Geezer with a Grudge: My Top Ten Bike List #3: Honda Transalp XL600V

May 2, 2008

My Top Ten Bike List #3: Honda Transalp XL600V

Since I first saw a Transalp, in 1987, this bike was high on my list of all time favorites. The Transalp didn't last long in the US, but it's alive and well in the rest of the world. More evidence that we're too dumb to reproduce in the US. The photo on the right is the 2008 model. This, of course, is zillions of times cooler than the coolest bike imported into the US.

The XL600V was a 450 pound, V-twin, 4-stroke, with a semi-Paris-to-Dakar styling that was ahead of its time. It wasn't fast, it didn't have a monster suspension, it wasn't flashy. It was just a solid, reliable, easy to ride bike that could carry you across the country, deserts, mountains, and lousy roads without worry. Every once in a while, a used Transalp appears on the want ads and it always vanishes faster than free money.

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The Geezer Story

I stumbled upon this column name (Geezer with a Grudge) almost 20 years ago, in 1999. The first Minnesota Motorcycle Monthly editor I worked with, in late 1999, complained that the magazine was getting no mail and the editors wanted to know if any readers were still out there. I fired off a sarcastic note, as a joke, intended to provide a little humor and some feedback. He published it as an article and later called me to say he'd received more mail on that letter than he'd received in the past year! I followed that with an offer to write a monthly column attempting to piss off a particular section of the magazine's readership to see if that tactic would generate some mail.

It did, probably more regularly than the magazine wanted at times, and I wrote a monthly column for MMM until the magazine died in 2018.

I plan to post an occasional old Geezer article into the blog, followed by short comments about the current status of my perspective on our activity/sport/vehicle of choice.