My Personal Magna

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1995 3rd Generation Magna (Customzed)
A lady that I work with was going through a horrendous divorce and needed cash Fast!  She owned an old beat up 1995 Honda Magna that she wanted to sell for at least $3,700.00, and she begged me to come over to her home to look at it.
 
The poor bike was a train wreck!  It had rotted saddle bags on it, (I opened up the bags to look inside and was looking at the exhaust pipes ... the bottom of the bags  had rotted clean through!), and it had a rotted-out saddle with a huge rip torn across the leather of the seat.  Even though the bike was manufactured by Honda, it had a rotted “Harley” tool bag drooping from the front tree, some rotted old braided "raw-hide" tassels hanging from each grip lever and the entire bike was covered with mold and mildew. It had been sitting in her front yard behind a fence for an entire year exposed to the rain, mold, dust, spiders and every other thing this North Florida area can offer to a vehicle that is abandoned.

She must have seen my expression when I looked at it, for she quickly said “It runs great!”

I doubted it, but when she turned the key it fired right up.  She told me to test drive it around the block.  Well ... I did ... and I swear there was a cloud of mold and dust blowing off the bike behind me like the cloud that follows the old Charlie Brown character around … but the bike ran like a Swiss watch and it had power!  Power with a capital “P”!  When I got back to her house she asked what I thought, and quickly thinking, (because I knew she was desperate for cash and would never except such a small amount), I said “I wouldn’t give a dime over three grand for it.”  I would have never believed that she would sell the bike for less than $3,500.00, but she said “SOLD!”  ... and I was stuck with a second bike that I didn’t want, didn’t need, and really couldn’t afford.

I’m glad I handed her a check for the three grand, for over the months I’ve restored that bike to its original beauty and it is truly powerful and strong!  It “red-lines” at almost 10,000 RPM and with a little bit of tweaking and new flow-through exhausts and four jetted carburetors, it now has 100 horse power coming off the rear wheel.  It handles like a sporty in the hills with the fast and twisty curves and it tracks like it’s on a rail.  Even when I blow by a semi trailer on the highway she holds straight and true with nary a wobble or blip in the control.  When I took on a Valkyrie six cylinder “hot rod” bike nose-to-nose in a flat out drag race at dusk on a beautiful summer sunset evening this year, I ripped his side panels off!  He, (and I), could hardly believe it.  I’ve read since then that only the pricy high-powered “crotch rockets” that red-line at 15,000 RPM can smoke a Magna.  I guess it would be fair to say that this bike has become my favorite.

I
’ve never ridden a bike with this much raw power, and it’s "only" a midsized motorcycle. It handles 750cc with pure efficient raw brute strength and power with the gearing to match. It has four cylinders in a 45 degree V-Twin configuration with four carburetors pounding the fuel into the cylinders in an efficient and powerful controlled explosion.  To get the exhaust out, it has four separate pipes of gleaming chrome running down each side. I've replaced the handgrips, the foot pegs, the saddle bags, the tool bag, put some Vance and Hines flow-through exhausts on it, bought a new Mustang saddle for it, bought and installed new and beautiful braided metal control lines … and on and on and on.

Not only did I wash and wax it, but I’ve polished every speck of chrome on it and have totally restored it.  When everything was just the way I wanted ... when I had it to where I felt it was "My Bike" ...  I put a custom paint job on it; bright metal-flake orange with yellow flames. Now it’s a shining jewel ... without a speck of rust or corrosion on it … sparkling in the sun like a glorious diamond.  It's ironic now to think when I bought it I didn’t even want the thing!  It’s by far and beyond the best and the most powerful bike I have ever owned or ridden in my life.