My latest acquisition. A 1980 Honda XL500S. Slightly modded with 81 brakes and rear suspension arm. The pic isn't mine, but mine looks exactly like that.
Not at all what I was planning, but then I sat on it, Shouldn't have done that. Then I rode it around. Really shouldn't have done that! So I bought it.
I wanted to get a KLR, but as a member of the severely inseam challenged club, the KLR is just tall and top heavy for me.
The XL500, it feels like a bicycle. A really fast bicycle. I can put both feet on the ground, and toss it around like my TT250 dirt bike. It's got reasonably long legs, so it can travel down the highway if I wish it.
Strangest thing that I didn't anticipate was a 6 volt charging system. Oh my, I thought I'd left that behind. Counter good point is the system is split three ways for tremendous reliability. 1 part is for the ignition. 2nd part is the headlight. It has its own winding. 3rd part is everything else. So this bike will never have the "can't start, bad battery" problems. Nor will it ever die because the headlight ran it down.
23" front tire. It's huge. It also just floats over everything. It really works well.
Drum brakes. But they work great. I mean really great.
Comfy seat. It's skinny, but it's well padded. I haven't put that many hours on it, but so far, it's been absolutely fine.
Look out PA fire trails, here comes Snoopy!
