1974 Honda XL 250

I was renting a power washer because some of the front higher eves of the house got missed because you can't really see them good without being on an extension ladder. So, my daughter's boyfriend who is down from Oregon to help me paint the front of my house and I were renting a pressure washer so he could climb the ladder and pressure wash my front eves. he mentioned a cool motorcycle there and when he talked about it the owner proudly told me that he had bought it for 1200 dollars. I was pretty amazed to see one in so pristine a condition. I had had a 1974 that I bought in 1975 and kept until the late 1980s which was probably the best off road motorcycle I have ever owned. So, it was nostalgic for me because it looked mechanically almost exactly like what I had. Only the paint job on the tank was different because I had the gold Honda wing painted on a silver tank and this one had the silver gas tank but it had red highlights. But still, I have really missed my motorcycle and it took me back to my 20s and 30s once again and to riding my favorite off road dualsport I ever owned.

I once jumped my 1974 8 feet in the air(the bottom of the rear tire was 8 feet off the ground) and this was before the new suspension on bikes that allowed them to jump about 25 feet in the air now (although I wouldn't do that at this age because I like my knees just the way they are). (I'm 64 now).

But seeing this 1972 XL250 motorcycle brought me back to running down desert washes or all over northern San Diego County on dirt roads before all the major housing developments were built in the 1970s.

I can remember one year I went back to a favorite dirt road of mine in San Diego County and there had been a really big rainstorm about a week before. So, as I went down this dirt road at between 35 and 50 miles per hour all of a sudden I realized that part of the road had washed out to my horror. So, all I could do was to lay the bike down at speed and hope the bike wouldn't skid over the now 6 foot high dirt cliff. Luckily, my left foot peg dug in enough to slow me so both my tires were within an inch or to of the edge as I stopped. I really loved my Honda XL250. I always felt safe on that bike in the dirt and always was.