[saitvsk23]

Part Zero : Welcome!

Well, ladies and gentlemen, hello again.

The last time I had started a thread, it was about my 2011 Honda CBR 250R C-ABS, which I fondly named her as "Phoenix". Getting her to proper condition was no less than a proper shot film style storyline, and it has all worked out well in the end. And a full year later, its seen a lot of positive response, comments, questions and what not. But since that one year, there have been major changes in my life, and for sometime, the freedom of being on two wheels has taken a back seat. And hopefully, I wish to be back on the road soon enough, just in time for summer!

Let's pick up with where I had left off the last time.

The last time I had taken out my CBR was when I had gone out with my friends, back home in India. And since then, my dad has been taking care of it. The following pic is one of the last ones I had taken before I left home.

And in August of 2023, I had left home to the United States of America to pursue my masters in Automotive and Mobility Systems Engineering. Since then, not having my motorcycle led to a great pain of feeling restricted and handicapped, not able to go out much and all. And then, one day, I found something in the corner of my eye when I was out with a friend. I'll be continuing this in the next part.

[saitvsk23]

Part One : Introduction and the Name

It was October of 2023, been 2 months since I've landed in the USA and Detroit is a place of all cars, and no public transport. And my roommate was looking to buy a car. While searching for good deals, we found a decently used 2012 Ford Focus Sedan within our budget. And we decided to have a look at this car and went to the used car dealership. We took a look at the car and drove it around, found it to be good enough and came back to the dealer's lot. And while just looking around, I found something sitting in a corner. I decided to walk up to it and check it out what it was. In all its glory, there was an old big 80's Japanese Cruiser motorcycle just sitting all by itself, looking all big and handsome, waiting to be rescued. Atleast that's how I saw it. In that instant, I didn't know much about the bike and just inquired about it from the dealership owner. He said he had no clue about it, and well, things in my mind started to go off.

After all, it was a big nice motorcycle, god knows why it was left out. I was told that the bike had a clean title and was sellable, all original mileage and I virtually saw no signs of abuse, just typical wear due to its age and outside conditions. Till December, the idea was just a blurb in the back of my head and was just floating around. Just before Christmas, I gathered the courage of going again to the lot and taking more pics of the motorcycle. By then, I had done my research of that particular motorcycle line and armed myself with all the possible information. And then we set out to the lot with my roommate and went upto the bike and started assessing its condition. pulled out all the junk around it, put it on the main stand and assessed it thoroughly. Definitely needed some time, energy and resources to get it back running properly on the road. I'm gonna attach the first set of pics that I ever took of the bike.

And as per all the info I had armed myself with, it was a 1984 Honda Magna V65. Here is where it clicked for me. Its a liquid cooled V4 DOHC engine, 1098cc by design (65 cubic inches in displacement, hence the 65 in V65), shaft driven motorcycle. It was basically touted as a Harley killer, and the Japanese took a lot of pride in this factor. And now I can say that I own a very ancient and an ethnically distant precursor to the Diavel!

About the Magna :

These Magnas were originally introduced in 1982, with the V45 and V65 coming first onto the American Soil. The V65's smaller sibling, the V45 Magna (similarly specced V4 45 cubic inch-750cc) was actually targeted at the then poorly made Harley Davidson's motorcycles, which was owned by AMF, a bowing arcade company. They had bought out HD when it was in deep financial trouble in 1969, after facing all the onslaughter from the British and Japanese motorcycles. Owing to such fierce competition in the 80's from superior motorcycles, Harley Davidson had applied for tariff protection on their bikes, which resulted in higher tariffs on bikes above 700cc. The US government (Reagan Era Govt) imposed tariff rate hikes for foreign-built motorcycles over 700 cc in order to combat their rise in sales in North America, and to aid the domestic motorcycle manufacturers, namely Harley-Davidson. So for 1984 Honda responded by reducing the engine size for the VF750s to 698 cc by decreasing stroke on all of their 750cc engines, so the Magna became the VF700C in the USA.

One amusing thing is that, these motorcycles were built in Honda's Ohio plant. So technically they were still domestically manufactured. And to put it in simpler words, the Magna was one such motorcycle which had Harley by its Davidsons!

As I thoroughly believe, a brilliant ad can even sell a stone to a soldier! So here's the TV commerical for the V65 Magna, in all its glory :

https://youtu.be/iORT5E6Hbkc?si=dLbK-BDhalDNqVu1

Basic Specs : 116HP, 95NM torque @7500 RPM, liquid cooled V4 1098cc - 65 cubic inch, shaft driven, anti-dive TRAC front suspension, FOIL alarm system (defunct), dual front disc brakes, digital coolant temp and gear position indicator.

Why the name Buster Magna Wolf ?

Growing up, almost all of us have watched shows which have idealised a bunch of superheroes! For the elder generation, it might be He-Man, GI Joe, or any other cartoon show. Well, for me, it was shows like Power Rangers SPD, Power Rangers Jungle Fury, and my personal favourite - Madan Senki Ryukendo, which all originate from the Tokusatsu type of Japanese media - one which involves the usage of special effects to compliment the storytelling. Ryukendo involved 3 superheroes - Ryukendo (swordsman), Ryugango (gunman), and Ryujino (archer) which protect the town of Akebono, Japan from the evil force of Jamanga, which feed off from the negative energy generated by creating fear among the town residents.

Each madan warrior has a spirit animal, which is capable of transforming into a transport vehicle, that can also act as combining power during finishing attacks. My personal idol was Ryugango, as his outfit stood out the most to me, his general demeanor was very slick and suave, and most important of all, his spirit animal was a wolf, which was officially known as Buster Wolf. This was after his evolution into the Magna Ryugango, and hence it is known as Buster Magna Wolf. And the cherry on top, his Wolf turned into a motorcycle that very closely resembled a Cruiser Motorcycle.

I'll attach pics of that too, to go with the flow of this section.

Magna Ryugango, Buster Wolf JuuOu (spirit) in the motorcycle form and the Transformation Key

The next section will document all the things I've done to it to slowly bring it back, including one huge foolish mistake that bought the project to an effective halt.

[saitvsk23]

Part Two : Getting the Magna Home, fixes and a mistake

Once I had completely checked the bike out, I was sold on the idea of getting it home. And I went in to make a deal with the dealership owner regarding the bike. After a lot of back and forth negotiations, we settled on a price of 400$. Yes you read that right. All that hunk of a bike, for 400$ dollars. Apparently, he had misplaced the key of the bike, so we made another deal. If he found the key to the bike, it would be mine for 450$. If not, I would be taking it home for 400$. And we shook hands on it. I had made this deal in late December and promised to take it home by Mid January of 2024.

Come mid January, I was ready with the cash I needed to get the bike. I signed a few documents, and the title was transferred to my name after paying the money and sales tax. Since the bike was in non running condition (dead battery and no keys-luckily the handle wasn't locked), the seller offered to drop off the bike at my home for another 50$. I said yes and it took a humongous effort to load up the bike in the back of the seller's Ford Ranger Raptor truck.

The Magna after we pulled it out of the yard to be loaded into the truck.

The Magna loaded onto the Raptor, and below is after we got the bike down at my residence.

And from this point, I had acquired various tools and lubricants to start work on this motorcycle. The first hurdle to jump over, before trying to get the motorcycle started was getting the keys made for this bike. This task was a royal PITA, and dead stopped me in my tracks for weeks. The key code on this motorcycle would be found on 4 distinct locations, one being under the hinge of the gas cap. This hinge was held on by 2 plus tip JIS screws. And since we live in the modern world, phillips head drivers can easily strip off the heads of JIS screws as they look similar but have different seating grooves. One screw came off the hinge, the other one got completely stripped. So to find out the key code, I caught the free end of the hinge and bent it the other way, so that I could bend down and try to peek at the key code. After doing it twice to fully verify the key code, I placed an order with an online vendor who had specialised in cutting keys for Vintage Japanese motorcycles. That had costed me around 21$ for 2 keys and shipping to my residence via USPS.

The keys came to me and worked flawlessly. And the next step was to install a battery into the bike. I had booked a Mighty Max battery of 12V and 18Ah, which is a low cost maintenance free AGM (acrylic glass mat) battery. This was said to be better than the standard sealed Lead acid batteries and was even said to last longer. I had then installed this into the bike, put a gallon of fuel into it and did a very silly stupid mistake.

As I was working on the motorcycle, by installing a battery, I did not remove the protective cover of the motorcycle completely. I removed only 2/3rds of it and started to work on it. Once the bike's dashboard came to life, I couldn't control my excitement and foolishly hit the starter button. The bike was in gear, and that led to rotation of the rear wheel even though the clutch lever was pulled in. The rotation of the rear wheel caught the bike cover hanging in very close proximity to it, and now the rear wheel jammed itself as the cover got stuck in it. I tried getting the bike off its main stand and rolling it backwards. But the wheel just dragged as if it had a seized calliper. I tried a lot by myself to remove the caliper by removing the caliper bolts, but its just as if it doesn't want to come out.

At the time of writing this post, it is Friday, and I have booked an appointment for a mobile mechanic to come over and have a look at it for the coming Monday.

Here's how it looks as of now :

In anticipation of getting the bike up and running again, this is the gear I had got for myself :

Firstly, a pair of ILM motorcycle riding gloves. I wanted basic protection and this does the job. 40$ for the pair.

Secondly, I did not want to compromise the safety of my head just to save a few bucks. And hence I ended up getting the HJC C10, a decently reviewed full-face helmet. This is a DOT certified helmet, so no issues in that department. My only complaint with this is that it has that double D ring strap. I feel it is outdated, and liked that slot-in clip style that my Studds Thunder D3 helmet had, back home. 110$ for this one.

And lastly, I had bought a pre-owned Alpinestars TZ-1 Armored Riding jacket that was decently cared for, no rips, no tears, just wear due to its age. 100$. I think it's a steal.

So guys, this is it! Stay tuned for more updates. I will regularly keep updating this thread as more work will be done on the motorcycle, and of course, in case I take it out, I will post a few glamour shots once the bike is all ready to rock!

Thank you so much for taking out your time to read all of it and reaching till this point. Until next time!

Checkpoint Saved!

[Aditya]

Thread moved out from the Assembly Line. Thanks for sharing!

[RT13]

What an absolute BEAST of a machine!!!

Quoting from https://ridermagazine.com/2019/12/25...00c-v65-magna/

‘ The gearbox had five speeds plus an overdrive sixth. If the bike could have pulled 10 grand in sixth gear, its top speed would be better than 170 mph. A more practical (!!) top speed was 140 in fifth. If the rider could hang on!’

Good god!

A shaft drive. Air suspension up front. Adjustable rear suspension. Capable of 10 second mile and over 220 km/h!! With a lazy rake and trail! If ever there were a recipe for suicide on wheels, this seems to be it. But one could cross the rainbow with a maniacal smile alright.

Man, what a wild time the eighties were!

What a heckuva find. Hope you haven’t buggered up the brakes or anything too badly. Awaiting an update on this ridiculously desirable machine.

Congrats.

Cheers

[hardihoodchaser]

First time seen this model. It's love at first site.
Eagerly waiting for restoration.

[Mrs&Mr_Shenu]

Read your thread like a story. Lot much to unfold yet. Pictures have complemented well. Eagerly waiting..

[Indraneel Bhat]

@saitvsk23... you had me at "Honda".

Looks like an iconic Power Cruiser from the 80s was waiting for your arrival to the States. All the best with the restoration. This seems to be the making of a true blue "Rust to Riches" story!!

An interesting line from the Wikipedia article -

"Though criticized for its long-distance comfort and lauded mainly for its raw acceleration, the Magna was the bike of choice for Doris Maron, a Canadian grandmother and accountant-turned-traveler who toured the world solo by motorcycle. She made the trek without the benefit of the support crew that usually accompanies riders in adventures depicted in such films as Long Way Round"

[PreludeSH]

Beautiful bike. What is the weight of this bike ? For a V4 and with such power numbers, the bike still looks sleek.

You didnt seem to believe the bike would start when you had the bike cover stuck in the wheels? Its a Honda ! Enjoy your rides.

[sandeepmohan]

Brilliant find.

Honestly, those specs are hard to come by on todays motorcycles. By that, I don't mean the horse power and torque specs. The rest of it.

Interesting, quirky looking design. I guess they were trying to replicate what Harley were doing but sort of did it with a shorter wheel base. At those engine output numbers, this thing would have smoked almost everything in its path.

You may want to disassemble the brake caliper to get that rag or cloth out. Should be a 10 minute job. You probably don't need to pull put the whole thing out. Unscrew the bolts and that should allow some wriggle room.

Get all the fluids replaced before you start riding the bike extensively.

[saitvsk23]

Well, working with this bike is surely getting 'interesting'.

What do us humans do when we're in shower, or on a lazy mind-hazy afternoon? You think about what you can do to make your life better! Nothing punches and shoves you back into reality as much as a deep shower-thinking session or an afternoon lazing-around session does.

So the last time we left off this story, it was when I gave up trying to remove all the mangled mess, and decided to call a mobile mechanic.

And in true hollywood fashion, there came a big lazy guy who seemed like he worked on motorcycles. Atleast his facebook page and his previous posts told so. Or maybe, he saw me and my case as easy money, and tried to rip me off. And he did rip me off. I'm not proud of this, as I'm typing this now, but I believe that I could've saved 70$. Well, he saw the mess, he bought in a hammer, tried hitting on the calliper, stuck in a slim screwdriver and tried prying up from someplace, and then said, "It's really jammed in there, bud. To remove that, you need to prop up the bike on a lift, remove the rear wheel" and my brain stopped processing his words right there. And me having a background in automobile engineering, the mechanic in me just asked him, "If we had to remove the wheel and all, what all parts need to be replaced?" He said, "Maybe the brake pads, and some brake bleeding would need to be done."

Okay. That's a huge steaming pile of horse reject. Even the lie couldn't be more pale-coloured than him.

And then, he asked to be compensated to coming out to my residence and for his time. I just paid him so that he could leave. Well, I learnt my lesson.

Disappointed, I returned to my PC, to find more answers to my problem. And for just a proper idea to see how the caliper was held on, I opened the parts catalogue for this bike and had a look.

After having a nice long look at the rear caliper section, I had my eureka moment.

I grabbed my keys, my toolbag and a prybar. A normal pedestrian would've looked at me as if I was a contract repairman heading to somebody's place!

And then, I walked up to my bike. Took off the cover off the bike. Atleast what was remaining of it. I took out all the tools needed, and loosened 2 bolts holding the caliper in its bracket. I inserted the sharp end of the prybar into the top gap between the caliper and the bracket. I put in all my force on that prybar to widen the gap between them. I tried, I tried, and it did. It moved. Finally. I did the same move again and it lifted up, from the place it was jammed by the cover. Here's how it looked.

I took out my rubber headed mallet and started whacking the caliper as if it's 3 previous generations owed me money real bad. It moved, it moved, and finally, it stood at the edge of the disc with one final blow. I stopped hitting it and gently grabbed it out. And with all the frustruation which pent up all over the weeks, I just pulled the cover straight out. And here's how the mangled mess which haunted me for few weeks looked like.

After feeling so accomplished, I put back the caliper and checked the wheel for its rotation. While the mobile mechanic was previously inspecting my bike, the fool had hit the starter button again, but the wheel moved. That foolish move of his gave me an idea that now the bike could be shifted to neutral. I bent over, and shifted the gear pedal up using my hand. It clicked. And went to neutral. With this moment, I would like to give you guys a look at the beautiful dashboard of this motorcycle.

Now, I just wanted to make sure about the condition of the air box, as I had bought starter fluid spray to spray it into the airbox hole while starting it, to get it started easily. And then, I got another punch to my gut. The fuel line was cut and was leaking.

Hose no. 8 is the main fuel line that was sending fuel to the auxillary tank. Hose 34 is another braided fuel line, that had come off loose due to my last adventure with it, trying to completely disconnect the hoses and take the tank to a keysmith to get the key made from the tank lock. So as of now, Hose 8 has a slit in it which developed due to age and bending. Down the line, I am surely going to get it replaced, but for now, I decided to let the bike just be on itself, let the fuel leak out (i had just filled under a gallon and the temps here are just around 4-5C), so I don't see that as a hazard to anyone else. The fuel is just leaking when the tank is lifted, so I see that as a fix that I can do by myself by using some really heavy duty grade adhesive tape, like gorilla tape or flex tape.

So guys, this is it for now, thanks a lot for reading this update! Hope to post more successful adventures of me working on this bike with the hope of seeing it run someday!

[saitvsk23]

Spring break is here, and for me, that means I've got more time on my hands to work on the bike!

So from the above schematics (in my previous post), I had learned that Hose no.34 is called the auxillary hose, it apparently has the function of letting fuel flow more rapidly into the aux tank, by connecting 2 holes from the aux tank to the main tank. Think of it like a breather hose. The Magna's fuel system is somewhat complicated. The fuel goes from the main tank to the aux tank, and then to the filter and the carburettors. This bike has got 4 cylinders, so that means 4 individual carbs, each one for each cylinder.

So, I got Flex Tape which was specially meant for automotive usage, and just lifted the tank and assessed the slit. I felt it could be completely and tightly sealed using the flex tape. God, the adhesive on the tape itself was so damn strong. I tried cutting the tape using my scissors, but the blade got stuck to the tape and was playing hard to come off. And the actual piece of tape was thick, like a 0.1mm thickness of a rubber sheet which is made into tape rolls.

I lifted the fuel tank and put it on the prop rod (yes, the tank has a provision of setting up the prop rod, just like how we have for the hoods of our marutis) and then sealed up the slit using one nice fat piece of the flex tape. And this is how it looked after putting it on:

Now the hose 34 was trying to become a pain by not playing along. It was not sitting into the outlet of the tank. I tried so hard to make it sit, and while looking closely I thought that maybe the clamp is making it tight. And i loosened the hose clamp and slid it back in the picture. Now, it was still feeling tight to sit. Then, I removed the pin that was acting as the hinge for the tank to lift. The tank then came free. Somehow, I managed to make the hose sit somewhat tightly onto the outlet, and then I raised the hose clamp and tightened it to the best of my ability. I still wanted to be sure that the hose wouldn't come off. So I took a piece of the flex tape and put it around the outlet and the hose, so that it wouldn't come off. Here's how it looked after I put it on:

Now it remains to see how well my fixes have worked. I'll refuel the tank in a couple of days, and try to start it with some starter fluid. If it works, well and good. If not, it sits for sometime and then off it goes to the dealership for extensive reworking, as either ways the bike will need a proper top to bottom service to be daily used.

Let's see how that goes!