Well I’ve been in Thailand for a few years now, ridden a Kawasaki Versys 600, a Ducati Hyperstrada 821 and many other two wheel contraptions, but the time came to stop dicing with death on sports touring bikes and build something slower.
The Honda Steed (Honda Shadow in the USA) is available in Thailand in both the 400cc and 600cc variants.
The 600cc is a little harder to find, and is only a 4 speed, but that all aside this was the bike I was wanting to get moving on. Now from standard they aren’t that nice a bike in the looks department.
Planning ahead, I was wanting something a little custom, with a hard tail conversion, vintage springer front end and custom tin work.
What I ended up with was a rat bike, rusty, chopper inspired basic as hell cruiser. Everything is simple, no tacho, no speedo, no fuel guagage, no comforts.
About the only comfort element was the R9Kustoms Bags sissy bar duffle, I was lucky enough to work with R9Kustoms Bags in the development of the sissy bar duffle to come up with a piece of canvas luggage that was easy to install, easy to carry and suits the bike and period.
The Steed has been a handful getting everything sorted on it, one of the major headaches was getting the single Harley Carb conversion to run right, but after sourcing smaller main jets this problem was overcome.
The Springer front end is made in Thailand, and the quality is second to none. Heavy guage steel is used, it responds as expected and works well.
Tires I went with MoonTire for their vintage tread style. Not the best to ride on, and sketchy as hell in the wet, but end of the day they suit the overall look I was going for with the bike.
