Goodbye Shadow

So today I officially say goodbye to my first (real) motorcycle, by beloved and well worn 2001, Honda Shadow 750 ACE. I've had it for 4 years and put around 20k km on it. It's also responsible for confirming my love of 2-wheeled travel.

In the 4 years, I did a bunch of road trips including a couple 2up. The longest one was in 2013 with my son Jacob. We spent 10 days travelling to Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Maryland. The destination was the Hagerstown bike week. Jacob traveled on a 1980 Yamaha XS 1100. Apart from a minor electrical problem (it wouldn't start until we bypassed the ignition switch) it ran surprisingly well. 

So 20,000 km later I'm ready to move on from the cruiser to the adventure category. In the first blog post I said I was getting a 2013 BMW F700GS. I've since changed my mind for a bunch of reasons, not the least of which was the BMW dealer's attitude on a few occasions. But that's another story.