yticolev
Member
I picked up my manual NC700X from a dealer in Cincinnati with an 80 mile ride home. Conditions: 30 degrees, 35 mph gusts 1/2 interstate, 1/2 secondary roads. It has basically been 30 years since I gave up my BMW R100RS and other than a lot of bicycle riding (daily), no two wheeling for me since. But I think I remember clearly what it was like and I have perhaps 50,000 miles of prior riding.
Drove one block from the dealer to fill up with gas - want an accurate fuel record. Felt like a good bit of driveline lash. At home, I measured almost 2 inches of up and down chain movement at the middle. Anyone happen to know the specified amount?
Two blocks from the station I hit a read light and am stuck in gear. I have to feather the clutch to get it to shift through three gears (no, I didn't downshift prior to stopping - remember brand new bike, and I haven't ridden for decades). Might be a cold issue, I had some balkiness later, but not as bad.
As designed, but new to me for any prior bike, was trouble finding gears. All my prior bikes when in first or top gear have free movement - alerting you that you can't go any farther. The NC700X has a dead stop, you cannot move the shift lever in that direction any more. Thus, it is not clear without pulling in the clutch and making a shift attempt if there is another gear or if you are all the way up or down. I'm sure I will adapt, but that is weird for me.
On a related issue, it shifts fine without using the clutch. What is the current common wisdom out there on this practice? Harmful to the transmission or not?
Never hit the rev limiter, but I've never owned a high revving bike. Came close in first a couple of times, but it pulls so strongly in second that there is no point over doing a stay in first.
The bike does handle really well. I'm curious if that is the normal amount of steering lock, or turn circle. Very low speed maneuvers almost lost me when I hit the stop. I remember I wasn't happy with the BMW either, the steering damper set the limit, but I thought short radius turns were easier. I don't remember any issue with my 1967 Triumph.
I found it rather jouncy over pavement defects, not as compliant as I remember my BMW. After half an hour, the seat really started to hurt. I was a lot younger of course, but I've had 900 mile days going across the country on my BMW and never had an issue. Bikes from my era all had bench seats so you could move around and shift your weight. These modern contoured seats that pin you to one spot do not seem done with ergo in mind. More fashion than anything else perhaps, with a huge and unnecessary gap between the wheel and the seat, presumably off road styling. Lots of room there for a large comfy bench seat. I did sit up on the passenger bump for a few minutes to move the pressure spots, feeling faintly ridiculous.
The gusting wind did the expected, causing me to lean, but easy to hold the line. I will be getting a windshield so wind will probably affect handling more, but man, the wind really grabbed the visor on my borrowed helmet and jerked me around.
Antilock rear brakes? They don't do much. The front works fine, although I didn't practice a panic stop. Bit of buzzing when applied due to rotor design. Not an issue. I do have short fingers, but this is the first time I ever felt the need to have the lever engagement closer to me, both the brake and the clutch.
The motor was great. Pulled fine (except 6th gear roll ons were not fine at all - genteel would be the right word), not quite as fast as my beemer, but that is what I expected. Pretty darn good for a sub 700cc bike made for efficiency, not speed. Lots of engine tech improvements since my days. More subjective shaking than my old beemer, yet less actually transmitted to my hands and feet. No one even uses rubber pegs anymore - amazing.
My final thought riding home with the wind pushing on my arms (my BMW had a full fairing), is that the bars were wider than they needed to be. Perhaps that is an offroad styling thing again, but the low speed handling did not appear to need that much leverage on the road to me. Again, I'm a big bicycle rider so that weighs into this thought. However, the distance your arms are apart have a fairly large impact on aerodynamic efficiency. It might add another mile or so to the fuel economy to have shorter bars - and possibly some long distance comfort.
It was a lot of fun riding again after so many years, despite the rather cold blustery conditions.
Drove one block from the dealer to fill up with gas - want an accurate fuel record. Felt like a good bit of driveline lash. At home, I measured almost 2 inches of up and down chain movement at the middle. Anyone happen to know the specified amount?
Two blocks from the station I hit a read light and am stuck in gear. I have to feather the clutch to get it to shift through three gears (no, I didn't downshift prior to stopping - remember brand new bike, and I haven't ridden for decades). Might be a cold issue, I had some balkiness later, but not as bad.
As designed, but new to me for any prior bike, was trouble finding gears. All my prior bikes when in first or top gear have free movement - alerting you that you can't go any farther. The NC700X has a dead stop, you cannot move the shift lever in that direction any more. Thus, it is not clear without pulling in the clutch and making a shift attempt if there is another gear or if you are all the way up or down. I'm sure I will adapt, but that is weird for me.
On a related issue, it shifts fine without using the clutch. What is the current common wisdom out there on this practice? Harmful to the transmission or not?
Never hit the rev limiter, but I've never owned a high revving bike. Came close in first a couple of times, but it pulls so strongly in second that there is no point over doing a stay in first.
The bike does handle really well. I'm curious if that is the normal amount of steering lock, or turn circle. Very low speed maneuvers almost lost me when I hit the stop. I remember I wasn't happy with the BMW either, the steering damper set the limit, but I thought short radius turns were easier. I don't remember any issue with my 1967 Triumph.
I found it rather jouncy over pavement defects, not as compliant as I remember my BMW. After half an hour, the seat really started to hurt. I was a lot younger of course, but I've had 900 mile days going across the country on my BMW and never had an issue. Bikes from my era all had bench seats so you could move around and shift your weight. These modern contoured seats that pin you to one spot do not seem done with ergo in mind. More fashion than anything else perhaps, with a huge and unnecessary gap between the wheel and the seat, presumably off road styling. Lots of room there for a large comfy bench seat. I did sit up on the passenger bump for a few minutes to move the pressure spots, feeling faintly ridiculous.
The gusting wind did the expected, causing me to lean, but easy to hold the line. I will be getting a windshield so wind will probably affect handling more, but man, the wind really grabbed the visor on my borrowed helmet and jerked me around.
Antilock rear brakes? They don't do much. The front works fine, although I didn't practice a panic stop. Bit of buzzing when applied due to rotor design. Not an issue. I do have short fingers, but this is the first time I ever felt the need to have the lever engagement closer to me, both the brake and the clutch.
The motor was great. Pulled fine (except 6th gear roll ons were not fine at all - genteel would be the right word), not quite as fast as my beemer, but that is what I expected. Pretty darn good for a sub 700cc bike made for efficiency, not speed. Lots of engine tech improvements since my days. More subjective shaking than my old beemer, yet less actually transmitted to my hands and feet. No one even uses rubber pegs anymore - amazing.
My final thought riding home with the wind pushing on my arms (my BMW had a full fairing), is that the bars were wider than they needed to be. Perhaps that is an offroad styling thing again, but the low speed handling did not appear to need that much leverage on the road to me. Again, I'm a big bicycle rider so that weighs into this thought. However, the distance your arms are apart have a fairly large impact on aerodynamic efficiency. It might add another mile or so to the fuel economy to have shorter bars - and possibly some long distance comfort.
It was a lot of fun riding again after so many years, despite the rather cold blustery conditions.