The XLV was Honda's opposition to the BMW GS80, the tourer for crappy roads. This motive is obscured by the different engine layout - instead of a horrizontally opposed twin (boxer motor) Honda used a V-twin. About the only BMW style part is the shaft drive.

In the Honda tradition, they had to make it high-tech. The heads are inaccessible, have overhead cams, 3 valves, hydraulic valve adjusters, two plugs, an independant ignition system for each cylinder. Lubrication is "dry sump" (oil reservoir outside the engine).

And - just what you'd expect from Japan - no bloody kick-starter. Ideal for those times when you're out in the middle of nowhere with a lame battery.

Performance is consistent with the tourer concept. Nice and mild. But that doesn't matter. You can still beat the guys with big off-roaders since performance isn't all that important - not bike performance, unlike road riding, the riders performance counts more. I loved it when a friend said "They are big and heavy and slow" - and I was leading the bunch of bikes on that trip.

Reliability - well, they are old bikes. All have had a long history and lots of time for stuff go wrong with them. Many of us are a bit wary of mechanical troubles, but that is part of life for bikes that have that much history to come through. I think they are just as reliable as any other Japanese bike. It's just that all the others haven't had enough time for anything to happen to them and that perspective is neglected.

I think they do have one serious inadequacy applying to two-up touring. It's bloody cramped for two people. Long days in that position is an ordeal, which I'm sure would be just a bit of a hard rid on a less cramped bike.

Why don't Honda still make them? The inevitable and elusive vagaries of the Market! It's naive to think there's logical explanations for anything not hitting it off. I would have thought they are the bee's knees for going anywhere in Australia (except for the absence of a kick starter). But Honda had to get rid of the shaft and remodel them into the Transalp and Africa Twin which look more "the part" for Paris-Dakar thinkers.

I don't think there's a newsgroup for the XLV. People these days are pointers and clickers and can't know anything about Usenet. The nearest they get is mailing lists and one for the XLV and other Honda V-twins is ozhondav-twinadventurers@yahoogroups.com and I think you subscribe by sending a blank email to subscribe-ozhondav-twinadventurers@yahoogroups.com and Yahoo has a website of archives, etc.

You can't neglect the rear drive. Your maintenance has to be proper. There's no rubber between the drive gear and the wheel - it's hard metal to metal contact and if anything gets slack then stresses take routes they aren't supposed to and other things suffer. My bearings got a bit slack and busted the drive spline because this was bearing the load.

Cam chain tensioners - they sometimes stick in one position. Ask me how to release them.

Oil filters - this applies to all machinery - there are very badly made filters that really shouldn't be sold. Ask me about 'em.

Front disks - you can use one from certain other bikes.

Also see my "Tech Stuff".