Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

and have tried to operate other petOur di gi ta l gear in di cator worked cock controls with bulky gloves on. when it wan ted to work. T he o il With Pro-Link rear suspension, wa rning will flash whe n yo u 're abou t to go o n reserve. T h a t caught a vete air adjustable forks with a n anti-dive braki n g system (Hon da 's TRAC ran motorcycli st by surprise and rather Torque Reactive Anti-dive Control), than turn the p etc ock to reserve, he and a narrow (16.3" ) en gi ne wi th a shut the mo tor off and coasted to a stop. After thinki n g th ings over, he low center of gravi ty, the Sabre ha n dles the twisties well. flicked the petcock to reserve and we nt on his way. He said he received When we picked up the Sabre, the "too much" info from the Sabre's Pro -L in k air-adjusta ble shock had instruments. To each his own. zero pounds of a ir pressure. .W h ile tlie bike bottomed out on occasion, The helmet lock is practically usetlie bike cov ered it 's first han dful of less . It 's way too close to the ex ha u st miles without a n yo ne real izing th at pipe and your helmet rests on a hot the shock lac ked air. The bo ttomin g pipe if you 're using the lock immediately after riding. pro m p ted us ' to check ou t th e rear sh ock, but settin g the pressure at 40 Quality control is for the'most part psi and trying all three of the rebo und good. We did notice several bolts and setti n gs didn't el iminate the bo tto moil lines that were missed when it in g out problem. The front forks felt came time to be ch romed or painted. fine the way th e Sa bre was del ivered The oil lines in question had recei ved (six to 14 psi is recommended) an d Honda's olive drab primer, but not th e bottoming p roblem s aside, th e the black top coa t that highlighted Sa bre was a joy to ride. , the bodywork of the Sabre. The anti-dive braking system is , The seat, like many on today 's carr ied on the left slider of the fro nt motorcycles, isn't hinged, rather it's fork, and offers four sett ings. Hon one of those unlock and remove seats. da' s TRAC keep s th e fro nt end fro m We grew up with hinged seats and div in g under hard braking by u tilizcan't find any love in our hearts for ing the left fron t bra ke calip er. As th e any other kind. Fu el economy ' is so-so. We avercalip er closes, it is p ush ed against the , fork leg, and against a damp in g co n aged ap proximately 35 m p g d urin g tro l valve which cl oses off part o f the the n ea rl y 1,000 m iles we rode the com pressio n dam p in g p assa ge way Sa bre. Tha t figure pushed 40 mph inside the fork slider leg. That inwh en la zily cruisin g and dropped to creases the compression da m p in g rate th e low 30's w h en pushing it. The an d reduces the amo u nt of dive. 'The Sa bre carries 4.8 gallo ns a n d goes o n harder the braking, the m ore dampres erve w he n 1.2 to 1.7 gallons are in g. Like A.j. Foyt once 'sa id in a left. The fu el gauge, like all m o torcyRo lex watch ad, w h en asked why he cle fuel ga uges, doth not speak th e tr u th . wo re a Rolex , "It works." TRAC Contained 'in its own little niche is works so well, we found ourselves FO IL. Tha t's a Fiber Optic In tegra ted braki n g harder th a n we reall y had to in the early stagesof stopp in g. Lock or, in plain English, a stee l he rear brake is a single-leadi n g cable that whe n cut activates an alarm via an integral fib er optic circuit. shoe drum and wh ile th a t brought snickers from some go-fas t observers , Summing it up, the Sabre could be it's as much up to the job on hand as one grea t m o torcycle. Complain ts are the Sabre's fro nt brakes. co ul d be turned into tota l praise if H onda would produce a Sabre that The exhaust note was disliked by m ost. " So u n ds like they we lded some had less doo-dads. When i t work s, the Sa bre is a ba rga in at $3,398 . Jus t coffee cans on the end of the pipes," was one rider's comment. think of wha t o ne wo u ld cost minus The Sabre carries themost daz zling all the h i-tech su perfluous extras. a rr ay of inst ru ments on the market As artist Salvador Dal i, a recognized today . Everything from a di g i ta l ge ar genius, once said, " Do n' t be af raid of indica tor to a stop watch. In between perfection. It 's something you 'll never attain." That statement was meant to a n electrica lly activated speedo meter encourage attempts at attaining pera nd tach, is a .computer co ntrolled senso r syst em that monito rs th e fection. No one ca n fa u lt Honda for ' Sa bre's tailligh t, headlight, coolant, trying, but just as their much heralded ba ttery, fue l level an d oil pressure. four-stroke 500cc G P road racer fell ,short of the mark, so does the Sabre. An LCD (liquid cryst al display) ch ecks o ff each of those functions each ti m e Reportedly, Honda's 1983 lineup th e bike is started and if o n e o r th e will include a chain-drive V-4 750 o ther is out of order , it fla sh es th e (th a t'll allow H onda to use the V-4 in a p p ro pria te info. There are a lso elecnext year's AMA Superbike Chamtro n ic fu el a nd tempera ture ga u ges, pionship Road R ace Series which and the usual odometer. A cl ock that will have a 750cc maximum displacetu rns into a sto p wa tch and a d ig i tal ment rule) and a 1,000cc V-4. We'd tr ip rneter are also part of the in str ustill prefer a shaft-drive 750. I'm bet m ent pod, along with turn si g-n a l, ting Honda irons out the problems h igh beam and n eutral ind icators. , mentioned in this article. If they do, While most m o to rcycl ists do n ' t ne ed I'll be the first in line to purchase a anyw here th a t many instr u ments, Sabre, but let it go o n record that I when th ey wo rk they're, all hel p fu l. passed on the '82 H o n da V45 Sabre. •

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