Bike Build/Flip: 1985 Honda V65 Sabre Part 1

Every era has its legends and for motorcycles it’s no different. The post-war years saw the rise of the American V-Twin cruiser powered by a number of x-head engines, (where x = shovel, pan, flat, or just about any other noun). The CB750 spawned an entire generation of Japanese bikes that were ubiquitous enough to give rise to the “Universal Japanese Motorcycle” moniker. The ’90s was the decade of the sportbike, arguably led by Honda’s CBR900RR, which put liter-bike power in a 600cc-size chassis. Post-2000 was the era of the 200+mph capable hyperbikes like the Hayabusa and ZX-14R.

But what about the ’80s? A decade that not only accepted but celebrated such terrible ideas as acid-wash denim, mullets, Steve Urkel, and NKOTB. What was the signature motorcycle of this era? It was the original muscle bike, Honda’s V65 Magna.

 

It was a brash “anything you can do I can do better” statement to the current cruiser institution and a solid eff you to the 750cc tariff that Harley lobbied for in the early ’80s. And it was totally emblematic of Honda at the time. Between 1978 and 1983, here are the all-new bikes Honda released:

• The Shadow line of V-twin cruisers, including 500cc and 750cc variants
• The CX line of Moto Guzzi-style longitudinal V-twins
• Turbo, fuel injected versions of the CX line, both the 500cc and 650cc versions
• The inline 6-powered CBX
• The first turn-key Japanese tourer, the GL1100 Interstate
• The single-cylinder FT500 Ascot
• The second generation of the CB750 with an all new DOHC engine
• The CB900C and CB1000C cruiser-styled inline-4 bikes
• The CB900F and CB1100F sport-styled inline-4 bikes
• The V4 bikes in V45 (750cc) and V65 (1100cc) guise

Are you kidding me? Who does that? To recap, that’s two styles of v-twins, totally unrelated from one another. That’s an inline-6, a flat-4, V-4s, and inline-4s. Turbos and electronic fuel injection – on motorcycles – in 1982. And then a thumper for good measure, one that’s still competitive in AHRMA racing.

So given Honda’s obvious penchant for engineering self-gratifying solutions to problems nobody really had, it seems downright reasonable that they’d create an 1100cc V4 engine pumping out 120 peak horsepower and huge torque from idle all the way to its 10,000rpm redline.

In 1983, the V65 Magna pounded out a 10.8 second quarter mile according to Cycle magazine. Nothing made for the next 8 years could touch that time – it was an incredibly powerful bike capable of incredible performance. But the issue with the Magna, at least for me, was the styling; cruisers have never been my thing. Keeping my feet forward hurts my hips, and high bars work directly against maintaining anything that even resembles proper body position through corners.

Then for 1984, Honda released the V65 Sabre – sort of a thinking man’s muscle bike (if you’re a pompous, self-important a-hole who would like to picture yourself as a “thinking man”). As soon as I found out that this bike existed, I knew I had to have one. So in August of 2010 I sold my CB750 and began my search. I kept my eye on a few that popped up on eBay to get an idea on pricing, they ended up selling in the low $2000 range. One kept showing up on Craigslist near me, but the guy wanted $2800 for it, which I thought was totally crazy.

Then all of a sudden one popped up in Chicago – an ’85 with red striping (I’d prefer blue, but I wasn’t about to be picky). It was in good shape and had a Rifle Nightflight fairing installed already, which I thought looked nice. The guy was asking $1250 and said he was firm on the price. I rented a pickup from Enterprise and was on my way first thing the next morning. The five hour drive flew by and I got to his place shortly after lunch. This was actually the first bike I was able to test ride (or even crank) before buying, and would be by far the most I’d ever paid for a bike. On the test ride, I gave it some good throttle and was mildly disappointed with the resulting g-forces after hearing all of the legends about insane acceleration and fighting to keep the front tire on the ground. But it was really clean, very smooth, in good shape, and a steal so I paid the man his asking price and lugged it home.

 

Once home, I did the requisite initial photoshoot.

 

Not bad, eh? It was pretty weird buying a bike that didn’t need…like…everything done to it. So I went ahead and did the required maintenance.

First off – bleed brake and clutch fluid:

Gross.

Then it was valve clearances, coolant change, new spark plugs, and all electrical connectors packed with dielectric grease. At this point I’d be remiss if I didn’t bring up the V4’s elephant in the room – camshaft wear.

The early V4s suffered from excessive cam wear. And thirty years later the cause of and solution to the wear are both hotly debated topics shrouded by legend, mystery, and internet pomposity. Some claim poor metallurgy, some claim poor oil flow, some claim improper boring of the cam bearing surfaces, some claim a mixture of all three. The claimed fix is a near-$200 set of oil lines that deliver extra oil flow directly to the top end. Rumors say the later bikes had redesigned cams that didn’t have the issue. Other rumors said the later bikes definitely had the issue. I went with my default response, and that was to ignore the issue completely and hope that nothing comes of it (side note: not a great strategy for dealing with my wife’s pregnancy).

I did inspect the cams while I was in there for the valve adjustment, and they looked to be in good shape after 30,000 miles, so I was probably fine.

So I buttoned it back up and rode the heck out of it until the following spring…

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1985 V65 Sabre Part 2