Thread: 1974 XL70 was this street legal?

Hello,

I was wondering if anyone knew if the 1974 xl70 was street legal back in the day? Is there a steet legal federal label or code on them or something? Does the CT70 have a federal label on it? I'm in the process of making mine street legal, but I got a letter back from the state saying I couldn't register it unless it has a federal label that states it is for road use. Somewhere around the seat I guess. mine doesn't have it, but neither do I think any of the CT70s and I have my 70 registered.

Thanks in advance!

Jimmy

yep they all were..all came with turn signals and the like...no xl70's came without everything needed for street use....course this was a kids bike and very soon everything was munched...rear turn signal mounts were long and first time the kid dumped it they bent and tossed along with the grab bar (grab bar broke turn signal ears off)..if you ever come across the rear grab bar snag it...along with any rear turn signal parts...only downside to these bikes is no voltage regulator which will cause you to burn out the headlight quite often (the mag lighting coil (ie C2) pumps out way too much wattage during hi revs..i suspect honda sent out a TSB at some point to correct this engineering mistake) and couple that with 6volt system i would strongly suggest you limit any riding to daytime hours...just my take...carb parts are also getting hard to find along with some other bolt on pieces....they are however all fun bikes and much faster then any ct70...i just fired mine up last week after 3 months of restoring the bike...

ps: the 74 xl70 and up is federally ready for street use,,the headlight cannot be turned off and is on at all times as required by gov't safety regs..your bike is factory built to be capable of used on the street..what you will need is a title and you should be good to go

ps:make sure you have battery installed or again first time you open the bike up all your bulbs are going to pop..there is just enuff drain with battery installed to prevent this..very little you can do as the electrical system is not exactly street rider friendly and all electrical componets need to be installed and working correctly..its just how honda built it...and there aint much you can do to get around it

Snooter,

thanks for the info...now to somehow convince my DOT to give me a title. Here is my bike, its all complete and orginal with 900 miles on it. Runs absolutely perfect. The low beam however was burt out, so I'll remember what you said and make sure that I leave the headlight on off, unless I need it.

Heres a picture. I would like to repaint my tank one day. its nice and dent free, but it has a couple gas lighting marks on the right side of the tank, where someone didn't clean it after it ran down after fueling. Sad, but other than that...really really nice!

if bike is opened up with low beam on it will fry every time (especially with bike idle with mechanical loss)..the headlight and speedo illimination runs off (C2) and is completely isolated from the battery and the rest of the electrical circuit..for everything honda did right this was one dumb honda design...my low beam fried as well and i am not going to buy another headlamp...you may wish to consider trying to source a 35/25watt headlight rather then a 15/15w bulb...i dunno what wattage of headlight the xl70 were originally supplied with...i do know the sl70 had the 15w/15w bulb which will cook every time bike is revved up..next week i am going to measure how much wattage the (C2) pumps out then will report findings to you so you can determine if you need to source a slightier manly bulb..nice bike.. you are good to go and you should be able to get iowa tags for your bike

couple other things i would strongly suggest before you ride the bike on the street you purchase new tires...its not worth your life trying to save a few bucks and not replace 35 year old rubber...also keep in ming these bikes are not intended for any heavy dirt bike use..they are very good trail bikes but will detonate in short order from heavy off road use..dont believe me just ask my mechanic whose kid just roasted a near mint 71 sl70 on the track..kid also roasted his ct70 4 speed on the track...this was all done while showing off for the girls...plus side is the kid is rebuilding both motors himself

See if you can find some factory info about that model being for street and trail and take a copy of it to them. That should be proof enough, if not ask to talk to someone else. Hopefully you'll get to talk to somebody that knows their job.