Honda XL185s Reviews

Exhaust rusted out around the 10 year mark.

Carbs needed to be rebuilt around 10,000 mile mark.

The rubber on the rear turn signals are cracking due to age, and Honda no longer sells the rubber replacement, but one can still find them online if they look a while.

The battery seems to last two years at the most.

Other than new tires every 5,000 miles, she has been very good.

Weak electric system (6-volt), I am going to replace the tail light with an LED, which should help greatly. Headlight is not the best for night riding, a custom LED headlight should greatly help night riding, and will greatly help the electric system.

The bike handles extremely well on the road, and can cruise all day at 50 to 55mph. Nice bike for back roads / state routes. It gets 70mpg.

Whoever worked on the bike before me, used gear oil as the motor and transmission oil.

The tail light was in poor condition.

The seat has some tears.

The lights and accessories don't have voltage regulation, so at low RPMs the light is dim, and if opened up too much it may blow out the front light.

Acceleration is surprisingly good, clutch grips like new, is in very good working order overall, could be happier with the electrical system, but otherwise very pleased.

The valve seals leaked upon start up from the first day I got it.

Put new tires on it.

Painted the side covers and metal gas tank Honda Red.

Speedo cable broke.

Good beginner bike, of course the bike was tired when I got it. I paid $650 Canadian, put new tires on it and cleaned it good, and got $780 for it about a year later. Its heavy weight made it hard in tight trail sections. It had a smaller back sprocket and could do speeds of about 115 km/h.

Smoked a little upon start up. Nothing a 20 year old dirt bike doesn't do.