The Forgotten Honda That Made The Enduro Scene

This video is brought to you by Squarespace. Back in the 1960s, if you were serious about off-road riding, your choices were pretty slim. In the American desert racing scene, especially in California, the go-to machine was the big 650cc Triumph TR6. It got the job done, but at its core, it was still a heavy street bike dressed up for the dirt. Riders who wanted something lighter, something more agile, often had to look overseas. At that time, many of the most capable off-road machines came from Europe, oddly enough from Spain in particular. Off-road riding was one of the last strongholds not yet dominated by the rising Japanese brands. Now, all of this would change, of course, with the Yamaha DT1 and then Honda's Elsinore line. But as the 70s got underway, a new kind of market was emerging. Riders wanted motorcycles that were capable both on and off-road. And this new demand would bring about one of Honda's greatest, but perhaps most forgotten classic motorcycles, a bike that helped define this kind of riding that today is still so popular and relevant. Now, before we get into the video, I want to tell you guys about Squarespace, the all-in-one platform that helps you build and grow your online presence, whether you're wrenching in your garage, documenting your rides, maybe running a small motorcycle shop, or making a site for your club. Squarespace gives you everything you need all in one place. I've been using it to give my projects a proper home online. And what impressed me is how easy it is to create something that looks professional without having to worry about learning code. With their new Blueprint AI, you just describe your vibe, and Squarespace automatically builds a website that looks like you've hired a designer. You can drop in photos, videos. You can even offer appointments with things like built-in acuity scheduling. They have integrated SEO tools that handle all the technical stuff behind the scenes so that your site gets found when people search for things related to your site. So if you've been meaning to start a blog, or open your own shop, or just build a sort of digital garage for whatever you're working on, go to squarespace.com forward slash Bart for a free trial. And when you're ready to launch, use my code Bart to get 10% off your first purchase of a website or a domain. Big thanks to Squarespace for sponsoring this video, and let's jump back in. Before purpose-built dirt or dual-sport motorcycles existed, riding off-road really just meant making do with what you had. In the 50s and even the 60s, most riders just took standard road machines, often British singles or twins from companies like Triumph and BSA and Matchless and AJS, and they modified them to handle dirt and gravel and the open desert. These early off-roaders came in the form of things like desert sleds, but also trials bikes. They were stripped-back, high-pipe production street bikes. The Triumph TR6 Trophy, with its 650cc parallel twin, really became legendary in California's desert races. Riders removed fenders, they added knobby tires, and they reinforced frames. But at their core, these were still really just heavy street bikes. They were fast, but not really nimble. The desert racing scene of the American Southwest demanded brute power and toughness more than finesse, and that's really what these big British bikes delivered. But by the mid-60s, a revolution was really brewing across the Atlantic. In Spain and Italy and even Sweden, smaller companies began designing motorcycles specifically for off-road use, built from the ground up for that purpose. Machines that were lightweight, narrow, and agile, built around simple, torquey, single-cylinder, two-stroke engines. Brands like Voltacco and Montesa and Assa in Spain. And also Husqvarna. They were leading this movement. Their bikes, like the Matador and the Husqvarna 250 Cross, were far lighter than the big British sleds, and they could handle tight trails and muddy ruts and jumps that would leave a motorcycle like the TR6 kind of wallowing. These new European machines really helped define the early DNA of both motocross and enduro racing. By the late 1960s, American riders had gotten the message. The British machines were powerful, but these European two-strokes were faster on twisty, technical terrain, and suddenly a new kind of off-road culture began forming. One focused less on wide-open desert racing and more on trail riding and scrambling, and of course motocross. The Japanese manufacturers, Honda, Yamaha, Suzuki, Kawasaki, they saw this shift, and they moved fast. Yamaha's DT1 Enduro, introduced in 1968, was a real game-changer, with its 250cc two-stroke engine, oil injection, lights, and street-legal equipment. It was really the first mass-market dual-purpose motorcycle. You could ride it to work during the week and then on the trails all weekend, and it really fit at home in either place. In many ways, it was the first modern dual sport. It was an instant hit, selling way beyond Yamaha's expectation. It proved that there was this huge market for bikes that could do both of these things well. They could go on and off-road, and in many ways, this was the moment when the dual sport idea started to go mainstream. But Honda had a problem. By the late 60s, they were dominating street motorcycles, but they had no real answer to the DT1. Their early trail models, like the SL125 and SL350, were really just based on street bikes. They weren't designed from the ground up for off-road performance, and the truth is, they weren't great motorcycles. I feel bad saying that about a Honda, but a bike like an SL125 was not a great bike, especially when it came to the off-road part of the equation, and in some ways, it didn't do either all that well. Even so, Honda refused to abandon its four-stroke identity, while the other Japanese makers leaned heavily into the two-stroke revolution, and it was true that Honda was working on its own two-stroke dirt bike race bike with the Elsinore. But at the same time, Honda's engineers started working on a lightweight, efficient four-stroke that could compete in this new dual sport enduro class, if it was designed right. The result was the XL250, a motorcycle that would help define what a modern dual sport or enduro machine would look like. True to Honda's heritage of engineering, the XL250 was built on a reliable, durable four-stroke overhead cam, four-valve, single-cylinder engine, at a time when most of the competition in this new class were building 250cc two-strokes. The displacement was 248cc in the original 1972 version, a single 28mm Cayenne carburetor, battery and coil ignition via magneto flywheel, engine cases in aluminum alloy with magnesium alloy side covers, the frame was a spine frame design with a single loop under the engine, 21-inch front wheel in early versions and an 18-inch rear, front forks borrowed damping ideas from Seriani, rear used adjustable dual shocks, and it had street-legal equipment, full lighting, full turn signals, speedometer, tachometer, and most important, a reliable 5-speed transmission. The XL250 weighed in at around 300 or just under 300 pounds wet, not a lightweight dirt bike really, but solid for a 250cc street bike. I mean, that's about the weight of a CB125 road bike, for example, from Honda. When the XL250 debuted in 1972, one of its standout features was its suspension, especially compared to the street scramblers and lightweight trail bikes that came before it. The XL250 used long travel suspension forks up front and these dual shocks in the rear that really were tuned for genuine off-road use rather than just going on a gravel road. So though it wasn't a true motocross bike, its suspension gave the bike far better control and compliance on rough terrain than most dual sport rivals of this era, which were more about street performance, and this setup allowed it to soak up ruts and bumps that would have otherwise unsettled especially older scrambler style machines, making it more of a dirt bike. And this was really a move towards modern dual sport understanding, which is suspension that can handle real dirt without punishing you on the pavement. Now, as we know today with dual sport motorcycles, there's always a trade-off. You can't have a bike that is 100% street ready and 100% off-road ready. It's just not possible. Knobby tires, long suspension travel, they're not ideal for pavement and corner carving, and also lights, mirrors, large gas tanks. These things add extra weight in the dirt, so it's really difficult to make a compelling dual sport motorcycle because it really is all about making the right concessions. And for the XL250, the biggest trade-off was weight. It was about 20 to 30 pounds heavier than most of its two-stroke rivals, and that did make it less nimble in tight off-road sections. But as we know today with modern dual sports and adventure bikes, if you know what you're doing, a little bit of weight is actually not a bad thing off-road. And also the rearward weight bias helped with stability, but it didn't help with cornering. The suspension, though advanced for a street legal bike, was stiffer and less forgiving than a true off-road bike. Reviewers noted things like a grabby rear brake, wide turning radius, limited mud protection. And while this four-stroke engine made the XL smoother and more civilized on pavement, the whole package meant that it wasn't entirely home there either. But still, upon its release in 72, the XL250 was really a new class machine. It wasn't immediately perfect off-road, but most of the reviews were really favorable. For example, in 1972, Cycles Tests said this, Riders really appreciated the four-stroke tractability. You could ride it on and off-road without any hassle, and its general maintenance was just so simple. It brought Honda's iconic trail bike functionality into an accessible street legal dual-purpose machine, something that few bikes had done so cleanly to this point. In comparison to the more rowdy two-strokes, this four-stroke enduro was a kind of gentleman's take on the dual-sport motorcycle, done in perhaps the most Honda way possible. Now, over the years, the XL250 evolved significantly. There was the bigger XL350. In 78, the XL250S version arrived, with refinements in chassis, suspension, styling, and weight reduction. In 82, the R version arrived in many markets, with things like a 12-volt electrical system, single rear pro-link suspension, six-speed gears in some markets. Over its production life, the XL250's engine remained a four-valve four-stroke single, but refinements really kept it relevant. It became a kind of do-everything dual-sport motorcycle. It was offered from 72 through much of the 80s in many markets, and it really is a sought-after classic today. The XL250's significance really goes beyond just its specs. It did a few key things. First of all, with the bike, Honda really proved that a four-stroke could be viable, reliable, and fun in this dual-sport class, even if many competitors still use two-strokes. In that sense, it created a trail dual-sport template for other manufacturers. Four-stroke technology would be the future for this class. Honda, with this bike and so many other bikes in the 70s, paved the way for showing that really all classes of motorcycles could be dominated by four-strokes. We didn't have to do two-strokes, and that would prove to be really forward-thinking. The success of the XL line pushed competitors to rethink their offerings, and in many ways, the XL embedded itself in enthusiast culture because it was accessible, dependable, and adaptable. It really bridged road and trail, and as markets matured, the demand for a one bike that can just go everywhere, that idea really grew. Even today, if you need an affordable, reliable, easy-to-service, do-it-all bike, even though this bike is 45 years old or something, it's still a great option. It's a favorite for riders who want a bike for road and also occasional off-road and fire trails, and because it's so durable, many of these survived. Many of them are modded, but a lot of them are restored, and people ride them. Now, in looking at this motorcycle, I actually decided to get my hands on one of these old XL250s and specifically one that needed fixing up, mostly because I needed a winter project, but also because I wanted to see what these classic dual sports were all about. So I jumped on Marketplace, and amazingly, I found this super low-mile, one-owner XL250. It has like 4,000 miles on it. I bought it from the nicest people I think I've ever met, and it was sold by the owner's son. His dad had owned it since 73 when he bought it brand new. He's now 91, but he just kind of kept it and brought it with them as they moved through the years. It hadn't run in about 15, 20 years, something like that, but this is the kind of bike I look for when I look at a project bike, something super original. It included the original tool kit, the original owner's manual, but also a bike that hasn't been modified a bunch in that everything is basically there. But it hadn't run, and it's an old Honda, so I kind of knew it would run. I was hoping that this would be a winter project, but honestly, this is always how it goes. I just dove way in and started working on it to get it running and get it solid, went through the carb, cleaned and did a rebuild, new throttle, choke cables, new clutch cable, as all of that was kind of seized up. Of course, an oil change, new points and condenser, new ignition coil because it was dying when it would get warm. But by far, the biggest challenge was the fuel tank. It had all of this super, super old, thick varnishy gas, which was so difficult to clean out. I ended up using acetone and vinegar for the rust and for that old gas multiple times. I didn't want to do a liner in this bike, so I just filled it with gas once we got it clean. It's not perfect, but I don't love those liners. Anyways, new tires, a new NOS air filter, housing, which is rather expensive. In all, I think I bought the bike for $1,000 and I have about $1,000 in it, so $2,000 into it. I would say in this condition, it's probably worth that ish. But anyways, what can I say about this bike? It is still a working project, so I haven't ridden it as much as I'd like to because it still needs some things. But I have ridden it a decent amount and I feel like this bike sits in a few places really nicely. Today, it would really be a perfect beginner bike. And I mean perfect. My brother, who's learning how to ride, has ridden around on it a bit. And in terms of just weight and balance and just how nimble it is, it's crazy that so many people think of something like an Interceptor as a beginner bike when this bike weighs like half as much as that bike. So it's so forgiving. It's so easy to maneuver compared to a bike like that. And of course, quite a bit less powerful. It is a carbureted bike, which some people don't want to deal with. I personally love a well-executed, simple carbureted machine. Something like, you know, for many Japanese companies really, a dual carb British bike with AMO carburetors. That's definitely a little bit more work, but this single carb is fantastic to maintain and tune in these old Hondas. Once you get them set up, they're pretty easy to run and maintain and they don't give you a lot of problems. You know, more than anything though, when I work on a Honda like this, especially coming from old British cars and old British motorcycles from this era, you know, as fun and beautiful and as characterful as those machines are, man, Honda just made such well-engineered, simple machines. And this is no different. They thought about everything just to make this bike easy to service and maintain and own from, you know, taking the gas tank off to adjusting the throttle cables. It's all, it's just so brilliant, such a brilliant little machine. You know, I think it's safe to say the XL250 was not a perfect machine, but it was smartly engineered, uniquely positioned, and really ahead of its time. It tackled this growing demand for dual sport bikes with a design that balanced street and trail in a really modern way. You know, when you consider how motorcycles have evolved and how many bikes today are heavier and more complex and less accessible, the XL250 I think stands out as a bike that got the fundamentals right. So if you're a dual sport guy, I think you have to tip your cap to Honda with this little known bike. This machine really did help launch the entire idea of dual sport, dual purpose motorcycles. And if you're in the market for a classic and you don't have a ton of money, especially a first classic, I really think you could not ask for a better bike than this. This side port, single carb, it's so easy to access, everything is just so easy to work on. So definitely check one of these out. If you find one near you, they're a great pickup. All right, guys, hope you enjoyed this video. Let us know in the comments if you've ever experienced an XL250, and we'll see you in the next one. Ride safe.