Readers Rides Page:36

Owner= Travis Brown
It is all original with about 7000 original miles on it. I have added the Plexiglas windshield and the nylon bags. It makes for a pretty good tourer. I also put the Bridgetone BT-45 Battleaxe tires on it which has made a big differnce.

Click here For more pics

this is a link to my little page. There are more pics of it there.

Owner=Joe
It is a 1985 V65 Magna. I am the third owner. Purchased August of 2001 with 22000 miles. Bike is stock right now but I have ordered Corbin seat, Dave Dodge oil mod kit and assorted small parts to bring it up to near perfect condition. The first owner had the tall sissy bar and crash bars installed as well as the "chin" spoiler below the radiator. Its my first Magna and I am very impressed with the bottom end torque and power. I intend to put a lot of Alabama miles on this most excellent of motorcycles.

Owner:Bob Berghuis
Dear Sabre/Magna riders,

Last week I bought a V65 Sabre. I traded in a CBR 900 RR Fireblade of 1994 and got a good deal on this. The dealer gave me back considerable money! This seems to be a strange move, but I wanted something more comfortable to ride. The Fireblade is a great machine, but the clip-ons are so very much forward that it's not very suitable for touring at lower speeds. When I saw the V65 Sabre at the dealer it was love at first site. There's a little history here as I owned 11 years ago a V45 Sabre (VF 750 S), which got lost in a traffic accident. Some idiot hit me from the side. After that I bought a new Kawasaki ZZR 1100, but that was a brand mistake. Sorry for all the Kawa lovers, but Kawa's ain't Honda's. Power was always enough, but the handling and riding performance was not up to Honda level. I traded in the Kawa for a stationcar when the first baby arrived. Typical phase thing. But after some years not having a bike started to hurt and I bought a second hand Fireblade. And now I got "back to the future" with the V65 Sabre!

The Sabre is from end November 1989 and has done 65.000 km. It's in very good shape and it has a Jos Schurgers fairing. The original Honda fairing is not seen very much in Holland as in the 80's this Jos Schurgers, an ex-champion on light racing bikes, started to produce very good fairings. I had the same on my V45 and it's to my opinion the best looking non-standard fairing I've ever seen. I have 2 hardbags on the back. They are not standard as well and that's a pity as they are connected a bit wide to the machine and they seem to be too much to the back of the machine. I've seen nicer things.

The performance of the Sabre is good, although the power is nothing in comparison to the Fireblade. That had some extras which lead to approx. 135 BHP. The difference with the 121(?) BHP is not so big on paper, but weight is the bif difference. The 245 kg dry weight against 185 kg from the Fireblade is a world of difference. Still, the V65 Sabre is the better machine for touring through the Dutch countryside. More sitting right up and more torque makes it fun to drive (only did 500 km yet). On Len's page and sabmag.org I read about a lot of problems with cams and oil-pressure. Scared me a bit, but I hope the previous owner(s) have solved these problems. I still have half a year of full guarantee by the dealer, so I hope that problems will occur in this period and not afterwards.

I wish you all lot of joy and safe riding.
Bob