1985 Honda VF700S Sabre

After dumping the 650 Nighthawk in August of 87, I knew that the fairing was the cause. That meant the next bike I would get would have to have a full fairing. Plus, since Dave and I did a trip from Sacramento to Richmond (Near San Francisco) and the 650 was over heated, it also had to have a water cooling system. Well, the Sabre fit that mold quite well, so I started looking for an '85 700 Sabre. I debated on whether to buy a new one or used, I started watching the newspaper for used ones. Within a couple of weeks, I found one with only 6,000 miles on it and it looked like it was fresh off the floor for only $1,800. I ordered a still in the box '83 fairing for $400, they were out of the color matched by then. But I didn't care, I wanted the protection I could get from a frame mounted fairing. I also found a set of brand new Krauser saddle bags at a Yamaha shop for $50! Since I was still in school, the bags came in real handy!

By August 88, I was working at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena and the straightest route to Pasadena from Palmdale was over the Angeles Forest and Crest Highways.  What a terrible ride!  LOL  During the five years I worked at the Lab, I rode the bike the first 2 years. Then I rode in a vanpool for a year, until I got tired of it. The forth Year I went back to the bike. Once I had parked the bike in the MC parking and the bike next to me fell into my bike when the owner tried to put it on it's center stand. He knocked over about 7 or eight bikes. His insurance company wasn't too happy about it either! The tip over broke one of the Krauser bags, so I took them off and put my rack from the 650 on. Then in February of '92, I found a set of "still in the box" Hondaline Saddlebags in a local paper. Well, sort of local. I had to go pick them up in Manhattan Beach, about 70 miles away. But I found them, that was the important part!...;-)

Then the last year, I drove the vanpool this time. That started in March of '92. Around the following September, I got my wife to ride with me again, but she didn't like it, one reason was lack of a backrest. Well, since I was driving the vanpool, the bike became a luxury for the first time in our marriage, so, against the advice of my local Palmdale Honda Motorcycle dealer, Larry Lilly, I had him sell it for me. That was in October of '92. It didn't take long for me to realize how big of a mistake it was to sell it.  The following March, I was laid off from JPL and I moved to San Diego in August 93.