Thursday, May 10, 2007

I'd rather be riding...

I spent the better part of the last 18 months without a motorcycle to call my own. From mid November to Feburary I had been trying to buy a 1976 CB 750F from a guy on craigslist before he finally decided it wasn't for sale. I had wanted a Honda CB 750 from the early 1970s because I was attracted to its legacy. The air-cooled inline 4 was arguably the most influential motorcycle of the 20th century because it showed the world that Japan could produce world-class superbikes not just scooters. They are also, by today's standards, fairly simple mechanically which makes them easy to rebuild to their original form or make them into fantastic custom bikes.

When that option fell through I went looking for something slightly different. I eventually found it in the v65 Magna of the mid 80s - the original musclebike. Although it was overshadowed during the later part of its brief lifespan by the Yamaha V-max its 1098cc liquid-cooled 45 degree V4 engine is still an impressive performer. And what are the drawbacks for having modern power in a bike that is over 20 years old? Cam oiling problems, underpowered breaks, spongy rear suspension, a flaky starter clutch, a front fork brace that is prone to failure, and a carburetor assembly that can only be removed from the motorcycle after you drain the coolant system among other gripes. This is enough for at least one satisfied v65 owner to proclaim:
IF YOU ARE NEW TO THE HONDA EARLY V4 WORLD AND ARE ONLY THINKING ABOUT PURCHASING ONE, DON'T.
I didn't listen to him. I must subconsciously filter out sentences written in all caps as having been written by fools. I'm now questioning my reasoning.

I like this motorcycle. The first time I saw one it was parked by a V-max on a side street in Chicago. I was immediately drawn to it. It is a brute of a machine. It is heavy. It is powerful. It is fast. I have no idea why it has an overdrive - at 70 mph it rolls along at 3000 RPM leaving the remaining 7000 RPM before the redline useful only in extra-legal pursuits.

I rode it from Goshen to Pittsburgh without a hitch but the third time I went to start it after arriving at PULSE house the starter made a very unsatisfying twitching sound. It did not fully engage nor did the engine turn over. I suspected the battery as I had inadvertently discharged it a few days earlier because it didn't occur to me that it would be possible to leave the taillight on after locking the steering column. Today I installed a brand new factory-sealed high-performance battery, replaced side covers and the seat, and expected it to fire right up. Instead I was greeted by a wisp of smoke wafting up from the general vicinity of the rectifier.

I didn't so much say the words "Oh. No." as feel them.

One moment I was eagerly anticipating hours of corner-carving in the hills of southwestern PA and the next I had good reason to believe that I would be without a functioning motorcycle, and perhaps several hundred dollars, for the foreseeable future. There is a serious problem, the exact nature of which I have yet to discern, but something has shorted out the battery entirely. They weren't joking about the battery being "high performance" either. It generated so much current that the stainless steel block in the positive battery terminal got hot enough to melt the lead surrounding it.

Oh well, such is life.

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