Honda VF750C Magna V45
Honda VF750C Magna V45 | |
Manufacturer | |
---|---|
Production | 1982-83 |
Engine | Four stroke, 90°V-four cylinder, DOHC, 4 valve per cylinder |
Compression ratio | 10.5:1 |
Ignition | Digital transistorized |
Transmission | 6 Speed |
Suspension | Front: 39mm Air assisted forks, 4-way anti-dive adjustable Rear: Dual shocks, spring preload adjustable |
Brakes | Front: 2x 275mm discs Rear: Drum |
Front Tire | 110/90 -18 |
Rear Tire | 130/90 -16 |
Wheelbase | 1539 mm / 60.6 in |
Seat Height | 757 mm / 29.8 in |
Weight | 228 kg / 502.7 lbs (dry), |
Fuel Capacity | 13 Liters / 3.4 US gal |
Manuals | Service Manual |
Engine
The engine was a Liquid cooled cooled Four stroke, 90°V-four cylinder, DOHC, 4 valve per cylinder. The engine featured a 10.5:1 compression ratio.
Drive
Power was moderated via the Wet, multiplate.
Chassis
It came with a 110/90 -18 front tire and a 130/90 -16 rear tire. Stopping was achieved via 2x 275mm discs in the front and a Drum in the rear. The front suspension was a 39mm Air assisted forks, 4-way anti-dive adjustable while the rear was equipped with a Dual shocks, spring preload adjustable. The VF750C Magna V45 was fitted with a 13 Liters / 3.4 US gal fuel tank. The bike weighed just 228 kg / 502.7 lbs. The wheelbase was 1539 mm / 60.6 in long.
Photos
Overview
Honda VF 750C Magna V45
The first generation 1982 V45 Magna had chrome headlight and
fenders. The front disc brakes have straight grooves, dual piston calipers, and
TRAC anti-dive. The speedometer reads 80 mph. The redline is 10,000 rpm. The
engine is a 748 cc DOHC 16-valve liquid-cooled 90-degree V-4 linked to a
six-speed transmission with a hydraulically actuated wet-plate clutch and shaft
drive. Compression is high, and the stroke is short.
The 1983 V45 Magna was available had chrome headlight,
instruments, and fenders. The fuel tank and side covers were the basic color.
The front disc brake grooves were curved. The speedometer had a 150 mph
(240 km/h) limit. The engine was a 748cc DOHC four-valve liquid-cooled V-4
linked to a six-speed transmission and a shaft drive.
(1983 starting SN
JH2RC071*DM100011)
Review
"The message isn't that when better Harleys are made, Honda will make them,
but simply that the classic American Roadster can be multinational, too."
Somewhere outside of Tokyo, away from the flash and hustle that is the
Ginza, lies Little Milwaukee. You won't find it on any tourist map, and indeed,
the locals deny its very existence. But it's there. And in that tiny
transplanted bit of the American heartland, they understand the blinding spark
that forever welded together a big vee engine and the thought of street cruising
in the collective conscious of generations of American street riders.
Little Milwaukee didn't spring up overnight. A succession of factory customs,
each a step closer to the original American role model, has been issuing from
that region since the mid-Seventies. But despite the gradual increase of
crypto-chopper design elements, from pullback bars to teardrop gas tanks and
finally to big vee engines themselves, there's always been a reluctance to
address Old Milwaukee outright. There still is.
But with its 1982 Magna, Honda has' taken a giant step closer to the
original. And unlike the last vees to emerge from Little Milwaukee, Yamaha's 750
and 920 Viragos, Honda has chosen a more literal styling interpretation in
emulating the archetype. While the Viragos displayed a few of their own hi-tech
touches, including Monoshock rear suspensions, the Magna affects a
cast-in-the-same-mold-as-Harley look. Understand, though, that despite the Magna's subtle and not-so-subtle styling licksfrom oversize, Harleyesque shock
mounts to a stash-pouch toolkit to the strangely familiar sweep of its sissybar,
the Magna is still emulation, not reproduction. It isn't a cloning of the gear
that made Milwaukee famous.
It couldn't be. For all the Magna's obvious adherence to the visual
touchstones of the classic American street cruiser, beneath the cosmetic overlay
it is a different breed entirely. True, the Magna's centerpiece is an eye-catchingly
big vee, but its cylinders lie 90 degrees apart, not in the 45-degree
configuration of a Harley-Davidson. And the Magna's powerplant, vee though it
is, is liquid-cooled, with double overhead cams and four valves per
cylindercoupled to a shaft drive as well. Hardly a Harleyor even
traditionalby anyone's standards. And consider the Magna's anti-dive front
suspension, underseat secondary fuel tank, hydraulic clutch and six-speed
gearbox. You won't find those on production Harleysor as a part of the mystique
of the all-American street bike.
No, those elements more properly belong to the genre of sport motorcycles,
which must include the Magna as well. Its credentials for membership are not
inconsiderable: Start from the fact that the Magna's engine is identical to
the Sabre's, down to valves and even internal gear ratios. Only the Magna's air-box, exhausts and final reduction ratio (to
compensate for its shorter 16-inch rear tire) distance the two engines. Then add
in double discs with Honda's twin-piston calipers and Torque Reactive Anti-dive
Control to make better use of the brakes by slowing the bike's tendency toward
fork compression under hard braking. What you've got in the Magna is a custom,
all right, by virtue of the recognized sizes, shapes and general configuration.
But what's underneath the makeup labels it a high-performance bike. Split the
difference and call it a high-performance custom, and the way it delivers its
performance is as remote from the classic American roadbike as the way it
opens its valves. A touch of the Magna's starter button confirms the Honda's
separate identity. With the thumb-operated choke full-on, a few seconds of
starter whine is followed not by the rolling thunder of an H-D lighting up, but
with a sound more like a BMW idling at three grand. Little mechanical noise on
our test bike could be heard above the exhaust notea function of the exhaust
itself as well as the engine's coolant jackets.
Feeding in the Magna's hydraulically actuated clutch doesn't offer as much
feel as working most mechanical clutches, and until you learn that the
progression of clutch engagement is more rapid than most, rollaways from a full
stop can be a little abrupt. It's a short learning experience, though, since the
engagement is consistent and not jerky if the rider does his part. And if he
doesn't, the lesson is likely to be equally shortby reason of a fried clutch.
Our test bike devoured two cluches in eight dragstrip runs.
Once the engine's running and in gear, though, there's a graphic reminder of
why Honda built this vee-four in the first place. Considerable torque is on hand
from about 3000 rpm on up, and any shift point up to the Magna's 10,000-rpm
redline can be used without bogging the engine. The combination of the perfect
primary balance of a 90-degree vee engine and rubber engine mounts means that
precious little vibration reaches the rider. The engine's operation is so smooth
that keeping an eye on the tachometer makes good sense, since the Magna happily
will run into the red zone if you grab a handful of throttle.
That willingness to rev extends to the Magna's freeway attitude as well. Even
lugging along in the Magna's tall sixth gear"OD" for overdrive, as the blue
indicator light on the dash panel calls it the bike will accelerate strongly in
response to throttle. All the while the mirrors are dead-calm; and with the
reservoired rear suspension set at its softest preload and six-to-eight psi in
the fork, the Magna offers a stable freeway ride that's still a touch too stiff
at the rear end. The major machine glitch in cruising came when the Magna's bank
of 32mm Keihin carburetors produced lean surge in steady running between 6000 to
7000 rpm. Our test Sabre (with identical carbs) suffered no such problems, so we
will check out the Magna and report the findings in our After The Fact column.
But if machine shortcomings for highway cruising are few, among them must be
counted the Magna's riding position, billed by Honda as "the most laid-back
riding position yet designed for a custom motorcycle." While the exaggerated
riding position, mostly the result of the bike's forward-mounted footpegs, works
surprisingly-well in casual sport, around-town or short-distance riding, it
limits the Magna's effectiveness as a long-legged freeway mount. The hump in the
seat offers welcome back-support, but the combination of pullback bar and
forward footpegs turns a long haul on the Magna into just that: a long haul into
the wind to stay upright. And after a few hundred miles of freeway riding, the
required isometric posture takes its toll in tired shoulders and wrists.
Pure sport riding on the Magna is more successful, despite the radical riding
position. A low seat height, low center of gravity and a narrow engine all made
possible by the vee configuration make the Magna easy to heel over at speeds
that will have other factory customs over their heads; and if undercarriage bits
gouge the pavementand they doit's largely because the Magna reaches
respectable lean angles with deceptive ease. The bike is rendered even easier to
ride fast because of the full-flex powerband. There's no need to dig into the
gearbox when simply rolling on the throttleor yanking on itwill produce fast
corner exits.
But you pay for an overactive throttle hand, in gas mileage figures that
plummet from a high of 46 mpg at real 55-mph cruising to a low of 30 mph when
the road beckons and you respond. The problem of mph is exacerbated by the fact
that the Magna's petcock (located inboard of the rightside cover) has no reserve
position. The reserve notification is handled by a fuel warning light, but one
with no self-check circuit. You have to trust that the system will work when
you're low on fuel. Our Magna's did, throughout the test, but the smoke-tint
plastic panel that covers the warning bulb makes learning whether or not you've
got any fuel left difficult in open daylight. The problem will go away as the
rider learns the fuel limitations of his bike, but until then he faces a hike to
the gas station.
Low mileage; no vibration; low-end torque and high-rpm horsepower;
state-of-the-art brakes and a tandem vee-four? No, even by loose accounting the
Magna, this product of Little Milwaukee, isn't the classic American
roadster reincarnated or even approximated. Despite the lookalike exteriors,
there are simply too many differences. But, armed with an engine that's the
shape of things to come, the Magna promises to be a classic nonetheless.
Source Cycle Guide
Make Model | Honda VF 750C Magna V45 |
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Year | 1982-83 |
Engine Type | Four stroke, 90°V-four cylinder, DOHC, 4 valve per cylinder |
Displacement | 748 cc / 45.6 cu-in |
Cooling System | Liquid cooled |
Bore X Stroke | 70 x 48.6 mm |
Compression | 10.5:1 |
Lubrication | Wet sump |
Induction | 4x Keihin 32mm carbs |
Ignition | Digital transistorized |
Starting | Electric |
Max Power | 79 hp / 57.6 kW @ 9500 rpm |
Max Torque | 66 Nm @ 7500 rpm |
Clutch | Wet, multiplate |
Transmission | 6 Speed |
Final Drive | Shaft |
Front Suspension | 39mm Air assisted forks, 4-way anti-dive adjustable |
Front Wheel Travel | 120 mm / 4.7 in |
Rear Suspension | Dual shocks, spring preload adjustable |
Rear Wheel Travel | 100 mm / 3.9 in |
Front Brakes | 2x 275mm discs |
Rear Brakes | Drum |
Front Tire | 110/90 -18 |
Rear Tire | 130/90 -16 |
Rake | 30° |
Trail | 104 mm / 4.1 in |
Wheelbase | 1539 mm / 60.6 in |
Seat Height | 757 mm / 29.8 in |
Dry Weight | 228 kg / 502.7 lbs |
Fuel Capacity | 13 Liters / 3.4 US gal |
Consumption Average | 44.5 mpg |
Standing ¼ Mile | 12.2 sec / 109 mph |