Motorcycle Repair: 83 honda shadow 500, honda shadow, spark plugs

Question
i just stated with bikes and i bought a 83 honda shadow of this guy for 300 buck cuz he couldnt get it to run i put a battery on it and it started right up but for some reason the bike has trouble getting over 2000 rpms i was wondering if you might know the problem?

Answer
Sounds like the bike is only running on a few cylinders.  This may be bacause of carburettor issues, or possibly timing.  The best way to check is to run it for a while and then remove the spark plugs.  Check out the spark plugs, if they are wet, then you have an ignition problme, if they are dry, then you have a carburettor problem.  Let me know what you find,  Jan