Finally, back on the teardown trail.

Saturday I took a couple of hours to get going on the tear down of my 1984 V65 Magna. I started two years ago, got sick and between coughing my guts out and feeling generally like s*#t I didn't have the motivation to pull my baby apart. This bike is somewhat special to me since it's the bike I bought to get back into biking after a lengthy period of time where I was pursuing more "mature" interests. OK, my wife and I discussed it when she was pregnant with number one and we both agreed it was the sensible mature thing to do. I was over thirty five at the time, we were starting a new business, her riding days with me were over for a while and within a week after I sold the bike I felt like an idiot and regretted it for the ensuing years.

That's not to say I didn't do other things. I owned a string of light airplanes that I used for business starting with a Cessna 172, then a Cessna 182 which was bigger and faster and then finally a Cessna 210 six place retractable and even quicker. But the point is, for all the flight time I have amassed in my life from military through civilian flying I was never enamored with flying and I always have been, with Motorcycles, don't ask why it's just the way things are, I guess I'm just an inveterate biker at heart.

So one day I wake up and say to my wife, "Honey, I can't take it anymore we gotta get another bike, I can't stand living like this, if there was a cliff in this the flattest of flat states, Illinois, I 'd consider jumping, maybe". To which she says, "does it look like I'm holding you back (from buying a bike that is, not jumping, because I asked)", I was on EBay five minutes later and bought the V65 a couple of months later. I would not necessarily advise someone either starting out or getting back into riding after some years to get a V65 or anything like it, that includes old KZ's, Vmax's or anything in that muscle bike class. Even though they are older bikes they are definitely not starter bikes, not by a long shot. With a six speed, 116hp, about 90lbs of torque to the rear wheel a V65 can still hold it's own on the street and scare the uninitiated, beginner and just coming back rider out of their wits. I got used to it and loved every minute of it until my wife said she wanted to ride with me again. We moved up into a Valkyrie Interstate shortly after that request and I decided to do the V65 over as a project. It had been ridden hard by previous owners and was in need of a redo and about that time I decided it was the perfect bike to juice up a little and take to Bonneville for a 61st birthday present. Then I got sick and here I am today back at it full force, I'm 60 next week and on a mission.

Before I got sick I managed to strip the bike to pretty much a rolling frame with the engine still mounted. Saturday, I rolled the bike into my work area and went to work removing the rear wheel, swing arm, drive shaft, shocks and a trailing link. I will get down to serious business this weekend and remove the engine, forks and start going through all of the parts since everything is going to be stripped. In subsequent blogs, I will go into what exactly I'm planning to do and how I go about doing each step.

Thanks for reading. Don't forget to check out my other blog http://www.theindependentpost.com/ Just click on the link and it will take you there.