Anyway, now I want to get a V65 in a few months.The V65 has an electrical fuel pump under the seat. I didn’t bother to look it up back then because it NEVER occurred to me that it would even be possible for a motor TWICE the size to have less power. Like my buddy who I hadn’t seen for a while saying, “Looks like a fun bike, too bad it’s not big enough to take on the highway.” I let him know that I just got back from Chico two days prior… Or a gal I was “dating” saying “Oh, is this a wanna-be Harley or something?” I didn’t realize that even that little 500cc V4 was putting out more horsepower than a 1200cc Sportster. Yes, the Sportster has the look and the sound, and it is enjoyable no doubt, but I just think it is funny looking back on some of the stupid things people said about the Magna. Great motorcycle and later in life I bought a 96 Sportster 1200 and was surprised to realize that the Harley was not nearly as good of a machine. Rode it from Great Falls, MT to Seattle to Chico, CA and back and all over the state of Montana…Through Glacier National Park. Bought it when I was 21 in ’93 for $1,100. So many great comments, I had to scroll down forever! I had an 84 V30 Magna from 1993-1996. Honda hoped that the numbers would blow the Harley riders into the weeds. This power cruiser was designed by the Los Angeles boys for the American market, because the rest of the motorcycling world was not much interested in cruiser styling, preferring standard or sport. Axle to axle measurement was just shy of 63 inches.Ĭast wheels were 18 inches at the front and 16 at the back, with two discs at the front and a single at the back, all three squeezed by twin-piston calipers. The fork had almost six inches of travel, the swingarm a little more than four inches. At the back a pair of shock absorbers had all the adjustments: spring preload, rebound and compression damping. Rake was a pretty lazy 30.5 degrees with more than four inches of trail, and while this was OK in town, it was best not to get too optimistic out on the twisties. An air-adjustable 41mm fork suspended the front end, with an anti-dive unit. A shaft final drive went out the left side, so those Levi’s would be nice and clean on cruise night, not having to put up with an oily chain. Which were few as the 90 degrees between the two pairs of cylinders presumed good balance, enhanced by that short 55mm stroke. This had a diaphragm spring as an essential part of the device, which the engineers knew would be much abused, with the single diaphragm offering more consistent control than a multi-spring unit.Ī full-cradle frame, with double downtubes, held this unit-construction herd semi-firmly in place, as rubber mounts were used to keep any vibrations hidden away. Power ran via straight-cut gears back to a hydraulically operated clutch. With the V65 ergonomics city traffic was preferable to the interstates. was blessed (cursed?) with the 55-mph speed limit, so highway riders on the V65 had an excuse for not going very fast.
Fuel consumption was less than 40 mpg, but range was no problem as most riders wanted to get off after an hour or so. These had an easily changeable paper air cleaner. Bang, bang, bang, bang - and the crankshaft spins.įour constant-vacuum 36mm carbs, by Keihin, were accessible by lifting the gas tank.
This and the shape of the combustion chamber effectively put the fuel as close to the spark plug as possible, compressed 10.5 times. These horses came from using some appropriate fiddling inside the head, with the four valves having a rather narrow 38-degree included angle. And a second V-4, the 750 V45 Magna, introduced the year before. What was Honda thinking? The company had a whole bunch of bikes in the showrooms that year, 40 different models covering all the bases, from shopping-friendly Passports to huge Gold Wing touring platforms. Except for that mildly unaesthetic radiator up front. And liquid cooling to boot, so no worries about overheating when cruising down Main Street on a crowded Saturday evening. Whereas this bruiser was a V-4 with two overhead camshafts and four valves per cylinder. Harleys were the standard cruisers of the day, and they were lucky to get 55 horses to the rear wheel, using a pushrod V-twin that had been around for the better part of half a century. If this bike could be put in a category, it would be Power Cruiser. But a cruiser with feet-forward pegs and wide handlebars - and a shaft drive no less? This was nutso! Unheard of! Sure, sportbikes like Honda’s CB1100R were knocking out that many ponies, but those were for riders who liked leaning into corners at insane speeds. The motorcycling world looked upon this machine in absolute amazement - a cruiser putting out more than 100 horsepower.