Honda VT 1100C Shadow

BEEN ABROAD RECENTLY? Everywhere you go things are weird. Cultures are different, food is different, birds are different, bikes are different.

France: red, white and green ZXRs; nothing for breakfast; cops with guns; Johnny bloody Halliday. Germany: sausages and cowboy boots; Gothic arrogance; money. America: big everything; fries with everything; shopping, conservatism and chrome. And custom bikes.

Flick through any American motorcycle mag and the one thing that stands out is the proliferation of custom-styled cruisers. Magnas, Eliminators and Fazers. Masses of them. Hondas, Kawasakis and Yamahas. And ALL, save for the handful of secondhands that find their way into the UK through the grey import back door, reserved for the US of A.

Among them, the VT1100C Shadow is pretty much at the top of the tree. Honda America's flagship cruiser: 1099 lavishly-chromed ccs of liquid-cooled, shaft-drive V-twin pushing along 5291b-worth of refined custom goodies.

From the first time you swing your leg over the loooooow, (just 26 inches) buttoned saddle; reach up for the pull-back bars and then lean back to hoik your feet up and forward onto the highway pegs; you're in no doubt as to what this bike's all about. Style, image, pose, call it what you like, but it all boils down to the same thing - and Honda has given the Shadow it in bundles.

The engine is a peach: fake fins disguise the liquid cooling; the four, over-muffled, slash-cut pipes hide the sheer punch from within. But stomp remains this bike's middle name. Sucking hard through twin 36mm carbs, the six-valve, 45 degree vee lumbers powerfully from almost nothing. Gears are almost redundant (so there's only four of them); clutch slip is unnecessary (but it's hydraulic anyway). Just get it into top as soon as possible, like a V8 chevy you've just snuck it into 'D', wind that throttle and motor.

This is designer cruising rather than any pinnacle of motorcycle engineering. Quirks there are — but deliberately so. The slight torque reaction from the shaft drive and the hefty, manly clonks needed between the four, widely-spaced gears, for example. Yet beneath the designer stubble there's a high-tech polish Honda obviously couldn't resist and, for good or bad, it knocks the edge off the Shadow.

Hydraulic valve lash adjusters, digitised ignition, automatic cam-chain tensioners and a thoroughly responsible soggy exhaust note may do wonders for peace of mind yet at the same time fail to stop the Shadow doing all the right chuggedy, chuggedy type things at the bottom of the range, but some may like their brawn with a little more bristle.

Elsewhere it's a similar story. The Shadow's got edge; it's got all the ingredients; it has, unmistakably, got style. But it's also got a lingeringly soft aftertaste that is still, and perhaps always will be, something less than Harley.

Its riding position, though radically goofy at first, IS very comfortable. A soft bucket seat; deeply-chromed bars and enough shimmering shine on everything from the switchgear to the filler cap to keep you in love with your own reflection for months.

The two-tone paint will need a bloody hard scrape to bare back to the metal; the chrome is like pools of mercury. The Shadow has all the right custom embellishments in all the right places. So how it handles, in that context, probably bothers any prospective owner about as much as Mansfield Town bothers Man. United.

With a five-foot wheelbase, forks that have been kicked out more than my incontinent cat, tyres whose design criteria didn't extend beyond being round and black and suspension units which put form about five million miles ahead of function, it was never going to handle sharp. But then it's not too bad, either, especially when, in the country it was designed for, the Shadow should only have to negotiate a corner once a fortnight.

Yes, it prefers things straight and flat — but why not? Ever tried looking at your reflection in shop windows when you're barrelling round a corner? Ever tried all those luvvy-duvvy bro' and ol' lady type things when you're trying to out-brake your mates? But of course, that's not really what the Shadow's all about.

The Shadow may not be a Harley, it may, transplanted to UK biking seem a little strange, but I still reckon there are few better motorcycling experiences than cruising, two-up in July on a warm summer's eve on a bike like this. And of the bikes like this, considering its impressive engine, its immaculate attention to detail and lovely finish, there's little to better the Shadow.

At the moment, the Shadow remains officially unavailable in the UK although some older versions can be obtained through grey importers. But, considering the lead shown by Kawasaki with its VN1500 Vulcan, that might be about to change. Honda has shown the foresight to import the previously US-only VF750C Magna (as tested in BIKE last month). In America, at current exchange rates, the Shadow retails for less than ,£5000 and at that sort of money you're getting a hell of a lot of bike. Over to you, Honda UK.