Originally Posted By: 02SE
As far as "Honda had a lot of duds recently", I immediately recalled this article.
Motorcyclist Article
To Honda's credit, they are now releasing some updated versions of models that have been popular in this Country, namely the CBR1000RR.
As for your new bike, congrats. If you like it, despite the CTX's being slow sellers, that's all that matters. I would suggest bringing it home from the Showroom, before some looky lou mouth-breather can scratch up the paint while throwing a leg over it.
Agreed on the "get it home before Billy Bob shows up with his gold and chrome belt buckle and attacks it". Nothing is worse than the first scratch on a new bike, and doubly annoying if you weren't involved.
I have a NC700X, one of the bikes that was mentioned in the article. I think Honda's Marketing and Engineering departments need to spend a little more time with each other. Having had some Dual Sport bikes in the past, this thing is lost if you are off a dirt road. It gets scary when you are on gravel, and is much too heavy for me to want to stand back up more than once if it tipped over.
Hey Honda: It's a STANDARD motorcycle underneath.
If you approach it like that, it's a fine machine. I love the nearly no-maintenance engine and its quietness. When I first started riding it, I hit the rev limiter hard and often, but got used to it after I rode it for a little bit.
I think the "duds" are that these bikes have a huge mismatch between how they are marketed and how they perform as well as a radical departure (in the case of the NC700X an CTX700/N line) in engine configuration. An "Adventure Bike" that is horrible off road combined with a torque monster engine that doesn't like to rev past 6,500 makes for a huge gap between owner expectation and actual performance isn't going to make a lot of pals. The 670 twin makes a little more sense in the CTX line, but most people buying a cruiser want flashy chrome and loud pipes a CTX700 delivers exactly NONE of that. In fact, they are so quiet that you can't tell they are running if there are more than a couple other bikes around.
I'm still not sure what the NM4 actually is, other than an attempt to build Shotaro Kaneda's bike from the movie
Akira. I've owned quite a few bikes and if I don't know what it is, it's likely nobody does.