Based on the MSRP of the V65 in 1984, which was $4,548, with the 49.4 percent tariff added, the price for the base bike without the optional bullet fairing my bike has and the other incidentals, taxes, licenses and fees, the price tag would have ballooned to $6,794!To put it in perspective, while that’s a whopping price increase to pay for politics, in 1984 a Harley FXRS Low Glide, for example still cost more than the tariff-taxed Honda at $7,560. The optional frame-mount fairing gives the V65 real sport-touring cred-the 102 hp V4 mill gives it sportbike juice.I don’t know when my V65 Sabre was purchased by its first owner, but if it was in the spring of 1984, whoever bought it had to be very determined to have one of the top superbikes of its day. The tariff plan brought its focus almost entirely on Japanese manufacturers. The other is a 1984 V65 Sabre (roughly 65 cubic inches displacement), designated the VF1100S.In this age of targeted and global tariff wars that affect certain imported raw materials like steel and aluminum and finished goods, it is ironic that the Hondas of 1984 that displaced more than 700cc were subject to a targeted tariff enacted by Congress at the behest of Harley-Davidson.In April 1983, President Reagan signed into law an act that raised the then-current import tariff of 4.4 percent to 49.4 percent and would keep it there for a year lower the rate to 39.4 percent in the second year, to 24.4 percent in the third year, to 19.4 percent in the fourth year, and to 14.4 percent in the fifth year with the tariff returning to 4.4 percent after the fifth year. And stock big-bore V-twins or parallel twins? That’s what the slow lane was for.One is the 1984 V30 Magna (30 cubic inches displacement), officially designated as the VF500C. They light up with a touch of the starter button, accelerate with exceptional vigor and send their speedometer needles swinging around the face of the instrument with breathtaking ease.Honda’s fearsome V4 bikes had the potential to mop the street or track with about any stock air-cooled in-line DOHC UJM of the same or even higher displacement. Representing the top and bottom of the displacement range of Honda’s 1984 V4 bikes, the V30 (L) and V65 each offer amazing performance and reliability-even after 35 years.While much of that world was still thinking of in-line DOHC air-cooled four-cylinder bikes, Honda was letting it all hang out with a radical new line that began in 1982 with the V4 750cc V45 Magna and Sabre and had the competition still trying to catch up by 1984.Now, 35 years later, two of those early Honda V4-powered bikes still live in my shed. In 1984, the world-at least a good portion of the motorcycling world-was under the control of Big Red and its original thinking, forward-leaning motorcycles with potent DOHC, sixteen valve, over-achieving liquid-cooled V4 powerhouses.
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