2014 NC750X DCT Test Ride

A year's time is the time to buy! Then snap one up for a song cw panniers etc!
 
I had a 700DCT for a year from new. it was dull, dull, dull. Traded it for a F800GS which I had nearly bought in the first place! Right decision for me anyway.

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I had a 700DCT for a year from new. it was dull, dull, dull. Traded it for a F800GS which I had nearly bought in the first place! Right decision for me anyway.

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This is not about the 700 , it's about the 750.
 
My experience of the 700 would probably stop me from buying another model however improved unfortunately. I bought my first new Honda in 1978. I feel that new Honda design, although of high quality makes for characterless motorcycles at present. But it's only my view.

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My son has the 700, he loves it. It was cheap, well built, economical and reliable. You would do well to keep up with his smooth style of riding on a bent road. Thank you Jay for your right up very good...
 
Is this your son , David? :D

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/pQ4mFyQkWdo" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
 
Thanks for the excellent write up Jay. Very interesting to me as I am seriously considering the NC750x DCT, will be test riding one soon for sure.

:thumb2
 
I like this colour scheme...

Help to keep the rest of the traffic behaving itself...
 

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Mmmm. I am forced, since a month or so, to ride an NC750 rental as my R1200GS is broken. I used to have a speed triple. I miss the speed triple, and right now I miss the GS too. I'd say that the video says everything about the riders and nothing about the bikes; not claiming to be any kind of track star, but if I couldn't get past one of these soggy suspended, weedily braked and, frankly, desperately underpowered hondas on either bike on that road there would need to have been some tight lines and sparks from the NC750, but there were none in evidence there. I mean it's OK as a commuter in a kinda monster CG125 way, but ohmigad it's frankly gutless and uninspiring. Actually I am starting to hate it. The more I ride it the more I do. I'm not saying it's not for some, but it's not for me. It's good in town, and I do like being able to put my sandwiches and stuff in the petrol tank, but there's nowhere I can bungee my briefcase on without damaging the paintwork. The screen is rubbish, as is the steering lock to lock. The suspension firms up over potholes. Please hurry up and fix the GS.
 
I like this colour scheme...

Help to keep the rest of the traffic behaving itself...

Just needs the right rider ...
Formby-ShuttleworthDM.jpg
 
I had a go on one the other day and loved it. Could well be my new commuter!!!!
 
Just ordered one this morning, picking it up next weekend.

I'd never even heard of these bikes until I got talking to a bloke in Sheffield with one on Tuesday. He's an ex 1150 gs rider who says he doesn't miss the gs at all. He took his nc750 to Norway at the back end of last year.

I only went to look this morning, fancied something different so went for it.
 
Just ordered one this morning, picking it up next weekend.

I'd never even heard of these bikes until I got talking to a bloke in Sheffield with one on Tuesday. He's an ex 1150 gs rider who says he doesn't miss the gs at all. He took his nc750 to Norway at the back end of last year.

I only went to look this morning, fancied something different so went for it.

Good stuff, we'll expect a review and observations in due course
 
Just ordered one this morning, picking it up next weekend.

I'd never even heard of these bikes until I got talking to a bloke in Sheffield with one on Tuesday. He's an ex 1150 gs rider who says he doesn't miss the gs at all. He took his nc750 to Norway at the back end of last year.

I only went to look this morning, fancied something different so went for it.

Be interesting to hear your views! I bought the wife a 700 version when she got back in the saddle after a few years off. I have probably put as many miles on it as she has - but it is a relaxed, comfortable, good handling bike with excellent economy.

The 750 is as I understand it, without major change save for the bigger bore resulting in more poke and torque. The 700 was already relatively a nice torquey bike so improvements in this area can only add to the package. I think that they are still a 'Japanese' built model resulting in better build quality than you get with the overseas built Hondas. Not fast, but loads of fun in my opinion.

:thumb
 
Im picking it up on Friday or Saturday (if the snow clears)

I just fancied something different for a change. Looking round at new bikes there was nothing in the bmw range that I fancied. Initially I was going to buy a yamaha but they seem to be suffering from fuel injection problems on the mt range, the 660 tenerers hasn't got the best reputation when you read the owners website so I looked else where. The nc appealed because it's similar power, weight, size to the airheads. The long stroke motor appealed as well. Bore and stroke the same as a triumph t140 but the torque of a commando. I went for the dct purely because a lot of owners with the manual bikes who had ridden dct said they'd wished they'd bought dct.

The only real complaints about them I can find is the poor quality suspension. This seems to be a gripe across a lot of the honda range.

One of the advriders put some off road tyres on his 700 for a trip. The honda seems to have done very well considering he was riding with ktms http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=903353
 
Im picking it up on Friday or Saturday (if the snow clears)

The only real complaints about them I can find is the poor quality suspension. This seems to be a gripe across a lot of the honda range.

One of the advriders put some off road tyres on his 700 for a trip. The honda seems to have done very well considering he was riding with ktms http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=903353

Thanks for that Link - a good read! The NC appears to be well set up and looks very much the part in the pictures. How lucky are they with all that space, 'off road' routes and access to them to simply get away and escape :)

I would agree that the suspension is the one thing that one could say was not quite up to the rest of the bike, if it were mine and my regular ride I would probably look to invest in this area. But as it is her bike, and to be fair, not subjected to huge mileages, I can live with it. Plus she weighs a good deal less than me so she doesn't get the suspension anywhere near its limits.

I hope you get your bike without weather interruption and then see about personalising it for your needs... Enjoy :thumb2
 
I have an NC700S and a VFR1200X, both DCT gearboxes and I love them both, I really need to get rid of one of them next year, as I don't really do enough miles to justify keeping them both (plus 2 x F650GS), but it will be a hard decision to decide which to keep. The fuel efficiency of the NC is very compelling too!:)
 
This is maxtons view on the Honda suspension system. If you think this is bad you should have seen what they said about the BMW shocks :D

FRONT

The front forks on the NC750 X are a conventional fork with no adjustment. Internally they have a very old design, basic damping system called a Damper Rod damping system. This design simply uses different size holes to create more or less flow for the oil. The Damper Rod design does not have shims or properly design pistons and is not separately controlling the rebound action or the compressing action. The premise of the fork is that the spring supports the bike and the damping controls the
spring. There is no support from the damping system like in a more modern designed
damping system.

The front forks tend to feel very harsh over small bumps, this is because the forks have too much damping over a small movement, so when the forks hit a bump in the road the forks lock up and ‘kick back’. The rebound damping in the forks is not set up very well either, there is not enough rebound damping so when you let go of the front brake the forks ‘pop up’ very quickly causing the bike to run wide, also when you accelerate round a bend the forks extend very quickly, this causes the front to get very light, very quickly and then compounds the harsh feeling problem as there is not enough weight on the front of the bike.

The springs in the forks are progressive which means the spring has two different spring strengths or rates. The first rate is too soft and the second rate is too soft, this causes the bike to dive under braking and bottom out under very heavy braking.

Unfortunately due to the design of the damping system we can not revalve these forks to improve the damping, so we recommend a replacement damping system. We recommend our GP20 cartridge damping system with linear springs chosen to suit your rider weight. The GP20 cartridge damping system has separate rebound and compression damping pistons and shim stacks controlling the forks. We choose the type of damping and spring rate to suit the bike and the rider. On the NC750 we choose a progressive compression damping action with a linear rebound damping action. This means the forks are compliant initially but when you put force through the forks (brake hard) the damping builds up and supports the bike. The springs wefit are harder than the standard springs to give more general support anyway, but too much support that it makes the front harsh again. The amount of rebound damping is chosen to suit the spring rate so the fork has control all the way through its action. The forks are also externally adjustable for rebound damping. The GP20 cartridges with springs costs £350.00 + V.A.T a pair. To service and fit the cartridges to your forks with new forks seals costs an extra £140.00 + V.A.T.

We can also supply another model of GP20 cartridge which has rebound damping and preload adjustment, this costs an extra £140.00 + V.A.T.

We can also respring the forks with harder springs and heavier viscosity oil, this improves the support but makes the harsh action of the forks over bumps worse. We can also just respring the forks, this gives more support but makes the forks a harder
‘pogostick’than what standard as they return even quicker. To supply harder fork springs and oil costs £95.00 + V.A.T.

REAR

The standard unit on the NC750 X is very cheap; the unit is not adjustable for damping it only has a spring preload. The shock absorber is soft for the average rider weight which makes the bike sit down under power and run wide out of corners, it also means the rear of the bike can bottom out quite easily when loaded up with luggage or a pillion.

Unfortunately due to the shock being so cheap it is not rebuildable, so we can not cure the damping problems, but we can respring the unit with a harder spring if necessary. The problem with this is it makes the ride a bit hard/harsh and makes the rear of the bike a ‘pogoastick’ To respring the standard unit costs £95.00 + V.A.T.

What we recommend is a replacement unit, we supply our own Maxton NR4 unit which costs £420.00 + V.A.T. This unit is high pressure gas shock absorber with a floating piston to separate the oil and gas in the shock. It is fully rebuildable and adjustable for rebound damping, compression damping and preload via our Tommy Bar system, which takes seconds to change.
 
That is a very fair assessment - it is a very basic set up; I suppose think of it as a Honda 750 from the eighties, but instead of twin rear shock, with a monoshock system instead and you get the picture. That said it still handles well enough for its performance, it is just that you can find its limitations if you try. I still rate it for overall VFM etc it reminds me of my old CB500S in many ways. That was a very underrated bike also.

If you do upgrade the suspension I would be interested to hear your thoughts and opinions.

:thumb2
 


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