Bike History Part 4: free 1977 Honda XL 100

The other free project bike I've had since moving to Colorado was an old 1977 Honda XL 100. My mother's neighbor had it sitting outside for decades. When he moved, he gave it to her to bring up to me.

Here is what one in good shape looks like:


The one I got was *not* in good shape. The engine was seized, all plastic parts were cracked and discolored from decades of sitting exposed in the Albuquerque sun, and the entire fuel system was filled with gunk that had been gasoline decades before. And he had lost the title.

It was kind of a cool motorcycle, though. It had a tiny SOHC one cylinder. I pulled off the cylinder head, filled the cylinder up with WD-40, let it sit for a few days, and finally un-stuck the cylinder by pounding a 1X1 board against the piston until it came free.

The plastic air filter housing was trashed, so I replaced it with a little K&N breather filter. The exhaust was falling apart, so I ended up cutting off the muffler.

I got new off-road tires for it, re-painted the tank and fenders flat beige, and re-covered the seat with new vinyl over old carpet padding. It actually looked pretty decent after all this.

Unfortunately, the carbs were so heavily varnished, and I'm sure the open exhaust and K&N air filter threw the jetting off so much, that I was never to get it to run very well. A couple of times, after a liberal application of starting fluid and ten zillion kicks on the kick starter, I got it to fire up, and could rev it there for a while, but I was never able to get it to run long enough or well enough to try going around the block.

I got kind of disgusted with it after spending $20 on carb parts at the Honda dealer. The dealer had a distinct "cycles are toys" attitude. I guess that's pretty typical for the U.S.A. There were parents spending hundreds of dollars on motocross armor for their five-year-olds so they could ride thousand dollar toy bikes. There were people on their crotch rockets decked out in their fake racer costumes, and there were guys on their cruisers in their "biker" costumes. It all seemed so fake and ostentatious and lame. What happened to the idea that motorbikes can be practical and fun daily transportation? The tough guys I saw in Paris, riding their weird little grimy scooters with roofs

wearing rain capes were way tougher than the toughest fake biker in the Honda dealership.

I tried to get a new chain for it at another motorcycle shop. This shop was full of motorcycle clothing, but they couldn't figure out which chain to sell me after looking at the rusty old chain I brought in. They had a television monitor playing "extreme riding" videos. In one of them, a bunch of sport bike guys were sitting around a rural lane. One of the guys popped a wheelie, and balanced, completely still, on his rear wheel. Then he pulled out a gun from his waistband and fired it into the forest on the side of the road while balanced on his rear wheel.

I'm not anti-gun, but I am anti-dumbass. Motorcycles are dangerous and therefore must be treated with respect. Guns are dangerous and therefore must be handled with respect. My hope is that people who perform blatantly dangerous motorcycle stunts on public roadways, and people who blatantly disregard any kind of safe firearms handling either learn the error of their ways or remove themselves from the gene pool ASAP, without taking anyone out with them.

For some reason, sitting in a shop, watching a video that glorified such stupid antics with no regard to their impact on the world around them disgusted me. I still liked motorcycles, but I was frustrated that mine was so far gone, and I was disgusted at the glimpses I saw of local motorcycle culture.

I ended up putting the motorcycle out with a "free" sign on it. The guy who got it sure was stoked. His eyes were bulging with excitement as I helped him load it into his pickup truck. I hope he got it going, and I hope enjoyed it.