I live on a street that goes down into a city park so there's usually lots of traffic in the summer. This evening I heard a very loud bike coming down the street and pull up to the stop sign in front of the house then loudly blast on down toward the park; I really didn't pay all that much attention except that it was loud and not the usual loud HD. A few minutes later I hear it coming back up from the park and a woman is riding it. She's obviously inexperienced because she's trying, in vain, to stop it w/ her feet. She finally gets it to a stop, stalls the engine, and then tips it onto its side. I trot over to give her a hand and she tells me that the bike is her son's and that she's just gotten her permit and has never ridden before. I start looking the thing over and see that it's an 1100 Shadow and is without a doubt the most ratty (running) bike I have ever seen. I help her get it up and then discover that it's even more ratty than I first thought. The headlight is beyond jerry rigged and the long straight pipes that somebody has set up on it are absolutely Goober City!! I cannot weld and I believe I could have done a better welding job on them. The rear seat is completely gone and the wiring I could see was totally bodged, no speedo, or tach, or turns, and no neutral light. She got it started again but couldn't find neutral and looked like she was going to drop it again so I offered to turn it around for her. I managed to get the side stand down without burning any body parts on the nasty pipes and we switched places. It was then that I discovered that the handlebars were not solid, the clutch felt terrible, the rear brake was all the way at the bottom and barely grabbing, and the front brake was completely inoperable. At this point I walked it backwards to the curb, put the side stand down and got off. She walked back down the street to get her son a few minutes later she came back in her car, the son got out in his tank top, shorts, and flip flops. He fired it up making as much noise as possible and then blasted up the street and had to have been going nearly 50 before he came to the stop sign a block away. I didn't see if it was registered and was up to date but I'd be willing to bet it had no insurance. I'm still just in disbelief. How do you ride a piece of crap like that and not get hurt? Completely amazing!
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