What year's my bike?

**hondatrail** · 17th June 2009, 11:58

can any one help.i have a honda xl 185, and want to find out what year it is.
guy i bought it off didnt know. found a 12 digit number.
if someone can please tell me how to read it.
cheers.

**xwhatsit** · 17th June 2009, 12:10

G'day, what's the 12 digit number? Does it start with `XL185S-something-or-other', `MD02-something-or-other' or `JH2MD02-something-or-other' ?

**FlangMasterJ** · 17th June 2009, 13:04

My XL200R had the year on the wheels.

**merv** · 17th June 2009, 13:24

If it was a New Zealand new model they were about 1978/79 vintage as they only sold for a short window after the last XL175 of 1977 and the XR185 of about 1979/80 as I remember it. My brother RIP had a blue one at that time then he skipped the XR185 and bought the first of the XR200A models.

**hondatrail** · 17th June 2009, 14:02

yea number starts off with L185s...

**hondatrail** · 17th June 2009, 14:03

yea number starts with L185s...

**xwhatsit** · 17th June 2009, 17:13

Originally Posted by hondatrail

yea number starts with L185s...

Starts off with L185S or XL185S? If it starts with L I dunno... the list I've got is of American model years so maybe it's different... or perhaps the X just wore off lol?

At any rate if it starts with XL185S it's a 1979.

**YellowDog** · 17th June 2009, 17:31

Originally Posted by hondatrail

can any one help.i have a honda xl 185, and want to find out what year it is.
guy i bought it off didnt know. found a 12 digit number.
if someone can please tell me how to read it.
cheers.

Enter your VIN here: http://www.motoverse.com/tools/vin/honda.asp

**xwhatsit** · 17th June 2009, 17:55

Originally Posted by YellowDog

Enter your VIN here: http://www.motoverse.com/tools/vin/honda.asp

I don't think he's got a VIN there, that's a frame number.

I don't think they started using VINs until a few years later... or maybe they did have them by then. But at any rate, the frame numbers that start with JH2MD02.... those are VINs. XL185S is the original Honda-style frame/engine numbering with the model name (for example my C50 Cub has a frame/engine that starts with C50xxxxxx). They then shifted to model codes, like MD02 for the XL185 (or MC02 for my CB250RS). Then the VIN legislation came through and they prefixed that model code (except added a 0 and a check digit I think, so MD020x) with the manufacturer code (depends on what factory it came from), which in this case was JH2 (JA-JT means Japan, JH2 belonging to Honda).