When Honda unveiled the VF1100C, or Magna V65, in 1983, it wasn't the first Magna the company had made. Similarly-styled to its V45 and V30 cousins but sharing no parts in common, the V65 Magna was a street bike that merged the best parts of a sport bike and a cruiser into a V-four monster.
The Magna is a good-looking, powerful bike, but it isn't friendly. The riding position is erect, with a decent passenger seat and position that can be supported by a sissy bar. Turning on the engine starts a throaty roar that speaks of roads to be conquered.
The V65 Magna Was One of the Fastest Production Motorcycles of its Time
The Honda Magna V65 was fast – almost record-breakingly so. When the motorcycle was first released, the VF1100C was one of the fastest street-legal motorcycles available, hitting the quarter-mile in 11.29 seconds for an effective speed of 119 mph. Just as Honda intended, the V65 Magna gave the other speeding bikes of the era, including the 128-mph Suzuki GS1150E, a run for their money with its "eyeball-flattening acceleration."
While the Guinness Book of Records did report the V65 Magna as the fastest production motorcycle with a calculated top speed of 160mph, this was not a real top speed. The March 1983 issue of Cycle magazine did its own test and posited that this could be a "10-second" bike, but never actually proved that point.
The Honda V65 Magna is not Really a Cruiser
While subsequent incarnations of the Honda Magna looked much more like classic cruisers, the 1983-1986 V65 was made for high-speed travel in short bursts. It has a straight up-and-down styling typical of a street bike and the hard-edged lines of a so-called street-fighter, not the laid-back lines of a cruiser.
In a sense, the Magna was born of new tariffs imposed on imported motorcycles with engines over 45 cubic inches. Honda's response was to create three powerful motorcycles under that size, in each of three classes. While the Magna's cousin, the Sabre, was officially the standard bike, and the Interceptor was the sports bike of that tax-busting trio, the V45 Magna neither looked nor behaved like the cruiser it was supposed to be.
Even so, the VF750C was sufficiently well-received to spur Honda into the creation of its big brother, the V65. The Sabre, meanwhile, was only produced for a year or two and looks remarkably similar to the Magna.
History of the V65 Magna
As noted above, the V65 Magna, produced from 1983 to 1986, was not the first of its line. The VF750F, or Magna V45, came out in 1982 and was in production for two years. The VF500C, or Magna V30, made its debut in 1984 and was produced until 1985. While Honda did issue other Magnas, including the VF250, in the 1990s, these were V-twins and not the same animal at all.
The three V-four incarnations share essentially the same styling, but the V45 and V65 do not share parts in common: Honda re-engineered the engine for the larger vehicle. According to the Cycle Chaos website, 1983 V65s were pale blue or maroon; black and three different shades of red were the colors du jour for the following three years.
After the VF1100C stopped production in 1986, there was never another V65 Magna. From 1987 to 1988 a cruiser-styled Super Magna was available; from 1994-2003 the Magna went even more towards the cruiser styling with the third-generation VF750C. But the V65 motorcycle never showed its face again, and that is truly a shame.
Linda Gentile - Linda Gentile is a professional freelance writer. A full-time RVer and biker (ravensroads.com), she runs the history site, ...
Join the Conversation