The Magna's front end has a serious design flaw. It is attributed to the combination of the powerful, heavy engine, the TRAC system, the long forks, and the weak, cast fork brace. Years ago, I heard rumors of this flaw in the Magna's front end, and paid little attention. Until the suspension gave out on me. To make things more serious, there is at least one other MagSab member who wiped out his bike due to this flaw. I would like to hear from other Magna owners who have experienced the same problems, and I will include it on this page. There is a solution. Reinforce the existing brace!!.

Magna Owners who 'wiped out' due to this flaw and their stories

Tony D's Suspension Disaster
After being very happy with my 1984 V65 Magna for about 2 years and 50,000 miles, I decided that I wanted better handling, so I decided to start modifying the suspension. I Installed a set of Progressive Suspension springs in the front, and shocks in the back. This improved the handling immensely, especially with radial tires. It felt more like a performance motorcycle in the corners than a cruiser. I had a handlebar mounted fairing, a Rifle sport. At one time I had hit a curb, which bent up my front fork just a little. I had them straightened, but I got it into my head that the triple clamp was bent. I had a junk V65 hanging around for parts, which I purchased for $100, it was in rough shape. I wanted to chrome a lot of parts, and still have a set of original everything, so I chrome plated the front fork sliders from the junker to put them on the good one. Not only did I do that, but I used the fork tubes from the junker, without first checking to see if they were straight. They were badly pitted, which should have given me an Idea of their condition, but I ignored that. Then, as if that wasn't stupid enough, without checking either for straightness, I just assumed that the triple clamp off the good motorcycle was bent from hitting the curb, while the one from the junker was straight!. I didn't check either one!

So, I took everything apart and reassembled it to specification. I like to think that I am mechanically inclined, I guess I'm just prone to fits of stupidity. I put 10W oil in the front forks to begin with, at the stock level, and cut the spacer to the length specified by Progressive Suspension. The motorcycle rode fine (although it really shouldn't have, I guess) for a while.

At this point let me describe the handling of the V65 Magna, stock, and with the non-junk suspension modifications. At high speed the drive shaft can be felt a little when taking a good left corner. The PS suspension modifications and the radial tires helped this out a lot, almost to the point of non-existence. With the handlebar mount front fairing, the motorcycle had a characteristic weave at about 135 - 140mph (at the track, of course). I assume, and have yet to verify that, removing the fairing, or using some sort of a frame mounted fairing will relieve this. The characteristic weave is a warning - - do not go any faster! I've had that warning many times and have always modified my speed accordingly (slowed down).

Now back to the suspension story, keeping in mind all of the above "junk" modifications. After these modifications, I mounted some used hard luggage, in preparation for a trip to Colorado. I like to mount everything at least two weeks before a major trip in order to get a feel with the added accessories. I felt the suspension was still a little stiff, so I cut down the front spring preload spacer by about 1/4". I rode with this for another week, with bags, and felt it was still too stiff. I then put 5W oil in the forks instead of the 10W.

One week before the Colorado trip I was on the highway, and started accelerate to highway speeds. It isn't that fast, speed limit 65, open road, super highway, keeping up with and away from traffic. On the Magna, right up to this one last modification, I've been a lot faster at the track. Anyway, at about 65mph, there was that familiar high speed weave. This was very strange, occurring at this speed. When I went to slow down, the weave did not stop, as it did many times at higher speeds, it got worse! It ultimately became uncontrollable, and it fell at about 60mph. I jumped away from it, and both the motorcycle and I slid for about 500 feet on the pavement, the motorcycle leading the way. Of course I have full leathers, zip together jacket and pants, and Kevlar-leather boots & gloves. I am usually very good about wearing them, I rarely ever ride without them. They did me no good this time, however, since they were in the sidebags. I was wearing a full face helmet. I didn't have to since it's not mandatory in New Hampshire (Hooray for NH!). I'm glad I was, because the top layers of fiberglass material right by my face were scraped down pretty far. If I was wearing a regular helmet, or none, half of my face would be gone. I slid pretty evenly, and scraped up my arms pretty bad, that's about all that happened. It could have been a lot worse. If I was using my brain at the time and wore my full leathers, like I usually always do, I wouldn't even have been scratched.

When I finally came to a stop, there was a crowd of cars, women crying, kids screaming, and motorcycle parts everywhere. I have to admit I looked in pretty rough shape, but I was still able to get to the motorcycle, stand it up (with a little help) start it, and ride it to the exit before one of the people gave me a ride to the hospital.

As I was falling, I noticed one thing. As the motorcycle was going down, the fork brace had separated from the forks. The four bolts were still attached, but the middle section was completely separated. This led me to my observation on the fork brace, since I had plenty of time to think while I was sliding.

I have to add a thank you here, to the people who were so nice to stop & help. Also, one of the guys who helped performed an act of bravery that made the motorcycle wipeout pale in comparison. I had lost one of my sneakers during the wipeout, and as I thought about it, standing there on the right hand shoulder, it came flying by in the left hand lane, pummeled by a car. This brave soul ran across three lanes of busy highway traffic, and successfully retrieved my mangled sneaker . . . and successfully made it back. All this before my very eyes. He and his wife and extremely scared kids also drove me to the hospital. I was too shocked at the time to get their phone number. I wanted to call him and thank him the next day, when my body felt well enough to think straight, and there wasn't blood gushing out of the majority of my bodily limbs.

To summarize, I will give my personal formula for V65 suspension disaster. I do not mean to imply that any individual one of these would cause any problems whatsoever. In reading in plenty of MC mags and talking to quite a few mechanics in the past 6 months, they all agree that the front end has to be severely messed up to cause any type of uncontrollable situation. In most cases they say that the motorcycle gives plenty of warning, and usually you just slow down and the problem will subside.

Formula for front end disaster

1.  A showroom condition V65 Magna
2. 2A 140lb rider
3. A triple clamp that might have been bent
4. Front forks that probably were bent
5. Performance shocks, front & rear
6. Performance tires
7. Cut down the spacers by 1/4" from recommended
8. Use 5W fork oil
9. Attach hard luggage
10. Use stock fork brace
11.  Handlebar mount fairing
12. Travel at speeds in excess of 60 mph

Add the following variables, throw in a heap of stupidity, and you have the perfect formula for disaster. Please do not try this at home.

This all Happened in July '95. I still think that the V65 Magna is one of the best production motorcycle made. It is still my number one choice. I have since purchased another, a 1986 to replace the 1984. From the above experience, I learned a lot. I guess I will always pay more attention to the front end from now on, but here is what I did to make sure this does not happen again.

1. I have put PS Shocks and springs on the 1986.
2. While the front forks were off I checked them for straightness, but they were OK. I thought they would be, since the motorcycle was a 1 owner, mint condition, with 13,000 mi. when I bought it. From the above, I learned never to assume again.
3. 15W fork Oil. I may go down to 10W in the future, but I will never again use 5W.
4. Modified fork brace. After the wipeout, I examined the fork brace. Being a thin piece of cast aluminum, it had broken right at the casting marks, which also look like high stress points. I had a solid piece of 3/8" T6061 aircraft aluminum machined to fit right under the stock fork brace. This is almost invisible to the eye, and gives me peace of mind that it will provide superior bracing for the front end.
5. Care in choosing or riding at speeds with a handlebar mount fairing and/or luggage.
6. Always wear full leathers!

The suspension modifications that were I did because of my suspension disaster might be overkill on a motorcycle that is in good shape, but they are cheap insurance. I had it up to 125mph at New England Dragway with no difficulties. (no fairing) I was afraid at first to bring it up that high, but as I accelerated, it seemed that the motorcycle actually got more stable, and was hugging the road even better than at moderate speeds. 

Eric Driskells 'Suspension Disaster'
Accident Report Eric Driskell 1986 V65 Magna August 29, 1997 1130 EST

Today is a perfect day for riding a motorcycle. Heat is down around 80 degrees, light clouds, no rain, and traffic is light due to everyone taking an early 3 day weekend. I'm getting ready to head to a going away luncheon for one of my coworkers. The Lone Star is only 10-15 miles down the road, so we all hope on the bikes to head down. 1 - V65 Magna, 1 - Valkyrie 1 - Gold Wing

We get out on the mail road and crank it up for a quick sprint in the straight-away.
Around 70-80MPH I notice a slight headshake of the handlebars. Hmm, this hasn't happened before, not at this speed. So I decide to back down to a reasonable speed and see what the trouble is.
Before I can grab the clutch, the handlebars go into a violent shaking. Almost a stop to stop shake that scares the Shite out me. I'm decelerating on engine compression alone now, afraid to even tap the brakes for fear of throwing myself into an uncontrollable skid.
The strangest part and the scariest, the slower I get the more violent the headshake. I now know that this isn't the normal headshake I get when up at the 100+ ranges., even with the windshield. Which I've had well into the 120+ ranges with no problems. This is something physically wrong. I decide to try to keep slowing down and get to the side of the road, where the soft grass is. The Magna has other ideas.
The Valkyrie is right behind me. I'll slap in some of the his narrative into what happened next, as I was to busy trying to keep things upright. Without the profanity of course.

The Magna's front end was shaking back and forth real bad. I could tell that the bike was not recovering from it at all. The front wheel was doing things out of sync with the handlebars, which usually falls into the "Bad Thing" category. The rear of the Magna was starting to sway a little more every time the handlebars changed sides. Eric is shedding speed real fast, but I don't see the rear brake light. Eventually the rear tire lost traction and the Magna (with rider) went down on the left side.

Ok, here I go toward the pavement. Well, I've been riding long enough to know that a 600+ lb. bike is not a good thing to have on top of you. I feel the bike starting into a slide and know it's time to eat crow and leave the bike to it's own accord. I push off the bike, clearing it by a few feet. I land on my left side, as does the bike.

Magna slides along, leaving parts and metal all over the place. (Windshield was toast, I actually heard it shatter behind me, what a strange sound)

I roll along on the pavement shedding speed. I don' bother trying to throw out my arms to slow down, since I'm aware that I'd only break something. I do have time to wonder at how calm I am about all this and how clearly I am thinking about every move. It's sort of like thinking in real time and moving in extra slow motion. I am still marveled at that feeling. I am also cursing myself for leaving my nice THICK leather jacket at home today. I make a mental note to never leave home without it!

Bike comes to a stop in the grass. I come to a stop in the emergency lane about 30-40 feet further down the road than the bike. I am well aware that I am pretty banged up and have road rash on my arms and back. Helmet is scraped down the left side and chin bar. Gloves have the finger Tips and Knuckles eaten away. The gloves definitely saved my hands from serious damage, but my knuckles still got pretty cut up..

I hop up and do the standard body check. Everything moves, nothing flopping around, I can walk, see, hear, speak. Good, I'm alive. Pissed, but alive.

The Magna is laying on her left side.

Windshield in about 5 pieces, speedo completely off the bike, and general tearing damage down the left side. The Soft dirt did the most damage, as it dug in when it hit.

I get checked out by the paramedics and head the hospital for a good checkout.

Magna is loaded on a friends truck and taken to the Race Shop. A few days earlier than I wanted to.

Damage to me:
Left arm scrapped up real bad. Road rash over 50% of my forearm
Right arm - a few scrapes, nothing serious
Both Shoulders - OUCH! Nice deep road rash.

NOTE to all you Squids out there. I don't care how long you've been riding, you WILL lay your bike down eventually. Be sure to wear all the expensive protective clothing, it may look great on you and be hot. But it's designed to save you money at the hospital!

Magna:
Front wheel points 45 deg out of sync with the handlebars
Front Forks twisted badly
Instrument panel, cracked. Speedometer totally torn away (It grabbed dirt)
Left side of Bike, anything protruding was damaged. Shift level was a nice "U" shape
Clutch case was cracked wide open. Clutch is visible
handlebars - twisted up pretty bad

Do not expect any damage to the engine itself (clutch excepted) and drive train.

Post accident walk down found my front fork brace with two new breaks. I had known about 2 hairline cracks, but these where new. The report of the guy that was following me about the front wheel having a mind of its own leads me to believe I had a catastrophic Fork Brace Failure.

The low speed front end wobble I felt initially was probably the braces last gasp and stabilizing the front end.

Tire tread is in extremely good condition, pressures also checked good. Both tires are almost new and neither experienced a blow out. Front tire *WAS* mounted backwards. I had asked the dealer, Manassas Honda of Manassas Virginia, to replace it. they refused saying that Dunlop said the tire was a bi-directional tire and it was designed to operate in either rotation.

Needless to say, I recommend NO ONE purchase tires from Manassas Honda.

I have yet to work out what State Farm wants to do about my Magna. Depending on how much they want to but it back, I might try to buy it and re-build her (naming her the Bionic Magna).

We have the technology, and the salvage yards.

First and foremost, replace the Front Fork Brace with something more substantial than the OEM version. Which appears to be more "Show" than "Brawn". And you need a STRONG brace for this l-o-n-g front end.

I am anxiously awaiting the decision from State Farm.