Honda NC700

[Animator]

The official EPA rating for the U.S. 6-speed manual version is 65 mpg. If this pans out similar to the PCX, the "real world" real fuel economy will be lower. I've never gotten anything better than 93 mpg on my PCX, and most of my driving is in the 25-35 mph range. 110 mpg for the PCX was a pipe dream. I suspect that unless you're nursing the NC700X's throttle and short shifting, it will be more like in the 55-60 mpg range. After all, that's part of what they do to achieve the fuel economy numbers (on a closed, level circular course with no starting, stopping or deceleration, no up or down shifting once they reach 3rd gear, at a continuous steady speed, using special non-commercially available fuel (no ethanol blend), etc.) for the actual EPA tests. No real-world testing here in the U.S.

That's one reason why I bit the bullet and bought a new Ninja 650. I've seen real world U.S gas mileage in the 51-54 mpg range for the Ninja. And what's up with Honda USA's idiotic idea to sell the NC700X here in silver only for 2012? I see all of the nice colors for it in Europe and just shake my head in dismay.

And the NC700X's seat is a bit too tall for me at 32.7 inches. That will eliminate a lot of ladies from selecting it as well.

[gn2]

In it's defence the NC700 engine is far easier and cheaper to maintain than your Kwacker's.
Split the camchain and take the camshafts out to adjust the clearances every four thousand miles?
Poke that.
Have a look on Fuelly, it looks like real world figures of 70mpg (proper British Imperial gallons) are easily achievable.
So overall running costs of the NC will be far lower.

[Fiah]

I hate to burst your bubble Animator, but so far the users at Fuelly.com and Spritmonitor.de score significantly better economy with the NC700X than with the Ninja 650. But, that's ok! I mean, the Ninja 650 is much more a traditional motorcycle in that the engine likes to be revved, and it produces a lot more power than the NC700. And it is a very nice motorcycle to look at, IMO.

[TC3]

Today went to book test rides on the 2012 yamaha di ersion f, Kwak er6f and Suzuki Gladius. I was planning to test ride them all on Saturday. Not gonna happen! You may recall I shattered elbow in Feb 2011. The arm is fully healed but lost some movement as break was too bad. The bikes I wanted to test ride all have handlebars that make my arm very uncomfy to reach. The NC700x was perfect for my arm when I test rode it. So my mind is made up that next bike is the NCx with DCT.
Now off to garden centre as they just got in trees tbat grow money :-)

[Taz]

TC3 good feedback and I wish they would sell the 700X in Oz. We only get the S and Integra and I hope to go and see those next week as I need to fly to a different city to see them! I did sit on a few new bikes and liked the vstrom 650 sitting position the best as its quite upright, probably like the 700X. Also I liked the NT700 Deauville sitting position but they have stopped selling those in Oz too.

[TC3]

Taz it is a shame they wont sell the X in OZ. Going to test ride the S just to see how it does as a naked. Will you test ride one? Long way to go to see a bike!

[Animator]

We don't have British imperial gallons here so our mileage will be noticeably lower per gallon, just because of that. All those numbers don't mean anything for a U.S. bike. Unless you nurse the throttle, it's next to impossible to even match the EPA numbers here. That's just a fact.

There are no NC700X's here yet so there are no user fuel economy numbers for U.S. yet.

Who said anything about adjusting valves every 4K miles? Not me. My Ninja 650 manual says to check my valve clearance every 15,000 miles.

[gn2]

That's not so bad then, but you'll still need to take the cams out to adjust them.

[TC3]

On way to grocery store today I took wifey to see the Nc700X and got her to take some pics with the phone. Just love the looks of the X and in red too. You can see how my left elbow looks at a bit of an odd angle and this bike is the only one i like on which i feel comfy with that dodgy elbow



X and S side by side and S looks good in black theme

[Animator]

See you've got colors! Look's very nice. Too bad all we have here is boring silver.

[Taz]

I sat on the NC700S and feels small for me and that silly little windscreen, what can I say. And the dummy fuel tank I dont think would take my full face helmet in it which means a top box is needed. Then I tried the 700D Integra and my knees hit the dash (im 6'3")! So I can see why reviews say its no good for tall riders yet also short riders would struggle with putting feet on the ground. So its OK if you are medium height! And the under seat storage is woeful. At the dealer we tried putting in a full face arai and there was no chance. You may be able to fit an open face underneath. Again you would need to buy a top box for decent storage.

I wish they would seel the 700X here but given they wont, I dont think I will by the S or D. Am still liking the vstrom 650 with ABS.

[TC3]

I think the width of seat makes it harder to touch floor on the Integra and yes crap undetseat storage for a scooter, looks a bit ugly too. The S has a slightly different sized No Tank storage and some have found it will swallow a helmet the X does not. Going to try my Shoei X1000 in the X model today.

[Taz]

Also the 700S seat was very firm and I wouldnt like to do any long distance touring on it. The 700D seat could not easily be modified for tall riders due to the underneath plastic molding. It had one tiny glove compartment. Basically the PCX has more storage by far than the Integra! Im going to take a look at a Burgman Executive 650 today as a comparison.

[TC3]

Shoei xr1000 helmet in medium fits in the S and the X with no trouble at all. A guy was picking up his shiney new X this morning. It was in silver and to be honest looks a lot more classier than the red i originally wanted. If things go as planned i hope to have one in September and kit it out with some Givi engine bars, fender extender, and Skidmarx hugger. The Givi bars look like this on the bike and a must have as i am a short ass and may well drop it.





Pic of the silver for good measure .... looks better in the flesh

[gn2]

Those engine bars are useless.
If it does go down they will not protect the engine side casings.
If the bars catch hard on something they can rip out of their mountings or twist something causing additional damage which would not have been sustained if they were not there.
Useless bling is always best avoided, you know it makes sense
And silver is a metal, paint is just grey.

[EddieC]

The red one is starting to grow on me.... Initially I only really liked the silver one, so maybe its more because I cant have a red one in the US. Also, if someone tells me their car is silver, I imagine something different than grey. What would you call a gold colored vehicle gn2?

[Animator]

I'm not trying to slam the Honda's here and you can delete this post, just like two prior ones, if it offends anyone. Funny the old PCX forum no longer censors or deletes members, but now this one does. Isn't that why everyone left the other one? I've had two replies deleted in this thread alone, so far. This is a "PCX" forum and this topic is listed under "other bikes", so I thought my input was OK, especially since I was actually interested in the Honda, but found, what I felt was a better alternative for me. I still own and use my PCX and plan to for a long time.

I just was in the market to buy now and there were no NC700X's to be seen, so I was forced to look at the alternatives. I thought that the DCT was interesting, but didn't like the idea of paying $2,000 more for it bundled with ABS. The seat was too tall and I wouldn't be able to flat foot it. It's only SILVER here; ho hum. I got my Ninja for $650 below MSRP, not bad for a brand new bike with limited availability here. The Honda dealer where I bought my PCX from, said that they are going to charge full MSRP for the NC700X, when one finally shows up. Honda USA seems to be having major problems shipping bikes to our area. I've had dealer after dealer, in the region, griping about not being able to get any inventory from Honda. They're saying they're running low on Honda inventory and are being forced to sell other brands in their place. What's going on Honda USA? I keep hearing from the dealers that they're being told by Honda, "it's due to last year's earthquake and tsunami in Japan" and now they've added, "it's the monsoon floods late last year in Thailand". Funny thing about that one is that my Ninja 650 was made in Thailand. And yet, I see all of these new Honda products, all over, in Europe, etc.

The more I read stuff like this about the new Honda, the more I'm glad I didn't bother to wait for it and got the '12 Ninja 650. I did 220 miles on it today, mostly highway, and loved it! The seat has been redesigned and the padding is twice as thick as last year's model, while maintaining the same seat height. Although I started stiffening up a bit during the last 40 miles or so. I should've stopped and stretched.

I now have 468 miles on it and my mileage has gone up 2 mpg already to 52 mpg. How do I know this? My instrument display has instant mpg, average mpg and estimated range, in addition to the ODO and two trip ODOs.

TC3 wrote:
What i like:
Smooth power delivery once moving and pulls well New Ninja engine does too.
More torque than the figures would have you believe Same for Ninja
Handling and low speed control due to low centre of gravity Yep for Ninja as well
Good against head winds despite a small screen Have a larger three position adjustable screen
The storage! None, to speak of, under seat storage fits my gloves and that's about it, has two helmet hooks and hooks under passenger seat to tie down gear.
The styling Really slick on Ninja for '12


What i did not like:
Crappy looking dash but does the job (not an expensive bike but still) Fantastic dash console Gear indicator would have been handy None, except for Neutral
Fuel filler under seat (pain for touring) I have a real 4.2 gallon gas tank. The low fuel bar blinks when I have a gallon left (good or an extra 50 miles).
I could not flat foot the bike with both legs which will give me cause for concern in some situations I can on Ninja and I only have a 30 inch inseam, another reason I passed on the Honda. Its seat is an inch higher.
The throttle is snappy as the power is delivered as soon as you roll on so you need to get used to that. Same, 4,750RPM in 6th gear is 70 mph
redlines between 6-7k and short gear changes (maybe just need to get used to it but can i?) 11K redline on Ninja, short gear changes as well.

TAZ wrote:
I sat on the NC700S and feels small for me and that silly little windscreen, what can I say. It it really as narrow as the photos indicate? It looks tall, narrow and hard to balance from the front photos. And the dummy fuel tank I don;t think would take my full face helmet in it which means a top box is needed. Wow! Then I tried the 700D Integra and my knees hit the dash (im 6'3")! So I can see why reviews say its no good for tall riders yet also short riders would struggle with putting feet on the ground. Again Wow! So its OK if you are medium height! And the under seat storage is woeful. At the dealer we tried putting in a full face Arai and there was no chance. You may be able to fit an open face underneath. Again you would need to buy a top box for decent storage.

[Fiah]

If you like your Ninja so much, why don't you make a thread about it? This thread is about discussing the NC700.

[Taz]

i should add that I need XL size helmet and so dont think many XL or bigger full face or modular helmets will fit in the 700D or S. If anyone can prove me wrong I would be happy to know. I can fit under my PCX a full face XL Shark vision - r, gloves, overtrousers and jacket. Admitably the seat bulges around all that a bit, but if I were to buy another scooter would expect the same or more storage. I looked at a Burgman 650 Executive and you could fit 2 helmets plus more under seat and it had 3 glove boxes to the Integra one. My knees also hit the Burgman dash but I could do a humpectomy on that to fix that, whereas I couldnt see how I could easily mod the Integra seat.

On the Ninja, looks like a nice bike as long as you can stomach that putrid green color. Animator you need to take my opinion on that as you called the PCX as being like your daughters bike, which I see as flame on a PCX forum.

[gn2]

What would you call a gold colored vehicle gn2?

Depends what vehicle it was.
There aren't many "gold" scooters about, but grey is everywhere right now.
In the UK it's getting more difficult all the time to get a scooter with a decent colour.
I just hate "silver" (grey) scooters and bikes.
Scooters and bikes should be painted bold vibrant colours in keeping with their being lighthearted fun to use.
Not painted a dull and boring grey like a dreich day in Greenock.


Glossary:
Dreich
Greenock