Greg Gilson’s 1980 Honda XLS 125 “War Machine”… Today we’re back with a follow-up piece about the 1980 Honda XL125S desert racer of Greg Gilson (@greggils42), whose 2025 Baja 1000 experience we profiled in our […]
Tag: Honda XL
The Fresh Prince: Nitrous-Boosted Honda XL200R Scrambler
Glow Up: One Moto Show Standout from Red Right Hand… Mike Schroeder of Red Right Hand of Moto may manage a Montana Harley-Davidson dealership, but his love for bikes extends well beyond Milwaukee-born V-twins, […]
Triple XL: Three Honda XL500 Motocrossers!
GPgarage Moto builds a trio of four-stroke Honda motocrossers… Introduced in 1979, the Honda XL500 would become one of the most successful dual-purpose bikes of the era, combining a 32-hp version of the XR500 engine […]
Honda XL500S Flat Tracker
In 1979, Honda released the XL500S, a single-cylinder dual-purpose machine developed to compete with the Yamaha XT500, winner of the first two runnings of the Paris Dakar Rally. The bike had important improvements over the […]
The Fat Lady Sings: Honda Varadero 1000 Scrambler
Introduced in 2001, the Honda XL1000V Varadero was an interesting machine. Honda took the 996cc 97-bhp V-twin from their VTR 1000 Firestorm / SuperHawk and put it in an adventure-touring chassis. The result was a […]
Dakar Dualie: Honda XL600LM Resto
ZZ Moto restores a limited-edition Honda thumper… By the mid-1980s, the Paris Dakar Rally had become an immensely popular event on the world stage, and the big factories were competing hard to develop the […]
Prairie Dog: Honda XL600 Desert Sled
Marmisto’s take on the classic Desert Sled – the Prairie Dog There are custom bikes with build sheets that read like expensive shopping lists, outfitting the machine in a dizzying array of high-spec bling, and […]
Vulture Moto’s Vintage 500 Series
A pair of 500 thumpers from Germany’s Vulture Moto! The 500cc “big single” remains one of the best, most versatile all-around engine configurations in motorcycling history, from the British 500 singles of yesteryear to the […]
Honda XL600LM “Bulldog” by GPgarage Moto
The Honda XL600LM was a tribute to the HRC Paris-Dakar Rally machines of the 1980s. In 1982, Cyril Neveu won the legendary trans-Saharan race on an XR550, and Honda was intent on repeating that victory, […]
Baja Commander: Honda XL500R Baja
GPgarage Moto builds a Baja restomod! The XL500R was Honda’s 500cc dual-sport in the early 1980s, a mono-shock (Pro-Link) evolution of the twin-shock XL500S, featuring a 32-hp SOHC engine with counterbalancers, long-travel suspension, and a […]
