Mine is an 83, my sabre is an 84 and I also ride a 84 1000F. The sabre is bone stock other than a kevlar clutch and 3.40 final drive gears. The 1000F has 1000R carbs on it which is supposed to be like the 83 carbs are to the magnas. From what I understand, jetting ends up leaning out the mid and richen (if that's a word) the upper rpms. There's a man named Dave Dodge that worked for RC Engineering in the 70s to mid 80s that I've spoken with many times. He says that unless I plan on racing, stock jets are really the best all around size.
Kerker use to make a 4-1 exhaust, I think MAC still does. Lazer made a nice looking 4-2 headder but just receintly they quit manufacturing it.
Other performance mods for the V4s get into big bucks and I'm not interested in sinking that kind of money into an engine. Even to add 20 horsepower to a V4 still leaves you way behind the other performance bikes out there. My bikes are as fast as I care to make them.
So to get off the tangent,
restoring a sabre is usually because you just like the bike. They don't bring the money that a magna gets so you can easily put more time and money into than it's worth. The saying around the V4hondabbs is, if a running sabre doesn't have gauges or has a bad second gear, its worth about the same as a non running sabre with gauges or a good second gear. The magnas can still be worth the time and effort. The nice, and I mean nice ones, can bring 3-4K. One that needs some work and is so-so cosmetically with a good engine may be worth it. If its cosmetically challenged and has a bad engine, you either want a project that you plan to keep or its an anchor.
Nice sabres can be had all day for $1500-$2000 if you're willing to travel a bit. Faring pieces are getting extremely hard to find. To take the faring off you need the original mounting parts for the headlight, horns and fusebox. The original parts aren't too hard to get.
