1980 Honda XL500 and XL185 Street Enduro

The first step was to totally disassemble the bike into its major components; the frame and forks went in one corner, the engine in another, and the rest scattered across the room. A thorough cleaning of all the parts permitted me an opportunity to inspect for hidden damage or imperfections. It also gave me the time to dream and formulate

Amazingly, it didn't stall on me.

a vision for the project. Researching through magazines and catalogs I came up with a plan. I decided to boost the power by ordering a Powrol big bore kit and Mugen cam along with the mandatory K&N air filter. I also picked up a 38 mm Mikuni carburetor, Gunnar Gasser throttle, oversized cylinder studs, and a Bassani pipe to complete the engine mods. Machine work was done by Leitner and Bush in Toronto. New Works Performance shocks were purchased, as well as an extra capacity plastic desert tank from Preston Petty. Detail changes included tires, a fender tool pouch and new handlebars and levers.

By spring the bike was back together and looking very impressive. At the time, there was a group of dirt bike riders who had got together and formed an association for the sole purpose of creating an off roader's playground in the region. Before insurance and liability concerns became serious issues, this group managed to obtain access rights to a local inactive quarry. For somewhere around $15 a year, I would be able to spin rooster tails to my heart's content on a terrain that included water hazards, sandy trails, hills, rocks, scrub brush, and lots of mud. It was a great place to practice riding techniques and just have plain fun. And it was only 10 minutes from my home.

On The Move

By the end of that summer, another move was in our plans. After much searching, we bought what can be best described as a 150 year old typical eastern Ontario farm house, but without the farm. Located in a small village, our new abode was planted on 3/5th of an acre and had plenty of potential as a fixer upper. It also came with one very important attribute, a garage. The bikes had a home.

Surrounding the village were miles of country dirt roads, and I rode many of them on the revitalized Honda. For the most part, the bike proved to be a worthy steed. It had an impressive bite to go along with its gnarly bark. But it did have one very annoying characteristic that at times I thought would be the death of me. Every so often the engine would backfire and stall. This would usually happen at idle or low rpm's. When this happened it could, and often did, take ten, twenty, or even more attempts on

For sale for $1200

the kick starter to bring it back to life. I read somewhere that this hard starting was due to the fuel having been sucked out of the carburetor. Although the big Honda had a compression release, it was still a significant chore turning over that motor that many times. One day I disconnected the compression release cable just to see how much of a difference it made. Let me assure you that it made a huge difference. It took all my concentration and weight to turn over the motor and I think I got it spinning fast enough to get it started - once. The experiment lasted an hour before I reconnected the cable.

The 185 didn't get much use that year. My wife was expecting our first child and didn't have much of an urge to ride. Beside the lack of fitting riding gear, and the various aches, pains, and other things too scary to mention, I doubt she would even have been able to see the controls over her ballooning girth. When my daughter was born, all attention became focused on her. The little Honda just sat ignored. Finally, we put it up for sale and in a flash it was gone. Although at the time it seemed wise to sell my wife's neglected bike as we needed tons of cash to make much needed repairs to our house, I've regretted it ever since. It would have been very nice to have had this bike to introduce first my daughter, and then later my son to the joys of motorcycling.

As for the hot rodded 500, it too, was soon to become history. As much fun as it was to ride the trails and dirt roads in our area, eventually my interest in revisiting them over and over waned, while riding the streets left a lot to be desired when it came to comfort. I suppose the single greatest contributor to the decision I made to sell the big thumper was the difficulty I had restarting the bike whenever it decided to quit. On the road when this happened, it more often than not meant pushing it off to the side and working up a good sweat before being able to continue my journey. It also did nothing for my ego.

I had always found Harleys very desirable, but with their then reputation for unreliability and my limited discretionary funds, I turned my attention towards Harley wannabe's, metric cruisers as they are now called. Now that I was quite familiar with the local scenery, I wanted a bike that would be capable of taking me and my SO further out to discover new places. With a little luck, that bike was just around the corner.