In October of 1996 I bought my then 8 year old, 55lb son a new XR70. Knowing the reliability of the 72ml. Engine that Honda has been producing for over 20 years, and the reputation that Honda has for reliable machines, I assumed that the bike would be trouble free for years to come. The bike has approximately 10 hours on it now.

Now, with that in mind, I was amazed to discover after about 5 hours on the bike, mostly riding around our house, a few times on a pee wee track, where the biggest jump may have been 2 to 3 feet in height, if I am wrong and this bike is not made to be jumped at all, then I obviously purchased the wrong machine I have been present every time the bike had been ridden, and only by my son, it had never been wrecked or abused in any way, then to my surprise , I noticed that the frame had bent!

The rear right section of the frame, (subframe) the tubed end where the seat and fender attaches had bent down about two inches, enough to make the silencer come in contact with the swingarm upon suspension travel. I went to my dealer where I had bought the BRAND NEW XR70, and the service mgr. insisted that the bike had been abused, or had experienced a severe impact on the seat I assured him that the only person that had been riding the bike was my, skinny butt, 55 lb. son. My son is a beginner and not capable of the kind of abuse, that the service mgr. assumed had happened, he then said there was nothing that could be done except to purchase a new frame! I quote him as saying (Honda will say buy a new frame) I do not have a problem purchasing a new frame, money is no issue, if the cause was from abuse or fault of mine, but it was not, I was advised by my Honda dealer, that Honda does not have a phone number to inquire about this problem.

After visually inspecting the bike, I noticed that the seat attaches to the fender, the fender attaches to the frame, this means the massive impact of my sons massive butt (I’m being sarcastic), traveled through the seat, through the PLASTIC fender, to the frame, bending the frame. Note: the seat bolts to the plastic fender, the plastic fender bolts to the frame, last time I checked steel was stronger than plastic.

I bent the frame back into place, (I did not use heat), after one more ride it was bent again I allowed him to keep riding the bike as long as it did not get any worse, but it did. Now I realize that I have no choice but to buy a new frame. While going over the bike to see what small misc. parts I would need to replace the frame I also noticed that the SWINGARM is cracked! Where the shock is connected to it, and as I write this letter I took my son outside to show him what is wrong with his bike, and (you guessed it) I found that where the subframe is welded to the main frame, it is completely broken off.on the right side.

I am at a loss I have owned bikes since 1973 ,from my first Honda Z50 to my current KTM, In my twenty five years of riding I have seen many things but I have never experienced this kind of problem. I find it hard to believe that I am the only person that has had a problem with the frame on the XR70.What really bothers me is that this bike was made for kids, I don’t know what kind of process Honda uses when treating or manufacturing their frames but could mine be the only one out of the many XR70’s that Honda has produced, or is there a problem that my Honda dealer is not aware of or is this the average strength of this model’s frame? I know that my purchase of this bike is just a small contribution to the Honda Motor Co.’s multitude of millions, my son will ride anything but a Honda in the future.