Monday, December 27, 2021

My favorite off road motorcycle was a Honda 250XL from 1974

 This motorcycle was the best off road motorcycle I ever owned and I think I was around 170 pounds and I'm 6 feet 5 inches tall so I was pretty thin then.

But, I remember one time when I was riding from likely Rancho Bernardo over towards Dos Picos County park where that is now. But, remember this would be around 1975 or 1976 when this happened.

There was a really big rain so I went on the back dirt roads riding but didn't realize that a 6 feet deep canyon had formed from all the rain before. So, I was completely unprepared for this 6 foot deep cliff and water chasm that I encountered suddenly on this back dirt road through the back country then in 1975 or 1976. 

So, luckily I was wearing knee high flat toed brown cowboy boots so I could pull this off without getting injured. 

At about 40 mph I had to lay the bike down to where the left front foot peg dug into the dirt and stopped the bike pretty quickly. When I stopped my tires were sticking into thin air. But, I had stopped a fatal crash into the other side of a 6 foot high dirt bank at 40 mph which I might not have survived.

Though my boots got a little scratched (my left one) my left leg was protected and I was okay. The only damage to the bike was it ground off the end of the left rubber grip to the steering bar in front so I had to replace it. But, I wasn't injured at all even though it scared me a lot when it happened. But, I always had good reflexes and tended to survive things like this even when others didn't. So, I was just very lucky in this way.

I once jumped this motorcycle about 8 feet below the rear tire and was okay. So, I really loved this bike and kept it until around 1989 when my step son traded it for a stereo sound system for his bedroom.

This is what my motorcycle looked like:

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