Big In Japan: A Mighty XL500 from Deus Tokyo

The Honda XL500 has achieved near-legendary status. Its front wheel is a ridiculous 23 inches, and it’s far too heavy for serious competition—but the engine is bulletproof and lives up to the old ‘stump-pulling grunt’ cliché. The guys at Deus Japan are fans of the XL500. So when they were looking for a street-legal machine to campaign in local vintage motocross and sand flat races, Honda’s big rig was high on the list of candidates. When Matthew Roberts, Director of Motorcycle Operations, got wind of a cleaner-than-usual example, he snapped it up. “The monster two-strokes of that era demanded total...