1985 Honda Sabre (VF1100S)

[Ciarrocchi32]

I had a 1984 V45 Magna, the sister motorcycle to the Sabre line. It was fun to ride- for a short distance. The seat was a torture device, my rear end hurts just thinking about it.
I bought it new and probably put around 25 or 30, 000 miles on it. Overall, the worst bike that I ever had as far as reliability goes. It was affected by the defective camshafts that Honda had back then. A recall was issued by Honda, but I never got the notice even though I was the original owner and my address hadn't changed. I had to deal with it at my own expense 20 years later.

After it was a few years old it would not restart if I filled the gas tank right up. If I filled it to 5/8 or less it was fine. You have no idea how much of a problem that is on a motorcycle that hardly holds any gas to begin with!

I was on a ride with some friends and one of them informed that my forks were really flexing a lot, as though there was something wrong. The next day I took it apart to check it only to find that three of the four down tubes were cracked completely through, and the fourth was cracked half way through. I was really close to having the front end completely fall off at 60 MPH. That was it for that bike, but I have had three Honda V4's since.

I'm sorry to hear this, I haven't heard many problem bikes for some. But as far as the cams, sounds like you had an early Honda symptom known as "chocolate camshaft" this was die to rushing the production of the bike and using poor materials back in the day. It happened with early 83 and 84 models and some into later. Glad you didn't let that be a bad taste in your mouth for the V4. Good to hear you kept riding!!!

 

[Mr ed]

Had a 85 Magna. first V-4 and had it for 6 years without any issues. sold it for a VT1100 boy that was a change but loved the shadow anyway. 2020 sold the 1995 shadow and got the 2010 st1300 back to the V-4. so far so good.

 

[KSRider11]

I looked at an 1100 Sabre in South Florida some years back. When I took it for a test ride I discovered that the seller had Armour-All'd the seat, HUGE pucker factor ensued! I rode it back to the owner with smoke rising from where oil was dripping on the left side header pipe which made me give the entire motor a closer inspection where I discovered that the owner had painted the motor without bothering to remove the dirt, gunk, and grime first. NO SALE.

 

[Ned in Utah]

I rode a V65 Sabre for twenty-six years. Rode it from Jasper, Alberta to Tuscon, Arizona and everywhere in between. Finally decided I'd rather ride the ST than the Sabre two years ago and sold it. Man it was fun at around 6500 RPM. Great bike.

 

[Andrew Shadow]

Had a 85 Magna. first V-4 and had it for 6 years without any issues. sold it for a VT1100 boy that was a change but loved the shadow anyway.

Funny coincidence, similar situation to mine.
My Magna was a 1984, but I bought it new in 1985. When I stopped riding it in 1995, I switched to a 1992 VT1100C. I really liked the Shadow as well. I put close to 300,000 KM, almost 200,000 miles on that Shadow. The odometer only had 5 digits, so I rolled it over twice and then some while I had it. When I got rid of it I think that the odometer was at 84,000 KM, but that was really 284,000.
It was still on the road last summer.

 

[Andrew Shadow]

Four? Are you talking about the fork or the frame?

Might not be the correct terminology. One repair shop I took it to called them the down tubes.
I am referring the four frame tubes that are welded to the steering neck. They were all cracked where they joined the neck. I was very close to having the entire front end of the motorcycle fly off.

 

[northwestparider]

My first bike was a 83 V45 Magna I had it for about 6 years and 30K +/- miles. Second is a 83 V65 Magna that I still have (almost 19 years) and 30k +/- miles; getting married and having kids slowed the riding down. Waiting for my 2008 ST1300 to arrive next week. Getting a little excited, but the weather has gone to the dogs right now.

 

[ST Gui]

I had an '85 VS1100S – blue. Gorgeous bike with great lines. It was probably one of my top three favorite bikes. It didn't feel at all top heavy to me especially compared to my ST1300. While not as quick as a sportbike its roll-on acceleration in 6th was really impressive. Drop it to 5th and awaaaaay we goooo!

GPI and a sixth gear — OD. I put a Corbin seat on it but it never got comfortable so I put the OE seat back on. A bikini fairing and soft luggage and I was set. If Honda brought that bike back today I'd swap it for my ST in a heartbeat.

 

[HondaDave]

I had an 1985 V65-Sabre with the blue stripe. Fun bike. The off throttle torque roll took some getting used to.

 

[ChucksKLRST]

Sometimes after all these years and bikes, I still miss my 1982 V45 Sabre. Owned it for nearly 11 years.

 

[mello dude]

Sometimes after all these years and bikes, I still miss my V45 Sabre. owned it for nearly 11 years.

Definately sweet! I do miss mine even though it was a PIA maintenance wise.... .it seems that some bikes worked out ok with no problems, and then others tried to self destruct...

 

[naedlaen]

V4hondabbs.com is still going (although it is low volume for posts at present) and is full of experience and references. Note that these cycles are 40 years old now.

Mine is almost the spitting image of Chuck's, but I have Krauser Star bags and luggage rack instead of the Hondaline bags.

 

[the Ferret]

The seat height of the V65 Saber was nearly 33" (over an inch taller than an FJR with the seat in the low position) and the nearly 6 gallon gas tank was up high which for a munchkin like me made it very top heavy

 

[TourNut]

I had a '83 Magna 1100 for about 4 years , mid '90s . I had a tail trunk and saddlebags for touring on it . Then one day , carefully carrying home a bungeed box of motor oil on the seat a cop stopped me , Gave me a ticket , accusing me of speeding at the intersection where I was stopped on a state highway to turn left up my road ! I fought the ticket since If I had been speeding at the claimed 72 , I would have been wrecked in a living room in the house on the corner of the intersection ! I said no way was I doing that speed - I would have to be defying the laws of physics to have done as accused . Cop pulls out one of those 59 cent , 3 X 5 red spiral notebooks kids use at elementary school to read his "proof" ! Then says back in the day , ( approx. 12 years earlier ) he always had problems with guys on Magna 1100s ! Magistrate acted about half asleep , woke up a little more , didn't care & screwed me out of $160 anyway ! I then sold the Magna since I would be nailed in this burg for something somebody else did on Magnas , years ago !

 

[ddemair]

If nostalgia is a primary motivator, I'll be selling a 1985 Vf700 Sabre like this one. Needless to say, it needs some work after all of these years (nothing major) and it still looks pretty good.

It has less than 20K miles, but I don't remember exactly because it's been in my brother's garage for the last 10 years. He rode it a few times each year and I rode it once or twice. Since I have an ST1300, I wasn't nearly as impressed with it as when I bought it 37 years ago, but I also thought that bikes like these were from a "golden age" of motorcycles and the improvements since have been incremental rather than revolutionary. This 1985 bike still rides surprisingly well.

It needs a new fork seal and it's leaking clutch fluid. I don't think it has any other issues. I'm going to bring it to a repair shop and get these things fixed since I no longer have any interest in wrenching. After that, it's going up for sale.

I would really like to see this bike get a new caring home. So, if you just can't resist reliving a 1980's memory, let me know. I'm more interested in seeing this bike see a new life than I am in selling it for a profit, which, of course, will never happen.

 

[mello dude]

^^^^ It's beautiful

 

[Ciarrocchi32]

I absolutely love all the stories and bike pics this has brought about. Thank you all for sharing the stories, opinions and even the love for these bikes! This is awesome !! I hope to have my sabre for a very long time, she was well taken care of and still needs a tiny bit of TLC but I'm willing to get it done and enjoy the bike for many miles to come!!!

 

[mello dude]

I absolutely love all the stories and bike pics this has brought about. Thank you all for sharing the stories, opinions and even the love for these bikes! This is awesome !! I hope to have my sabre for a very long time, she was well taken care of and still needs a tiny bit of TLC but I'm willing to get it done and enjoy the bike for many miles to come!!!

Agree --- this has been an enjoyable great thread! I am suprised at how many of us have connections to this bike line.. awesome!

 

[Jethro]

I had an '85 VS1100S – blue. Gorgeous bike with great lines. It was probably one of my top three favorite bikes. It didn't feel at all top heavy to me especially compared to my ST1300. While not as quick as a sportbike its roll-on acceleration in 6th was really impressive. Drop it to 5th and awaaaaay we goooo!

GPI and a sixth gear — OD. I put a Corbin seat on it but it never got comfortable so I put the OE seat back on. A bikini fairing and soft luggage and I was set. If Honda brought that bike back today I'd swap it for my ST in a heartbeat.

 

[Erdoc48]

Somewhat different V4 story: My first bike (the one I didn’t know how to ride and my brother rode home for me) was a 1985 V30 Magna (500 cc)- I’m not a small person, but I rode the hell out of that (great starter bike actually)- I think I put something like 15K miles on it between 1989 and 1992 (when I got the Nighthawk 750)- I paid $1095, and sold it for $1000 to a guy I knew- it had close to 7,000 miles when I bought it and sold it at 22K- fun bike, but would be too small for me now- reliable as taxes (and I was aware of the cam issues with the V65 series of engines). And yes, the seat was terrible. I didn’t know about replacement seats back in the day, but I did put a windshield on it.