Memorable Motorcycles - Honda XL 125 Photo Gallery

The Honda XL 125 is a fine little motorcycle, very fit for the term ‘memorable’, so what does the Mujahideen and the CIA have to do with things? Find out in this month’s Memorable Motorcycle Honda XL 125.

Although the bike is no 600cc super slogger when it comes to pulling power, the tiny motor knocks out a very respectable 13 hp and will buzz up the side of a cliff - even in the rarefied atmosphere of Afghanistan.

If you break an XL frame in accident then for sure you, and St. Peter, will be sharing the same bit of heaven looking down at the crash which killed you.

Memorable Motorcycles - Honda XL 125

The air-cooled, SOHC, two-valve engine makes the Rocky Mountains look like a temporary fixture in terms of its utter, total and complete reliability. Change the oil regularly, and the beautiful powerplant will run to the end of time - and then some.

Put anything vaguely combustible in the XL’s fuel tank and it will run - no Hi-Test exotica for this workhorse. Drop it down a ravine, drown it, bury it under an avalanche and two kicks later it will be purring as sweet as a kitten.

The Honda XL 125 simple and basic gauges.

Off or on-road riding is good, offering a ride you might not expect from this undestructable motorcycle.

Everything works just fine on the XL from the suspension to the brakes and on to the incredibly frugal 80 mpg fuel consumption.

The power plant of the XL 125 is part of the bloodline of one of Hondas’ greatest ever designs. It is a thing of intense mechanical beauty in that it does its job so wonderfully well.