1996 - Present By 1996 I was standing at the crossroads. Standing because my Harley had another electrical short. I counted four times that it had left me stranded on the side of the road and was in the shop all the previous summer. I was ready for a change, but after riding a Harley, what else was there? The answer came in the form of the newly released Honda Valkyrie. It has a cruiser frame, but with it's 1520cc opposing six cylinder engine, it definitely is not a Harley copycat. This is basically a Honda Gold Wing without the faring, six carbs instead of two and a hotter cam shaft. I fell in love with this bike the minute I saw it. But when Valkyries arrived at the local Philadelphia Honda dealers in '96, being a new model, they were all spoken for and were sold over list price. That summer while driving home after visiting my mother in central Pa. I stopped at this out of the way Honda dealer in Lewistown. The dealer had a beautiful purple and white Valkyrie sitting in the window. I found out that he ordered one just to keep the Honda franchise but was unable to sell it locally. He was more than willing to haggle over the price, and I was made an offer I couldn't refuse. The first thing you notice about the Valkyrie is its size. My FXDL felt like a minibike compared to this. However, despite it's size it is very nimble and handles surprisingly well. The lean angle is on par or better than the Harley but I still occasionally cause sparks going around sharp corners. Being a Harley rider several things about the bike at first did not feel right. For instance, the engine is so quite and vibration free, that it never seems to be "working." In a pack of other bikes I couldn't tell whether the bike was on or not. What sound there was, didn't at the time sound right either, it revved a lot higher than a Harley. But just twitch the throttle and any question of whether the engine is working or not is quickly put to rest. This bike flies! It took a while for me to wean off the Harley. Since riding the Valkyrie I didn't use the Harley, but I kept it around thinking I might. In 1999, it was time to buy a new car so I had to sell the Harley. I still like Harleys, heck, I like anything on two wheels! The picture above was taken soon after I bought this bike. It now has a windshield, fiberglass saddle bags, highway pegs and air horns as seen on the right. Since 1996 I have clocked over 50,000 trouble free miles. From the reliability point, it's bullet-proof.
193? - : Indian 1971 -1973: Buffalo 1972 -1984: Kawasaki 100 1979 -1983: CB 350 1984 -1992: Shadow 750 1993 -1999: H-D FXDL 1994 -1995: Honda Hawk 1995 - 2004: Shadow 700 1996 - Present: Valkyrie
Email: motorcycle@kvrr.net