While showing some very light, normal wear, this 1974 Honda XL-70 K1 appears to be in outstanding condition and is one you could ride without being afraid of taking it off the velvet turntable in your living room. It’s listed here on Facebook Marketplace in Kewaskum, WI, and the seller is asking $4,100 or best offer. Here is the original listing, and thanks to Lothar… of the Hill People for the XL’ent tip!
This is a rare bike. I know I’ve said that before, but I don’t know if I’ve ever seen an XL-70 in person. It’s such a nice little bike, not too big for kids (or teenagers), and not so small that adults couldn’t ride it without feeling like a meatball. I personally couldn’t care less what anyone thinks about how I look, whether I’m riding a motorcycle or not, so I’d get on this XL-70 and ride the heck out of it. Let the hairy-knuckle poseurs laugh if they want to. When all is said and done, I’d rather be riding a small motorcycle than not riding one at all.
This example has a crazy low 1,150 miles on it. My hairpiece has more miles than that! (kidding, I don’t have one)(yet) Even better? The person selling it is the original owner! How cool/sad is that? Both cool and sad, really, now that I think about it. They’ve owned this little jewel for 51 years and are now parting with it. Clearly, they’ve loved this motorcycle; it really looks like a winner. At 150 pounds, it’s pretty light, but the 26.5-inch seat height makes it more comfortable for teenagers or adults who aren’t quite as lanky and tall as I am.
Honda made the XL-70 from 1974 through 1976, so for only three years. Candy Topaz Orange was, I thought, the only color available for the 1974 model year but I must be wrong as this one is Candy Riviera Blue. I love seeing a Honda brochure saying, “Large turn signal lights let others know where you’re going.” As if anyone in America uses turn signals other than me anymore.
The seller says everything is original, other than receiving a new lithium battery, and they also cleaned the entire fuel system last year. The engine is the only thing showing wear, just around the oil filler that I can see. This is Honda’s 72-cc four-stroke, SOHC single with 5 horsepower and 4 lb-ft of torque. It’s sent through a four-speed manual, and they say it’s great for a collector or for just riding. I’d do both. Have any of you owned a small Honda like this XL-70? Better yet, do you signal your lane changes? I’ll be stunned if anyone says, “Yes, I do, every single time,” as I just don’t see it anymore.
Then prepare to be stunned, Scotty-it’s far more common to use signals than not in most places of our little burgs and towns around here.
However with the influx of big city people moving into the rurals it’s beginning to make a statement in the court systems but the local LEO’s still write them up regularly..
Nice XL 70 here! A great single track ride for short distances even as old as it is.
Someone’s gonna have fun with is one 👍🏻
My faith in humanity has been restored, Nevadahalfrack! Thanks for mentioning that there’s at least one island of sane driving on the globe. I sure don’t see it too often on my 40,000 miles of driving around the country every year.
That’s alot of miles/yr SG. 👏
Please remember eye lead and scanning… driving’s golden rules. ✨️ 👍 This little sweetheart here is a perfect bike for the back of the R.V.
Hey Stan, I told him Swift Transport would love to get a hold of him. He didn’t see the humor in that.
This is some Honda Scotty. Absolutely beautiful condition. I’d love to ride it, but at the same time preserve it too.
In NJ, Scotty, just so you know…….
The reason why people don’t use their turn signals……
Is because……..
They don’t want to give away their next move!!!!
( Hope you all got a chuckle out of that. Its probably funnier in my head than in real life.)
Well, I’m becoming a bit skeptical on who this “Lothar” really is, but I think this bike is just too small for any adult and will be painfully obvious on the test drive. It wasn’t marketed as one, and was a direct step up from the monkey bike the kid trashed. Not a big motorcycle by any means, but certainly a step in the right direction. Regarding the mileage. See, the thing was, the monkey bike took them to maybe 14, they got this, and by 16, this was horribly inadequate and that XL 350 was already being looked at, leaving the little XL70 in the corner. They’re dreamin’ on the price, and just not a wanted bike anymore. It is clean, turn signals intact, insuring low use, as they were the 1st thing to go, and $500 bucks tops.
You meet the n8cest people on a Honda.
Not using turn signals is getting more and more a global brain illness it seems…
It’s a 1975. Was probably built in 1974 if you could see the vin tag. The XL-70 was orange in 1974, blue in 1975 and green in 1976. I received my 1974 on Easter Sunday. It was a semi surprise (I had been hounding my parents for months asking for one and showing them the sales brochure every chance I could get.) Dad asked me to “go check out the new horse in the barn” so I looked in the one (formerly empty stall) and there it was handlebars tied to a post! Was my pride and joy for several years. Would love to find another one!
Rich C- Same here, I turned 10 in 1971, family moved to the country and Dad bought me a brand new SL70 (predecessor to the XL). Great little bike! It started me on a 50 year journey of riding motorcycles. I normally agree with Howard, but this time you are way off! These bikes are very collectible. $4K might be a little high, but worth WAY more than $500. Oh, and yes, I use turn signals EVERY time!
Rich, that’s what I thought (and mentioned in the fourth paragraph), but I saw several 1974s in this blue color, including two sold on BaT and I assume they do their homework. Maybe it’s a late ’74 sold as a ’75 or something, as you mentioned. There actually is a VIN in the link, if you click on it to see the photos, as we always hope readers will do, but I’m guessing not too many do that.
I use my turn signals and sometimes, now that I’m older, I will leave them on for miles and miles just so people know I use them! 😀
I owned the Yamaha equivalent of one of these, a GT80, but the Yamaha was a two-stroke with Yamalube oil injection, so no mixing of gas and oil! The dirt-only version (XL-70) was all I ever saw around the neighborhood as a kid, I didn’t know that Honda made an Enduro version! The local Honda dealer didn’t have one on the showroom floor, that’s for sure! We used to go to the local Honda dealer for parts and supplies for my buddy’s Honda 125 Elsinore, so while he was at the parts counter, we would look at the new bikes, and I never saw one of these in the dealership.
When using these on the trail, the first thing you did was remove the turn signals, so they wouldn’t get snagged and broken on tree branches hanging over the trail! If you had it registered to run on the street, they were still legal to run on the street without the factory signals, as long as you used hand signals!
If it wouldn’t cost me as much to ship it home as it would to buy the bike itself, I’d be all over it! GLWTS!
Oops! The motocross/trail dirt-only version was the XR-70! My Bad! Mea Culpa, Mea Culpa, Mea Maxima Culpa!
Wow Awesome my best Buddy Father bought a new one in 1973? for 300.00 my how they have increased in price. That bike was really a great bike for young kids learning the ropes. Just a 2/3rds size bike and even older men liked to ride and manhadle it.