What can y'all tell me about the V65 Magna

Wanted to see what you guys have to say about the V65.
What year(s) are the best.
Power, handling, performance, maintenance, mods, etc?

Never had, but I have had buddies that had them. They said the maint. was a real pain compared to the Vmax.. Something dealing with the cam/ valves... I have never owned any bike but Yamaha's just a preference, I've rode tons of other bikes, Honda, HD, Kaw, Suz, KTM, Victory..

I have had several.


Pros

6th gear!
Plenty of power ( on par with a Vmax )
Smooth Honda reliability
Excellent highway cruising
Good looks
Abundant parts
Lots of fun
Long range 150+ miles

Cons

2nd gear issues
Cam issues
Oiling issues
Lack of aftermarket support ( no cheap or available exhaust systems etc )
Lacks Vmax style

I ve owned ALOT of bikes and have owned over 50 V4 Honda's. Be it Magna's, Sabres, Interceptors etc And everything from baby 500's to 1000/1100's .

The V65 Magna is a very fast cruiser. It will more than keep up with a Vmax and will have about a 150+ ish mile range on fuel if I remember correctly. It was about 50 miles more than a Vmax.

Carbs... if you have to buy one that needs carbs built, PASS on it! They are a HUGE PAIN IN THE ASS to remove and replace. It makes removing Vmax Carbs a absolute joy!

2nd gear is no different than the Vmax. Beat on it hard with power shifts in 2nd and you will be replacing it. Do a typical 2nd gear test when you test ride one.

Oiling issues and bad cams are problems the V4 Honda engines had. Dave Dodge, if he is still in business offered a oil kit. Honda recalled the cams on many V4's. They pit and wear out. You can get reground cams and I think Mega even makes cams.

Power is exceptionally smooth. Its not aggressive like the Vmax. But linear, enjoyable. Its not a rip snorting beast in the sound dept either. You will see about 105 hp at the rear wheel and around 65 ft lbs of torque. So you are within 5 hp and 5 ft lbs of the Vmax.

Handling feels long and seat height is around 32 inches if I remember. I had to lower all of mine to feel more comfortable. I am 5'8". The bike feels top heavy to me. I believe its about 10 lbs heavier than a Vmax. I also seem to remember it holding almost 5 gallons of gas? I may be off on that. But it had a bigger tank than the Vmax. That I do remember.

I also remember it having driveline backlash. Felt jerky sometimes at lower speeds.

All in all... here is my up take.

If you want a Vmax and found a nice Magna.... it would have to be a DAMN nice Magna to get the same smile, if possible, as a Vmax can give you.

The Magna is a great cruiser bike if you want to just have a good time and not draw attention of be that thrilled about riding your bike. Don't get me wrong, I loved the Magna's. But onces I started riding Vmax's ( I am on my 7th one now ), I can't say I would ever own a Magna again unless it was a Super Magna with an 1100 motor in it. And that aint happening LOL.

So honestly, if Vmax's appeal to you, then just continue on looking at Vmax's. One will come around. If looking at adding an extra bike to the stable, honestly I would still pass on the Magna just because of the Carb removal, and they all seem to need to be cleaned and removed!

I have a V65 Sabre that had the CAM issues. After the second set I gave it to charity (Kidney Foundation). It had a Hondaline sport fairing and I loved it.

Falaholic said:

Wanted to see what you guys have to say about the V65.
What year(s) are the best.
Power, handling, performance, maintenance, mods, etc?

Click to expand...

Look here--http://v4musclebike.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3971

customizedcreationz said:

I ve owned ALOT of bikes and have owned over 50 V4 Honda's. Be it Magna's, Sabres, Interceptors etc And everything from baby 500's to 1000/1100's .

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Have you tried out the 1200 Interceptor they came out with a few years back? I was looking at one at the Honda stealership down in Lewiston a little while back, and other than needing a different seat (needs a stop pad about 2 1/2 inches forward of where the seat slopes up to the pillion section for my best comfort) it felt really comfortable swinging a leg over. Similar to the Busa I was also looking at.

If something should ever happen to Woona, I would strongly consider one, myself, I think.

Biker Dash said:

Have you tried out the 1200 Interceptor they came out with a few years back? I was looking at one at the Honda stealership down in Lewiston a little while back, and other than needing a different seat (needs a stop pad about 2 1/2 inches forward of where the seat slopes up to the pillion section for my best comfort) it felt really comfortable swinging a leg over. Similar to the Busa I was also looking at.

If something should ever happen to Woona, I would strongly consider one, myself, I think.

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All the ones I owned were older.

But I did look at the 1200 Interceptors as a cross country bike. I think its probably one of the best overall bikes made. But I don't know if it would have the same "wow" factor some specific bikes have.

I like it though.

customizedcreationz said:

All the ones I owned were older.

But I did look at the 1200 Interceptors as a cross country bike. I think its probably one of the best overall bikes made. But I don't know if it would have the same "wow" factor some specific bikes have.

I like it though.

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One of the things I like about the 1200 Interceptor is that it already comes with side bags, and you can easily mount a truck as well. Now, if I can strap a backpack to the pillion section, and have it nice and secure, that would be the perfect bike for me to ride down to Baltimore on.
Sadly, I did not see any for sale in Craigslist in my area. I did see a couple ST's for sale though.

Concours, thats a bad ass ride too.

Looking for something more of a cruiser than sport touring.

We get a little side tracked sometInes

I've never owned a V65 Magna BUT I rode with a friend for years that has a 1983 V65 and it's a bad Ass bike.
He'll own it until he dies, because he loves it just like we love our Vmaxes.
Honestly I don't ever remember him having any major issues with it other than he had a pretty serious death wobble up above 130 mph or so.
So we agreed to Only race from 0-130 mph, LOL.

You should go over to the V4MuscleBike forum, there are plenty of V65 (Magna and Sabre) owners there that can clue you in to the pros and cons of the V65's.
http://v4musclebike.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=4

Magnas are great bikes. After you do the carbs enough times, they come out almost as easy as on the Max. There are three major drawbacks:

1. No aftermarket
2. The front brakes are absolute shit. With the Antidive set-up, it's hard to mount different calipers. We are talking horrible brakes. On mine, I have HH equivalent pads, SS braided lines, every banjo is also a bleeder. They work twice as well as they did rolling off the assembly line. Two times zero is still zero.
3. The brakes suck


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I've restored almost 50 V65 Magnas in the past 10 years, they are GREAT bikes! If not for the 1983 V65 Magna, the V-Max may not have been born. They are awesome cruisers, 6 speed, shaft drive, water cooling integrated INTO the frame, LCD gear indicator and temp gauges, electric fuel pump, auto-cancelling turn signals, a lot of new innovations for the time! I get about 125-135 gallons out of a tank of gas, which isn't horrible when compared to say, a 2015 VMAX? LOL! What Honda ended up with was the fastest production motorcycle ever made at the time, and in 1983 Pee Wee Gleason ran it through the trapps in the quarter mile in less than 11 seconds, think it was 10.7........at the time, the fastest bike the magazines had ever tested! Every year they had a "muscle bike shootout", and talked about these same groups of bikes. In 1985 and 86, Kawasaki jumped into the fray with the 1985 and 1986 ZL900 Eliminators (also great bikes), which evolved into the 1987 ZL1000 Eliminator, another under appreciated classic. Suzuki got into the ring with it's 1200 cc Madura in 85 and 86, and this bike was no slouch either. Power wise it was right up there with the V65 Magna, and a few shootouts actually had it faster in the quarter mile. It was not widely accepted and didn't last long, it had a terrible engine vibration around 3K RPM (Honda had the patent on the 90 degree V4 engine, so they went with 86 degrees, even with rubber motor mounts it produced a horrible unbalanced condition and excessive vibration.) All of these bikes are under appreciated IMHO but the VMAX won the war and lived on to this very day. It's sad that Honda or Kawasaki especially ever got back into a REAL muscle bike war with the VMAX, I guess they figured it would be hard to beat 200 HP! I've got both a ZL900 and V65 Magna in the collection right now, these are two of my "keepers", both with less than 6K original miles. Ride them all the time!

Falaholic said:

Wanted to see what you guys have to say about the V65.
What year(s) are the best.
Power, handling, performance, maintenance, mods, etc?

Click to expand...

I have had both,love them both.It depends on what you want in a bike?The v65 is a more comfortable cruiser for a longer distance,especially with the overdrive.The vmax is faster in every way and more in your face kind of bike.It can get the attention of a sport bike real quick with the twist of your wrist.But the vmax is not as comfy for anything over 100 miles.IMO.

I've also owned both
The Honda is a Honda. It does everything well, but has no personality.
V Max has personally. It has attitude.

They still attract pretty women!

customizedcreationz said:

They still attract pretty women!

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No they don't
They just want you to think that buying that bike gets you that girl.
Resale value on that bike wasn't great.
Resale value on that girl was even worse.

I had an 85 Sabre before it was stolen, years ago when I lived in Brooklyn.
Brought it from a friend that could not get it running.
I re-worked carbs, breaks, starting system, got it purring like a kitten.
I loved that bike. Cleared the Holland tunnel from NJ to NY one Saturday Morning in about 20 seconds.:biglaugh:

Its handling was smooth. Gear transitions where right on point. Power response was great for a 750CC, and I'm no light weight.
Gas mileage was better than the VMax. About 160 Miles on the tank.. But I'm sure that depends on your riding habits also.

Many years later, while visiting a MC shop with a friend, I happen to sit on an previously owned, 90 VMax in a back room with only 5K miles on it.
Something happened to me then.. I don't know what it was, but something in my body and mind said, "This is Fucking Wicked". So, many more years later, someone local, had a 91 on Craigslist. Need I say more?