Ken Monier (ken.monier@alf.mts.dec.com) contributes this story 
about a friend's V65 Magna, after some words of introduction about 
himself and his bike, also a Magna.  This Magna was one tough bike, 
but in the end, it got out muscled by a surprise nemesis.   Enjoy!

					-- Robyn

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		A Great V65 Magna Story
		     - Ken Monier -


    I own a 1984 Honda Magna V65. It has 34,000 miles on it, and have 
owned it for about a year or so.  I have driven it to the Grand Canyon, 
Colorado Rocky Mt. Park, and Utah area (last summer).  I love it. 
It is smooth, strong, dependable, versatile etc.   I always keep 
my bikes in exceptional shape, and have a custom Corbin seat made 
for me on it, with backrest etc.  You see I ride on the average
about 38,000 miles a year on my motorcycles.

    I have a manual fan overide installed and love it.  I use it 
in conjunction with the temperature gauge.  Works great.

    I ALWAYS use Spectro FULL bike synthetics (not the half and half 
mixture).  It keeps my bike running AT LEAST 1-2 clicks below the normal 
running temp.

    I have NOT replaced the cams, and really don't know if the previous 
owner did yet.  I highly doubt it - he was sloppy about maintenance.

    I change my oil no more than 4 K miles (with filter).

    A GREAT TRUE story on the V65 Magna though:

    I bought the V65 after riding a good buddy's.  Now my buddy is 50
years old and has been riding since 1958, without a break!  He doesn't
even own a car, and living in the Ga. area he rides year round. 
John does over 50,000 miles a year on his bikes. He has a 1984 V65 Magna. 
He bought it 4 years ago with 8,000 miles on it, and now has over 170,000
miles on it.  No cam changes, no engine work -- just tires, brakes,
regular oil changes, and fluid changes.

    Recently, however, he said the bike "seemed" different, 
and thought something was wrong.  I drove it, and it seemed fine 
except for a smell.  All fluids were fine, and no head gasket leaks 
visible in them etc.

    He brought the bike into his trusty mechanic and discovered that
the oil pump had gone, which caused other things (cams pitted, 
bent rod etc.).   But he rode the bike into the shop - STILL STRONG! 
And had 182,345 miles on it !!!   John likes the bike so much
(custom paint - chrome etc.) that he bought a used engine and is 
putting that in it as I write this.....

[ a few days elapse ]

    The V65 after 180,000 miles lived on. It was brought to our favorite
bike shop, where they took the engine totally apart to analyze it.
Bottom line analysis was that one cam was badly scored, 6 rocker arms
needed replacing, valves were okay, rings were okay, crank okay,
retainers for cam chains needed replacement - all of them, one rod was
bent.  After pricing it was almost $ 2.2 K to rebuild existing engine.
A used/new engine was purchased from a salvage yard for $750.00 and put
in for $500.  Ran like a champ -- all okay.

    After he got it back he worked on it (typical piddling he does with all
his bikes).  He had a list of only minor things to fix from the engine
replacement, e.g. small oil leak (real small) etc.  So he brought it 
back to our favorite bike shop, where they agreed to fix his list 
and return it to him in tip top shape.

    Two days later he was just leaving to go pick it up.  It was all done,
but a phone call stopped him on the way out.  It was the bike shop.
Knowing how meticulous he was, they were apparently washing the bike
just outside the garage door in their driveway, when an out-of-control
"Cherry picker" 16 wheel truck came barreling down from a grocery
store's parking lot almost 300 yards away!  The truck had no driver -- 
the brakes had let go while he was in store.  It crossed a very busy 
street (this is all backwards by the way) through the dealership's front
parking lot, missing a house, various phone poles etc., missing the
whole building, down a 12' wide driveway to the back, again missing a
second house, and then hit my friend's V65 and TOTALLED it !!! 
It also wiped out 11 brand new "wave runners" still in the crates 
that our dealership buddies had just got in, and finally came to rest.

    It took them 56 hours to get the truck off of the bike and wave runners. 
Luckily no one was killed, and the old mechanic who was washing the 
bike was cold, and went in to get his coat -- turned around and the 
truck came whipping by and did the damage when he was just inside 
the garage door.  He could have been killed.

    This happened 2/15/95 in Gainesville, Ga at Cape's Yamaha dealership. 
This is going to be a statistic in one of those "risk" formulas that 
the insurance companies do... they'll probably sell it as the 
80 billion to 1 chance that your bike will get run over by an out 
of control "cherry picker".   I guess the V65 in question wanted to 
go out at 180,000 miles NO MATTER WHAT !!

    True story -- and weird... my friend is now doing the pleasant 
"chase the insurance company's bureaucracy game" ...


		Ken Monier