Honda Magna: yay or nay?

[Syscrush]

Hey all. My cousin is looking for a "cheap project bike" and there's a rough V45 Magna near him that he's fixated on. I advised against it because of the shaft drive and wacky forks - I think he'd be better off with something a bit older or a bit newer - but he loves the Magna look and the V4 sound, and IMO it's hard to argue with that.

It looks pretty rough (it was someone else's aborted project), but it's only 50,000 km:







Carbs and the OEM foot controls come with the bike.

I expect that someone on here has experience with these bikes as they're a similar era to our beloved CBX, ad another bike that's built around an interesting engine. Any insight or advice about what to look for or avoid would be much appreciated.

[CBX-tras]

All I see there is a lot of work and lost money. Coupled with the small displacement of 750, I wouldn't touch that one on a bet.
Advise him to buy one done. Rideable and safe, if he just has to have that model.
But, you did ask for my opinion.

[darbyfam]

With a bike needing that much work, validate parts availability. I know parts for my V45 VF1000F is not easy to find.

[Jeff Bennetts]

This topic came up a couple weeks ago on another M/C forum that I belong to, here’s a couple copy&paste comments from mechanics that worked on them in the day.

I'm sure it was a fine bike, and gave you good service....but they should never have called those bikes Sabre or Magna or Interceptor...they should have just called them all "Any Minute Now"s....the unsupported cams would eventually wreck the followers and the cams. We made good money putting new heads on bikes for Honda...

V-45's and V-65's had those huge junk cam chain tensioners. The were made of stamped steel and had a rod that would bend and let the chain rattle. You had to lock the tensioner "open" with either the L shaped tool that came with them, or an allen wrench. Make sure you don't drop it in the engine when releasing the tensioner.
I think I still have a Cam Claw for those shit heaps. And that's exactly what they are.

[AshishNJ]

Jeff nailed it. I recommend don’t own Honda’s mistake.
My neighbor wanted to have me one for free !! I immediately said “NO thank you” . I would rather have had his old Vespa that he wouldn’t part with :)

[Syscrush]

Thanks for the insight, guys.

His quest is complicated by his super-low budget and the fact that he's in Winnipeg. He contacted me about shipping a $1000 bike from Toronto - which seemed idiotic to me at first, but when I hit Autotrader & Kijiji to hunt for cheap old bikes in Manitoba I suddenly understood where he was coming from.

He found a GL500 that he's gonna take a shot at. He already has a TW200 that he enjoys riding - he wants something to wrench on.

[Jeff Bennetts]

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This is what started the conversation of V45’s on the other forum that I quoted from!