1980 Honda XL500S – $6,000 ono. (Sold)

1980 Honda XL500 for sale

SELLER SAYS: This bike was in storage for 10 years and is in good original unrestored condition. Starts first kick, mostly! Not ridden much since taken from storage. Runs well. I’m not sure about the spoke guards, dunno if they were a factory add-on or put on by a previous owner. I’ve had the bike for about 10-11 years; bought to ride with a mate, but it never worked out as he moved away. The bike is unregistered. Contact Malcolm on 0400 xxx xxx SOLD (Beverley, WA).

EDITOR TERLICK SAYS: It’s hard to over-state the importance of the Honda XL500 in the evolution of motorcycles. Today, big semi-off-road motorcycles are arguably the biggest segment of the motorcycle market. We call them adventure bikes of course, a term that probably grew from BMW’s courageous R80G/S. But Honda had been making big four-stroke dirt bikes for ages before that. The venerable XL350 was launched in 1974, a single-cylinder four-valve trail bike that replaced the SL350 twin and added a bigger alternative to the XL250. While the rest of the world was swinging to two strokes, Honda stood their ground. And when Yamaha released the TT and XT500 in 1976, the fight was on — and the future of four-stroke dirt bikes was secured. The Yamaha-XT-versus-Honda-XL fight went on for years, giving birth to the more dirt-focused TTs and XRs, which ultimately evolved into the YZF and CRF four-stroke motocross bikes we ride today. This bike looks like a marvellous example of the XL, almost entirely original and unmolested. It could be brought back into service as a retro adventure bike, commuter, weekend playbike, vinduro dirt bike, or all four — or it could be given a right-proper concourse restoration for the man cave or museum. An opportunity that’s more rare than most people realise!