He told me he intentionally put larger tires on it for more speed per RPM ... whatever. The wind was hardly noticeable. In fact, I would cut down the windshield to where my NH has it. (On my NH I am not looking through it, but just over the top. I know a lot of bigger highway bikes have you looking through them, but I use them more for wind deflection. I like the wind-screen to cross my vision at about the middle of where the headlight lo-beam lights up the road. That is typically enough to flow the wind over or just onto the top of the helmet.) Then I played around some tight spots in town around some parking lots with ups and downs around corners etc. It handles wonderfully in close quarters too. I do not feel like it is a bear to wrestle around tight turns and small spaces. This is all exactly what I was expecting. However, my wife's advice was if you don't feel like it was made for you and it fits like an old pair of jeans, then you better not fool yourself. That is what stuck with me. The seat is ok, kinda like a Motoguzzi or the ST1300, not uncomfortable but not bad. I did not mind the mirrors being low and part of the body, they were well adjusted and showed what I wanted. However mirrors being there was kinda more like a street race bike, and that must have been part of Honda's influence for this bike. I say that because though the handlebars are not straight across, they hold your hands more straight. That was ok, except for the following point, the only real issue I had with it. He had added external pegs outside the cowling. I tried them and liked them. I like 3 different places to put my feet/legs. I could also get to the buddy pegs from driving, so there would be the same 3 positions I have on the NH now. The owner had added a back-rest. I like that. You don't have to use one always, but you can when you need a change in posture. However, with my arms straight out on the handlebars I could only feel the back-rest, not lean on it. But then in that position I was leaning too hard on my hands. Here was the problem. I cannot be leaning on my hands, that is not the upright riding style I was looking for. It was only close. I was not actually bent over, like a racer, but I was still slightly leaning on my hands. Grrr, now I am recalling my wife's advice. The thing is so covered with cowlings and covers that you cannot just rotate the handlebars back; the covers would not go back on correctly etc. There is a kit to raise the handlebars, but that screws with the ignition switch that is just before the pivot and has a cover that matches it. (You cannot move the ignition, because it actuates the steering lock.) See this article and then note how many comments talk about wrist pain or numbness from leaning on the bars. http://www.douglasvanbossuyt.com/2010/04/03/handlebar-risers-for-the-pc800/ I just can't keep that riding position. I'm an old fart or whatever, but that's the issue. So, as for me, it is the worst of all news. It is almost-perfect, not a fail or a slam dunk. I may never find anything as good, but I probably would not be happy with it if I had it ... until I'd tweaked the riding position. In the end he said he was taking it off the market since he had not found a suitable replacement for this '97 PC800 with 47k miles. Dam it!! -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Nighthawk Motorcycle Lovers!" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/nighthawk_lovers. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
