Test; Honda NC700X

On the surface, this bike is a bit of a conundrum; it’s not easy to identify what it is trying to be. It has the practicality of a scooter, with its storage capacity where the petrol tank should be, but the blandness of character of an everyday commuter bike, which is the exact market to which Honda is pitching this bike.
It must be said that this is the sort of machine that Honda does very well; well designed, beautifully built but, at the end of the day, just a little bit soulless and almost too efficient. It’s almost as if they gave it a bit of schizophrenia to add something that the engineers couldn’t.

It’s hard to see the market for such a bike being very large. For those who consider the step-through seating arrangement of a scooter too cissy, this would be the perfect bike, but then if you are going to swing your leg over something, why not do it over something that has more competency than just being used to get to work and back?
That’s not to say that it does anything badly; on the contrary, it is competent as a modern bike should be. It’s just that the answers to the questions about why it exists in the first place are not immediately apparent.
To see the point of the bike you have to look at the engine. A 670cc, long stroke parallel twin is not necessarily that radical. What is significant is that it has been designed and tuned specifically for fuel economy over high-revving performance. It is steeply inclined to the front and produces 38.1kw at 6250rpm and 60nm at 4750rpm, with a 6,500rpm red line. In essence it is half of a Honda Jazz four-cylinder engine, utilising that engines cylinder dimensions and combustion chamber shape which emphasises low-rev burn efficiency as opposed to absolute volume of gas flow.
On first acquaintance with the bike the low rev ceiling seems unnatural and it takes a while to learn how to ride the engine; almost like jumping out of a petrol-engined car and into a turbo-diesel; you don’t need to head into the red line to get anywhere – the torque is all low down. The more you think about it the more it makes sense; how often do you really go to the 15,000 red line of your sports bike?
But it is a smooth engine for a parallel-twin design, helped by a balancer shaft (only one, so it does leave a little bike-like vibration) which doubles up as an oil-pump drive. The single overhead cam also doubles up as the water-pump. Both inlet and exhaust ports are siamesed so there is one 36mm throttle body and one exhaust header.
There has obviously been a lot of thought put into the engine. The exhaust headers are integral with the cylinder head, allowing the catalyst to be closer to the engine, warm up quicker and therefore be smaller. Likewise, the water pump is so close to the radiator that the plumbing is a third of what it might be and allows the engine to warm up quicker due to reduced coolant levels.

Hope you can turn the computer sideways

So, what’s it like to ride? Well, once you have got used to the engine characteristics, it’s a pleasant bike to ride, and I use that word advisedly. It’s never going to set the world alight but it does the job it was designed for, I suppose you could say. The seat covering is far too slippery; alright when you are the pilot but terrible for the pillion. The brakes have a very wooden feel, especially the back brake and, in this day and age of ABS it takes some second thought before you anchor on hard. But then this was never going to be a back lane scratcher or a track bike. The riding position follows that of adventure and super motard bikes by being upright and comfortable with broad bars that give good manoeuvrability. Naturally, the standard exhaust gives a very muted note which is a shame as I suspect the engine would have a nicely gruff noise if allowed to breathe a bit more freely.
The suspension isn’t the most sophisticated around and it shows on bad surfaces or in mid-corner bumps, but again, the rider who buys this bike is not necessarily going for foot-peg scraping antics. What they are going in for is practicality and for this, the false tank hides a useful stowage bin that can easily take a full-face helmet or plenty of odds and ends. The petrol tank is accessed from under the pillion pad; a bit of a mission if you have luggage strapped on there but otherwise not a problem.
You could call it a budget bike, coming in at around R65,000, but there is nothing in the fit and finish that is anything less than Honda’s best. They have chosen to build the bike in Japan, as opposed to farming it out to cheaper-labour factories in Thailand or India and this is an indication of the importance Honda attaches to the bike.

SPECIFICATIONS
Engine: 670cc liquid-cooled four-stroke parallel twin.
Bore x stroke: 73 x 80mm.
Compression ratio: 10.7:1.
Valvegear: SOHC with four overhead valves per cylinder.
Power: 381.kW at 6250rpm.
Torque: 60Nm at 4750rpm.
Induction: PGM-FI electronic fuel-injection with 36mm throttle body.
Ignition: Computer-controlled digital transistorised with electronic advance.
Starting: Electric.
Clutch: Cable-operated multiplate wet clutch.
Transmission: Six-speed constant-mesh gearbox with final drive by chain.
Front Suspension: 41mm conventional cartridge forks.
Rear Suspension: Pro-Link with monoshock, adjustable for preload.
Front brakes: 300mm petal disc with twin-piston floating calliper.

Rear brake: 240mm petal disc with single-piston floating calliper.
Front tyre: 120/70 - 17 tubeless.
Rear tyre: 160/60 - 17 tubeless.
Wheelbase: 1540mm.
Seat height: 830mm.
Kerb weight: 218kg.
Fuel tank: 14 litres.
Fuel consumption (claimed): 3.6 litres per 100km at 120km/h.