VINTAGE TRAIL ENDURO

Cranking out 13 hp, the Honda XL 125 was a reliable mountain mount for Afghan fighters.

I was discussing this article with my Collie bitch, Meg. I should explain that Meg is not so much a dog – a term she vehemently resents – but more of a furry person. To be fair, she is very knowledgeable about motorcycles in general and classic bikes in particular. But, as will be seen, even a Collie with a brain the size of a small planet can mis-understand an iconic motorcycle.
Meg’s point of view was, in some ways, justified. What, she argued, was particularly memorable about a low powered, low specification and quite unexciting 125cc trail bike with limited off-road performance and none too sparkling on road skills either.
This just goes to show how little Collie bitches integrate the history of motorcycling into the seismic shift which the geo-political paradigm underwent following the Russian invasion of Afghanistan in 1979.

“The boys with the beards wanted to cover 90 miles in a day carrying a bag of flour, an AK-47 and, if you were a lucky little fighter, 28 lbs of Raytheon Stinger missile provided by your friendly local CIA agent. What you wanted was the XL 125.”

Those readers with a keen interest in the rise of Muslim militancy will, I feel absolutely sure, remember that the Russians moved troops into Afghanistan in 1979. This was not so much an invasion but rather a military support of the unpopular, and ineffective, puppet regime of President Taraki. In fact, it was an exact clone of America’s disastrous foray into Vietnam for a series of identically hubristic aims.
The Russian invasion pitted a poorly armed, and apparently badly led, Mujahideen militia against a spankingly well organized, highly sophisticated and ultra high-tech Soviet army. Suddenly, running round a mountain side with a Second World War Lee-Enfield .303 rifle and shouting obscene threats did not seem to be the smartest thing in the world when your adversary was flying a state-of-the-art helicopter gunship armed with a rather impressive array of missiles and cannon.
The odds were evened somewhat thanks to the outstandingly naive efforts of the CIA who thoughtfully provided tens of millions of dollars in cash support – plus several very large warehouses full of nice, shiny things which went bang – to the Mujahideen in the hope that they would drive the pesky Russians out of Afghanistan, return the unused weaponry to the CIA, and then settle down to a nice, peaceful existence as goat herders.

The durability of the Honda XL 125 ensured its long use even under rigid punishment.

So far so good. Our good friends the Mujahideen – later to be re-branded the Taliban and presently the sworn enemy of all us nice, peace loving folk in the West – now had the hardware to do severe damage to the Soviets but lacked a method of getting around Afghanistan’s mountains and deserts. What the boys with the beards needed was a light, simple, stone-axe reliable, all terrain vehicle which used virtually no fuel – there being a slight shortage of 24-hour gas stations in the Hindu Kush. What they needed was the honda XL125!
The power plant of the XL 125 is part of the bloodline of one of Honda’s greatest ever designs. The forefather of all the XLs was a 100cc powerplant, which first saw the light of day in 1970. It is a thing of intense mechanical beauty in that it does its job so wonderfully well. The air-cooled, SOHC, two-valve engine makes the Rocky Mountains look like a temporary fixture in terms of its utter, total and complete reliability. Change the oil regularly, and the beautiful powerplant will run to the end of time – and then some.
Maintenance in the mountains could be done by any mechanically adept Mujahideen using a handy rock and a spent cartridge case: demanding the XL was not