The XL350'76 came in one color: Excell Black with Red and White. The gas tank
and side covers were 2-tone black and red. The fenders were white color
impregnated plastic. The "XL350" side cover decal was black with a white
outline. The bike had a new frame and chassis with an upswept exhaust system.
The serial number began XL350-3000001.
Overview
This four-stroke woodser was an immediate hit with the casual
rider, and could even seduce two-stroke lovers away from their mounts. As an
added bonus the XL350 K1 was quite adequate on the pavement.
For less than one-thousand 1974 dollars anyone could buy this
mid-sized thumper and go play on the thousands of miles of dirt roads that
traverse this continent. You just had to keep in mind that the 2.2-gallon gas
tank liked to be replenished every 100 or so miles, and with a wet weight of 320
pounds the machine needed to be treated with respect.
Tripping down the tree-shrouded byways, where gravel could turn
to sand, dirt to mud, the piston in the slightly oversquare cylinder (79mm bore,
71mm stroke) provided a satisfyingly grunty response when the throttle was
twisted. The Brits had long claimed dominance in the four-stroke enduro scene,
with half-a-dozen companies fielding 350s and 500s in the 1950s. These were good
for everything from trials to trail riding. Then the Spanish came along with
some razzy two-strokes, and the Japanese, most notably Yamaha, were soon to
follow. Four-strokes began to slip away. The Brits were rapidly losing control
of the enduro market, with BSA’s 500cc, OHV single-cylinder B50T (for Trail) of
1972 being the last gasp. The Western world was wondering what the Eastern
motorcycle manufacturers would do to fill the gap.
In 1969 Honda bore the four-stroke banner among the
two-stroke-oriented Japanese. It had tried to market its popular OHC 350 twin as
a dual-sport machine, the SL350 Motosport. However, the revvy little engine felt
much better on the street than on a forest road. That model lasted for five
years, to be replaced by the XL350 single in 1974.
The XL350 was a direct descendant of Honda’s XL250 single. The latter appeared
in 1972, and was a pleasant little creature, with the operative word being
“little.” The 300-pound 250 was actually quite good in competition, but racing
is a very different world from the fun-loving types who just wanted to putter
along unkempt trails through a forest, state or national. Honda understood that
they could sell a lot more bikes to the fun lovers than to the relatively few
competitors, and these folk were more interested in slogging—rather than
high-revving—power. To that end the 250, with a chain-driven single overhead
camshaft, got bored and stroked to 348cc, and a spin on the dyno showed the
21-incher had well over 20 horsepower at the rear wheel, and almost 20 lb-ft of
torque. Respectable.
The same year that the XL350 came on the scene, Honda introduced
the XL175 single—250 pounds with 1.8 gallons of gas in the tank. And the
miniscule XL125 at 235 pounds appeared in 1975 for riders who really wanted
light weight.
Serious enduro types did not need such sissified things as
electric starters, so the XL350 had an old-fashioned kicker. But instead of
tickling carburetors, retarding sparks, pulling in the compression release and
getting the piston just past top dead center, as required by the British, all
the Honda required was a big kick. And to pull out the choke if the engine was
cold. The four-valve engine’s power peaked at 6,500 rpm, but it could cheerfully
spin to 8,000, and a tach kept the rider mindful of engine speeds. The
five-speed gearbox had rather wide ratios, good for scrabbling in the muck, and
a mere 5,000 rpm was required for cruising along at 55 mph on the pavement. Top
speed was said to be about 75 mph.
Particulars for the XL350 were simple. One 32mm Keihin carb sent
the fuel mixture into the combustion chamber, where it was compressed 8.3 times,
sparked via points electrified by a flywheel magneto, spent gases exiting
through a single header pipe that curved under the left side of the engine and
into an environmentally friendly, and heavy, muffler. One of the weak points of
the bike was that when riding through rocky terrain, the header pipe was
susceptible to getting squished by rocks, and a flattened pipe did not help
engine operation at all.
The XL350 had a pleasantly large saddle, though no passenger
pegs. The vibration from the solidly mounted engine was not a serious problem,
but in consideration Honda designed the rider footpegs so that they were
isolated by rubber absorbers. This machine was definitely for the semi-sporting
enthusiast, though it was street-savvy, with turn signals and all. However, in
anticipation of the rambunctious rider Honda made it easy to pull off the turn
signals, lights, and take out the small battery.
The frame was similar to the cradle-type that housed the 250,
with a single front downtube splitting into a pair of supports running under the
engine. A reasonable bash-plate protected the vitals, with about eight inches of
ground clearance when a not-too-heavy rider was aboard. The swingarm was
extended an inch from the 250’s, for a wheelbase of 55.3 inches, which helped to
make the front end a little lighter.
The rear shock absorbers had preload adjustability, the fork
none. Wheels used tough alloy Daido rims, with a 3.00 x 21 tire on the front, a
4.00 x 18 on the rear. Brakes had small drums, fine in the dirt, a tad weak in
traffic.
In 1976 Honda did a major revamp of the XL350, calling this one
the K2, with chassis changes that increased the fork rake to 32 degrees, trail
to 5.5 inches. A new cylinder head allowed better intake breathing, and a very
neat high-level exhaust system was tucked behind the frame and exited on the
right side—taking care of that previously mentioned susceptibility problem on
the low-level exhaust. Appreciating the state of the market, passenger footpegs
were fitted that were, of course, rubber-mounted. The weight went up to 330
pounds, the price to $1,200.
The K2 had a happy three years, but in 1979 the 350 morphed into
the XL500S, which is another story entirely.