New (Really) Bikes from H-D

[Frye]

https://youtu.be/45TF1I1IqEg

I remember when the V65 came out. There was a brochure that claimed it would exceed the national speed limit in 1st gear. Wanted one bad but settled for a 86 1100 Shadow that I rode for almost 100k.

I can't remember what MPH red line was in first gear but 55 or over sounds right. In the lower two gears it was hard for my brain to keep up with the smoking rear tire, lofting front tire and shift point, seemingly all at once. I seem to remember shifting into third at 77 mph (near red line) would pick the front wheel back up and light the rear up again and it had 6 gears! Sixth was an OD though and I don't think it could pull redline in 6th. I had it to 125-130 many times and it was still accelerating hard. Mine would start to get unstable above that though (probably the big clear fairing/windshield) so I still have no idea what the top speed was. Fast, for sure. I bought it new in 86. Until buying my B new in 2016 it was the only new bike I'd ever owned. It was for sure the fastest bike I've owned although my Valk was the easiest bike to go fast on I've owned if that makes sense? My B probably ties the Valk in that regard as long as I stay off gravel roads. I hate the linked brakes on gravel roads.

Twisting the throttle on the V65 made the rider feel like a "flea on the ass of a charging buffalo". It was truly thrilling but the occasional accidental wheelie at 65 while passing cars would make the heart race. It had a lot of "shaft effect" also. As in, getting hard on the throttle would raise the rear and extend the rear shocks somewhat and chopping the throttle in a hot corner could drop it back down, reduce your ground clearance and put a peg on the road. When I bought it the dealer strongly recommended a passenger backrest as he'd had a customer who shortly after buying a new one dumped his wife off the back on the interstate due to an accidental wheelie.

It was the easiest bike to ride wheelies on I've ever owned. With it's bottom end torque (could pull away from a stop, with a passenger and luggage without touching the throttle) and high red line I could ride 75 yard wheelies with the wife on the back and the wheel only a foot or so off the road. The rectangular headlight was superb and cut a hole in the dark of rural nighttime highways that could have killed rabbits.

On top of that, the self canceling turn signals worked better than my current ones, the forks were 0-6psi air adjustable and had a two position anti-dive adjustment that worked well. I rode that bike like I stole it for years, seldom made it through a tank of gas without seeing triple digits and the only problem I ever had with it was a broken fort brace caused by the back tire hooking up unexpectedly necessitating a sharp jab on the back brake to get the front end down. I made a new fork brace out of 1/4" plate steel and the problem was solved.

Every full size Honda after that should have had equal or better performance but they've only gotten slower since then.

At that time, Honda made the V65, Suzuki made the Madura, Kawasaki made the Eliminator and Yamaha made the VMax. Of the muscle bikes or power cruisers as they were sometimes called, only the Max remains. Occasionally during those years you'd also see a 6 cylinder Benelli Sei. They were rumored to be fast but although I saw one or two I can't speak for their performance, never saw one hammered. The VMax would toast my V65, but not by a lot. Other than the Max, few if any vehicles on the road at that time could stay with a V65. And few would be able to today.