Engine like a bag of hammers and vibey above 70 and needs an extra gear, sounds like my old funduro. I wonder if tuning the engine for emissions and mpg has dented the positive bits of its “character”. My carbbed version is good fun. Sounds great at the moment too as it has a dirty great hole in the exhust!! Have fixed the brakes since we last spoke though!
I quite fancy a cb500x when this bloody thing finally dies!

Main gripe seems to be changing gear necessitated frequently, how did you find it?

Didn’t notice it any more than any other bike I’ve ever ridden.

A-A the CB500x is lovely. I really liked it. Utterly fugly to look at but spot on to ride.

So. Anyway. I picked my NC700X up 2nd January, all the time worrying I might have made a mistake, having read some reviews since putting the deposit down. Apparently some people really loath them. They’re “not what motorcycling is about” and people are always hitting the rev limiter etc.
I’ve already done 1100 miles, and as you can imagine most of that has been in pouring rain and below 7C temperatures. I’ve added a Scottoiler, a higher Puig screen (very good) and a couple of other little bits. My commute can regualy be 10-15 miles of filtering and 10-15 miles of motorway out of the 25 miles each way and I’m averaging 77.8mpg so far. Which is about what I expected. I don’t rush, mostly sticking to the speed limits.
Verdict so far? Well I reckon Honda have hit the nail on the head. The NC has little bits of every bike I’ve liked in its character. It’s got the smooth punch of our ST3s, it’s got the high riding position of a DT125 but more comfort. It’s got the easy nimbleness of my Monster 696 and a lot of the practicality of my X10. In bad weather (high winds) it’s got some good stability which was handy last night. The headlight is superb, there’s a nice simple elegant speedo unit. It’s a budget bike with cheap suspension but it’s on the firm side so feels taut and responsive rather than soft and bouncy, and it doesn’t crash and bang over bumps like the X10 did.
There’s a couple of niggles: The seat need more padding at the front as you slide forwards a bit but I’ve got used to it. They’ve swapped the indicator button with the horn. Again, I’ve got used to it but I don’t like it. Why do that? And I think it could do with a reserve trip meter rather than 2 seperate trip meters.
I haven’t hit the rev limiter once, either. I’ve never had a 4 cylinder bike though. I’ve ridden a couple and not liked them, so I’ve stuck mostly to twins, revvy 125s and a Triumph triple, and maybe that helps. But you can feel quite easily where the engine wants to be. It gives easily enough grunt below 4000 rpm and it’s rare I go over 5000. Power tails off smoothly at 6000. If you want power you just open the throttle wide at low RPM, which feels odd until you get used to it. I’ve seen them likened to a diesel car, but to my mind that’s far far from accurate. Diesels have turbos and lag, and distinct power bands these days. This engine feels more like a big natually aspirated v8 petrol to me. Loads of torque instantly, everywhere with a pleasing lumpy thrum to it. 70mph is 3500rpm in top gear.
The linked brakes are very good too. Soft initial bite is good for filtering but there’s plenty of power available wham you need it.

It’s a characterful bike. The engine is very very good indeed. It slices through traffic with consummate ease, it’s very solid and well made. It’s got me through some appalling weather so far and I’ve quickly formed quite an attachment to it. I look forwards to my commute now.
I really suggest trying an NC700X if you need a commuter with a fun element. 10/10 from me 🙂

PS Thanks to the BMW salesman, if you offered me more for my X10 I wouldn’t have bought the right bike.