PC800 Mileage

“Was looking for one of the PC 800’s, but wanted to ask an actual owner (who is not trying to sell me their bike) how reliable they find it and what sort of mileage you get in actual riding?”

The comment above came from this post. I just happen to have real world data from my 1989 Honda Pacific Coast 800! Also my PC800 is not for sale! 🙂

In June I kept gas receipts on a 451 mile trip and scrawled odometer readings on them.

My 1989 Honda Pacific Coast 800 got 46.9 MPG.

Details? I’m glad you asked! Since the bike is new (to me, it’s used and from 1989) I’ve been running non-oxygenated gas. I don’t think it needs that. I’m just being careful during a “honeymoon” period. One gas station had nothing but sketchy 87 octane sludge. I was desperate for fuel so I topped off. That probably lowered MPG a smidge.

About 45% of the miles were on two lane country roads at about 65-70 MPH. About 45% was fighting crosswinds on an interstate in 75-80MPH bumper to bumper hell. The remaining 10% was crawling city gridlock.

You might do better or do worse, but my number is real world. Expect to easily break 45+ MPG over the whole range of conditions. (Note: I’m riding one up.)

As for reliability I haven’t had it long enough to “test it out”. However, I have a good feeling about it.

I put only 1,500 miles on it this summer (I had plans for more but was distracted by non-motorcycle life). The day I bought it used, I rode 300+ miles. I did this without blinking. I’ve done absolutely no maintenance. I haven’t even washed it.

I figured out how to check the oil, verified there’s oil in it, and that’s it. I haven’t lifted a finger otherwise. Nor do I plan to. I’ll do an oil change next spring and probably (hopefully) nothing else.

I don’t know it’s reliable. I think it will prove to be so.

The bike is tuned mellow. For any machine that helps reliability. It’s not working hard when you operate it. It doesn’t get hot. It doesn’t roar. It doesn’t mind blasting out of the red light but it doesn’t seem to taunt you into it either. It starts cold without bitching (manual chokes work fine y’all!). It starts every time. Everything seems well built. It’s very design and appeal is for adults riding at reasonable (not slow but not crazy) speeds.

I do find myself riding a little faster than with my cruiser. My cruiser sounds like a stampeding mass of piston driven mayhem. The fact that all that kinetic energy is bolted, somehow, into a Honda (which should be smooth), makes it feel faster than it is. Ironically, that’s a Shadow ACE 1100 which is bulletproof. I’ve put on a lot of miles to prove it. (Honda’s genius engineers built the Shadow 1100 unkillable and then tuned in vibration and sound to mimic a certain competing brand. It’s a lot like making an aerodynamically flawless car and then bolting on tailfins from 1950. But what do I know? I bought it!)

The PC800 is also a Shadow (somewhere inside there is a bored out Shadow 750). It’s proof that Honda nerds can do anything. They were ordered to engineer “chill” and they did it. It’s so smooth that the RPMs feel “perfect” when it’s zipping along at 75 MPH or so. I have to be careful because it’s easy to overdo it in towns where speed limits are lower.

The PC800 is a no-drama ride. It doesn’t have mood swings like a lot of machines. It’s happy with any speed. The ergonomics aren’t flawless but they’re pretty good. Fit and finish is great and it runs like it was built to run until the end of time. On the two lane rural blacktop (my favorite) I like it feels like it’ll run until continents drift, the planet’s orbit deteriorates, and the sun is about to flare out.

I get your concern. Buying a PC800 feels weird. They’re funky, rare, and old. All that plastic is nerve wracking. You wonder “what if this thing needs wrenching”. I’ve no answer for that. I’m a shitty mechanic. The guys at my local dealership would fake their own death and move to Bolivia if I asked them to work on a PC800. I sure as hell don’t want to get into that Rubic’s cube of a bike anytime soon.

The thing is, it may not happen. My Shadow 1100 lets it all hang out in a way mechanics adore; but I’ve never had to do jack squat with it. Something about the PC 800’s weirdness encourages us to fret that the bike will ultimately demand attention. Yet once I got over my apprehension I realize I’d parked it next to a 24 year old bike that never needed much more than tires and oil. One can fret over the unknown but there’s a good chance the weird little PC 800 will roll for ten years or 50 without the rider touching a screwdriver. If not, I’ll piss and moan but then figure it out.

Some other details of interest to a PC800 shopper. My bike has been dropped… though probably gently. It’s not “showroom perfect” but it didn’t explode on contact with pavement either. (It was probably dropped decades ago.) The scratches are ok with me and I feel like I got a false start looking for showroom / museum level plastic when I’m not a “showroom” type of guy. Once I was seeking cheap and no-mechanical issues and was willing to accept slightly dinged I had more options. All the dings did was shave a few bills off the seller’s price and they’re really quite irrelevant. They have no effect on anything and you can’t see them unless you’re looking hard. When you buy a bike you practically crawl all over it freaking out over every scratch. I did. Within a week I couldn’t remember why I cared. I wanted a mile-eater, not a display piece. And it looks flawless at 5′ distance.

In return for overlooking (a tiny bit of) cosmetic scruff, I (hopefully) got a bike that is probably in the sweet spot for reliability. It had under 16,000 miles on the odometer. That’s peanuts to a bike like the PC800. They have a good reputation for high miles. Anything under 75,000 miles is probably “young” for a PC800.

Exceptionally low miles is sometimes as much a red flag as exceptionally high. However, the previous owner is the one who took the risk. He bought and “resurrected” a bike that had been idle for decades. He (not I) paid to have it “gone through” by a mechanic. A few years later he aged out of riding and I purchased it. I think that it worked out well for him too. Potential issues from sitting idle never happened. My understanding is that he swapped tires and fluid and it was more or less good as new. Buying a “running daily driver” I hoped that if it formerly had rats living in the air filter, such things had been resolved a few years ago. As always Caveat Emptor. Also, chill out; this ain’t a $20 grand financial payment with wheels, nobody’s dropping megabucks on a PC800. I’d be happy with mine even if I’d had to pay double the actual purchase price.

It’s only fair to add some negative comments but I don’t have many. People complain that the gas tank is small, and it is. (I’ll eventually get a “spare gas carrying solution”.) I spent $20 to put an air pad on the Corbin seat; which improved ass comfort at the cost of a miniscule increase in air buffeting to the top of the helmet. Occasionally a motorcycle guy will freak out that I own an abomination but who goes around trying to impress other dudes? An equal number of people are enthused to see a “new high tech 2023 scooter”. Is there anything else from 1989 that looks “futuristic“? If so what would that be? A Walkman? A VCR? I’ve had a few women call it “cute”. I feel like the bike is small, but when I park it I realize it’s quite portly. I need to use two hands to open the trunk which is the very slightest inconvenience when I’ve got a helmet in one hand. That’s about all I can bitch about.

Positive comments? I could write a book! Mostly it does the miraculous thing of not being a pain in the ass. It performs without the slightest hesitation, drama, or hassle. Don’t worry about the “little” 800cc engine. Unless you’re towing or weigh 900 pounds it’s the  Goldilocks perfect size. You won’t beat a GL1800 (or most other bikes) in a drag race but you don’t want a PC800 to do wheelies and hooligan about anyway. If you’re doing actual sane road riding it’ll keep up with the biggest GL1800 or HD bagger and carry about as much gear. I wouldn’t hesitate to ride mine coast to coast right now. (Curses that it’s winter!)

Personally I love the way it was designed and wish more mikes were like this. It’s not “as good as” a Goldwing, but (in my humble opinion) better. ‘Wings are the touring boss and I expected to love them. But when test driving used ‘Wings they “got in the way”. I want to hop on a bike and roll without drama. A Goldwing starting felt like a fucking laptop boot up. All that high-tech stuff on modern bikes turns me off. They feel like gadget heavy Christmas trees. The PC800 is the opposite. It leaves me alone to enjoy myself.

Here’s a quote I took from Jalopnik:

“Honda wanted this motorcycle to be all about the riding experience without any of the downsides. The engine isn’t encased in plastic and rubber mounts to hide it away from a car driver, but to attract someone who may not want to wrench on their own motorcycle. It’s why Honda went to great lengths to make it as maintenance-free as possible.”

That’s kind of what I’m trying to get at. The PC800 doesn’t get up in your face. Mine doesn’t even have a radio; which is cool because I don’t want a radio. Even the dash makes me happy. For example, the Neutral indicator light isn’t a post-literacy ideogram; it says “NEUTRAL”. Real letters that make an actual English language word! See what I mean? When was the last time you had a car where the “high beam” indicator said “HIGH BEAM”? Why the hell not?!?

The PC800 steps into the background and just lets you ride. It feels like cars quit leaving you alone years ago. Most touring motorcycles followed suit. The absence of bullshit on the PC800 attracts me. It repels folks that want to Bluetooth synch their cell phone into their motorcycle’s navigation GUI. Where you fall on that spectrum is up to you.

I’m sure I will have more to post next summer. (I bought some “moto-camping” gear and daydream of mellow camping/touring.) Be patient and you’ll surely find a good quality PC800. Also, don’t pressure yourself to jump at the first one you see or freak out paying a few hundred more to get one that you prefer. They’re good bikes that a public failed to recognize and now Honda makes so much bank on Goldwings they may never make a “smaller tourer” again.

Good luck.

A.C.