82 Honda 750 Magna

quote:
I'm new to the cafe racer scene; Just wondering if a 1982 Honda 750 Magna was a good bike to convert to a cafe racer?? I've look around the internet and have found very few 80's bikes converted to cafe racers none were 750's or Magna's. Give me some insight...

Click to expand...

With the righ amount of skills you can make anything a cafe racer. However, somebikes are easier than others. The Honda magna is not one of the easy bikes.

There are a lot of things working against the magna - primarily is the the rake and trail setup and those long forks. The frame is also a drop seat frame which would make it difficult to get that old cafer racer look. Also the bike is a shaft drive which traditionally doesn;t jive with the cafe vibe (although you can dare to be different).

The Pluses are that the magna as the V-4 750cc intercepter motor which is a really nice sounding motor and pulled the honda race bikes to victory in racing in the 80s. Go rent V Four Victory and you will fall in love with a honda V4.

You don't see a lot of cafe 80's bikes because by the 80s the factories started building thier own cafe racer versions (DOHC cb750F, GS1000S, Z1R, etc...) which eventually led them to build race replicas starting around 1983-1986 (GSXR, Ninja 1000R, VFR1000R, FZR1000). The original goal of a cafe bike was to build a race replica for the street, but if the factory was doing it then there really was no need. What is ironic is that the younger generations found factory race replics no too useful on the street and began to take crashed ones and simplify them into bikes they could use and abuse (Ie they took off al the shit they didn't need to stunt or race stoplight to stoplight)....thus the streetfighter was born. Although they have similar looks and people who like on tend to like the other as well, their origins are completely different. Now the factories have started to make their own streetfighters (Bandit, z1000, Speed Triple, fz1000) so the motorcycle world is ready for another shift

For 80's cafe bikes I would recomend:

1979-1982 Honda CB750/900/1100F
1980-1982 Kawasaki Kz1000 (stay away from LTD or CSR models)
1980-1983 Suzuki GS 750 and 1100

Or you can buy the first of the race replicas which have a very cafe racer feel (lots of them still have a quasi old bike heaviness feeling, espically the air/oil cooled gsxr):

1986 Kawasaki Ninja 1000R
1985 Suzuki GSXR 1000
1983 Honda VFR1000R interceptor

quote:
I'm new to the cafe racer scene; Just wondering if a 1982 Honda 750 Magna was a good bike to convert to a cafe racer?? I've look around the internet and have found very few 80's bikes converted to cafe racers none were 750's or Magna's. Give me some insight...

Click to expand...

With the righ amount of skills you can make anything a cafe racer. However, somebikes are easier than others. The Honda magna is not one of the easy bikes.

There are a lot of things working against the magna - primarily is the the rake and trail setup and those long forks. The frame is also a drop seat frame which would make it difficult to get that old cafer racer look. Also the bike is a shaft drive which traditionally doesn;t jive with the cafe vibe (although you can dare to be different).

The Pluses are that the magna as the V-4 750cc intercepter motor which is a really nice sounding motor and pulled the honda race bikes to victory in racing in the 80s. Go rent V Four Victory and you will fall in love with a honda V4.

You don't see a lot of cafe 80's bikes because by the 80s the factories started building thier own cafe racer versions (DOHC cb750F, GS1000S, Z1R, etc...) which eventually led them to build race replicas starting around 1983-1986 (GSXR, Ninja 1000R, VFR1000R, FZR1000). The original goal of a cafe bike was to build a race replica for the street, but if the factory was doing it then there really was no need. What is ironic is that the younger generations found factory race replics no too useful on the street and began to take crashed ones and simplify them into bikes they could use and abuse (Ie they took off al the shit they didn't need to stunt or race stoplight to stoplight)....thus the streetfighter was born. Although they have similar looks and people who like on tend to like the other as well, their origins are completely different. Now the factories have started to make their own streetfighters (Bandit, z1000, Speed Triple, fz1000) so the motorcycle world is ready for another shift

For 80's cafe bikes I would recomend:

1979-1982 Honda CB750/900/1100F
1980-1982 Kawasaki Kz1000 (stay away from LTD or CSR models)
1980-1983 Suzuki GS 750 and 1100

Or you can buy the first of the race replicas which have a very cafe racer feel (lots of them still have a quasi old bike heaviness feeling, espically the air/oil cooled gsxr):

1986 Kawasaki Ninja 1000R
1985 Suzuki GSXR 1000
1983 Honda VFR1000R interceptor