Zed wrote: If they sat a little further away from the tyre they'd be better surely?

Most do but I didn't pick an especially good sample pic.

Ahhhh.

So any word on DCT versions in the UK yet? i might get one end of year: as isn't that meant to be a better time to get deals?

They're starting to filter through and I think most dealers have them by now, but not many have a demo version as they'd already put a non-DCT on demo earlier in the year.

One oddity is the non-DCT engine is 35kW (47bhp) in readiness for the new licence limits, but the DCT versions have 38.1kW (51bhp) & in D mode claim 1mpg better consumption. Funnily enough they don't quote mpg in S mode!

Anyone interested by NC700 may find this post from another forum interesting, as a real world owner's experience:


Hi, this is my first post on the forum but I've been following it for a couple of months now. I have an NC700X with Honda panniers, Honda touring screen, electronic Scotoiler and a few other bits.

I had a trip planned with some friends to the Black Sea and back and was intending to take my Pan, but was so impressed with the NC700X that I took it instead. I got home this morning, just over 5000 miles in total, taking in a few Alpine passes on the way there, in the company of 3 friends on a BMW1200GS, Crosstourer auto, and a Deauville. I was also carrying more luggage than the others as I'm always the one who carries the stove, tea, coffe, cuppa soup etc.

The bike was faultless and I never found it lacking on power, it just needed pushing a bit harder than the rest except for the Deauville, which I could always out accelerate on overtakes. On open twisties I could still stick with the others and on tight Alpine passes, really pushing it was able to steadily pull out a lead by dropping into 1st for each hairpin and then firing out. It's so nimble in those circumstances.

Unlike the others, especially the Crosstourer, even with temperatures up to 40C, I was never being cooked by a hot engine. The lowest mpg I got was 65 on German autobahns crusing at 85 to 90 and the highest 98 mpg trundling through Croatia on heavily restricted A roads. Basically, for every 3 Euros of fuel my mates put in, I put in 2 or less and averaged around 80 mpg for the trip. It had 700 miles on it when I left, now has just under 6000, and it never used a drop of oil. The tyres still have a lot of life left, more than I expected which I guess is due to the way the power is delivered.

I found it comfortable, very flickable, great fun and now I'm thinking do I still need a Pan? There are only two criticisms I could possibly make, the first being that if you are flying downhill towards a first gear hairpin, banging down 4 or 5 gears whilst bracing yourself against the bars and hauling very hard on the brakes at the same time became hard work, and maybe twin discs would be better in those circumstances, but then I guess the bike wasn't really designed with that sort of riding in mind, and the brakes were still better than the F800GS I used to have. The second is that without earplugs it sounds like a sack of spanners being stirred with an electric drill, but you can't have everything.

As long as you can accept a different style of riding with the 6400 rev limit, it is a great bike and I'd recommend it to anyone

carrying more than the others eh? with those little honda panniers that don't even look as though they could fit a yellow pages in them.

either the honda official photos are deceptively misleading, or each pannier has T.A.R.D.I.S. technology

OK, he wasn't being cooked by a hot engine, but I wonder how he'd get on with the same tour in colder conditions, giving the lack of weather protection...

Well I think when I get so creaky that I have to downsize an NC700X DCT will be high on the list.