| Story: |
When the Super Magna first
came out during my senior year in High School, I saw
the pictures and magazine articles and thought it
was a cool looking bike. However, here in
Pennsylvania, your primary vehicle damn well better
travel well in the snow! So I tucked that
information into the back of my head until I was
ready. When I stated looking around for a bike, I
came across the Super Magna again, but they are very
rare locally. I lucked into a Suzuki Savage 3 years
ago from a friend at work, which got me on two
wheels until I could find my Super.
In January 2003, I found one that I had to go
see, a blue 1987 VF700 with only 3,219 miles on the
odometer. Apparently the original owner rode it for
a while and had a bad scare on I80 involving a big
truck. He then parked it in a heated garage, on
blocks, under a cover, with stabilizer in the tank.
The guy listing it had just bought it from the
original owner (a good friend of his) wanting a bike
he could customize. He decided to get a Mean Streak
instead and needed to make room in his garage.
It was in northern NJ, which is about a 6-hour
drive, each way. When I got there, a light mist was
falling onto the guy's very cold paved driveway, so
much for the test ride. It looked great, started
right up, and just begged me to take it home. We
loaded it in my truck's 8-foot bed (just fit!) and I
headed back to Johnstown. Once it warmed up a
little, I found out the front caliper was sticking,
along with some other very minor issues. I fixed the
brakes, the seat bolts, tightened a leaking bolt on
the rear drive hub, installed the rear seat,
backrest, and luggage rack, and headed off to get it
inspected. WOW! What a difference from the Savage.
The Super is longer, has shorter gears, but has more
power, a lot more power than the Savage. I'm in
heaven. Although it has very low miles, it won't
stay that way for long. I've added a National Cycle
StreetShield EX to cut down the wind a little for
highway trips. |
