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21+ Valve timing changes?

Post review comments and online motorcycle forum comments over 10 years follow your sentiments pretty closely. In the beginning there were a few people that thought a bike like the low priced NC was going to bring in new motorcyclists and be good for the sport but many self identified riders dismissed it, sometimes brutally. That was OK because they weren't the riders in Honda's target demographic. As an experienced rider in 2012 I did not fit the new rider demographic but I was looking for an easy to live with 50 hp motorcycle that was budget priced and promised low operating costs and could be seen filling diverse roles. It was just what I was looking for to add to the bikes I owned but not as the only bike in my garage. Where I think things went wrong is that motorcycle salesmen were often made up of riders looking for traditional 'power, excitement, and more of it' associated with riding in the USA. If a dealer even ordered one it might well have sat in a corner of the showroom gathering dust.
That is where I found mine with 468 miles on it.

A lot of people tried it but the sales guys always had something more shiny to sell .
 
Where I think things went wrong is that motorcycle salesmen were often made up of riders looking for traditional 'power, excitement, and more of it' associated with riding in the USA. If a dealer even ordered one it might well have sat in a corner of the showroom gathering dust.

I could not agree more. When I got back into riding 7 years ago, dealers dismissed the NC700, criticized it as boring, said I’d just buy a different bike in 6 months, and so on. I guess the dealers are a lot like realtors in that they make the market. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not right for everyone. But it is a pretty good bike overall and underrepresented in sales.
 
I could not agree more. When I got back into riding 7 years ago, dealers dismissed the NC700, criticized it as boring, said I’d just buy a different bike in 6 months, and so on. I guess the dealers are a lot like realtors in that they make the market. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not right for everyone. But it is a pretty good bike overall and underrepresented in sales.
I think those last two lines sum it up quite well.
 
I got mine barely used for a good break off MSRP at a shop in Idaho. I flew out there from near Seattle and the guys looked at me like I was an alien for going all that way to get an NC. They all stood around and chatted me up about why that bike? When they understood I'd had Concours 14's that are faster than most bikes in their shop, they eased off a bit. They make so little margin on an NC, and it's hard to fault them for trying to encourage the public to consider more profitable bikes. They work on commission, after all, and anyone walking into a dealer expecting an honest, unbiased perspective belongs in a Dickens novel.

But one of the great things about the NC is that Joe Public has no idea! They see a shiny red bike, hear that rumble, and for all they know you are on a HP beast. We ride away smiling down at our gauge showing 55mpg.
 
LOL if my NC 750 only got 55 mpg I'd trade it in for something else. My CB 1100 gets 55 mpg and it has 30 more hp and weighs 150 pounds more. I ave 66 mpg in winter mode on the NC with tall windshield and handlebar muffs and 74 mpg in summer mode with small shield and bare grips. To me, the gas mileage is the main purpose of owning an NC 750.
 
But one of the great things about the NC is that Joe Public has no idea!
You’re right.

When people ask what kind of bike I have or what I rode on a recent trip, I usually just say a “mid-sized Honda”. if I tried to explain NC700X, it would go right over their heads. I don’t really care what Joe Public think about my bikes, anyway.
 
LOL if my NC 750 only got 55 mpg I'd trade it in for something else. My CB 1100 gets 55 mpg and it has 30 more hp and weighs 150 pounds more. I ave 66 mpg in winter mode on the NC with tall windshield and handlebar muffs and 74 mpg in summer mode with small shield and bare grips. To me, the gas mileage is the main purpose of owning an NC 750.
Yes. “Great” gas mileage is all relative to one’s expectations. My NC has been as low as 55 mpg on only 3 tanks out of 319. If my NC mpg gets “down” into the low 60s I’m really bummed, but that’s usually due to highway riding into strong headwinds I can’t control. Average is 75 mpg over 62,700 miles. The main thing is that good mpg is necessary to get usable range from the tiny fuel tank.
 
Yes the cam timing was made for different reasons per Honda publication when it first came out. But there are other bikes were this is done, I believe the Honda Super Hawk has this also. By changing the valve timing for each cyl. you have a torque based cyl. and a HP based cyl. Even some of those high HP bikes do this by having the same cam timing but use different intake stacks. This allows a engine to have better low speed operation while not eliminating the high end power. I am sure the bigger NC750 engine with its higher power and smoothness is great but for me the original with its low end power, low center of gravity, and very humble suspension and braking where all I needed to see to purchase in 2012. This is a bike for all riders and all rides. It does not check every box for our wants but does for our needs, just as Mick Jagger sang... "you cant always get what you want."
 
I keep reading about y'all getting crazy MPG numbers. We have a few thousand miles on the NC, mostly around town, 3rd gear sort of stuff, but a meaningful amount of highway. Never has it averaged more than 60 on a tank, and we ride it like it was meant to be ridden. I even use non-ethanol fuel in it, and Motul 7100, so don't talk to me about fuel or friction losses! Good on everyone for getting better. I am typically seeing in the 50's on a tank.
 
I keep reading about y'all getting crazy MPG numbers. We have a few thousand miles on the NC, mostly around town, 3rd gear sort of stuff, but a meaningful amount of highway. Never has it averaged more than 60 on a tank, and we ride it like it was meant to be ridden. I even use non-ethanol fuel in it, and Motul 7100, so don't talk to me about fuel or friction losses! Good on everyone for getting better. I am typically seeing in the 50's on a tank.
My 2012 700X manual trans has hit over 80 mpg riding very cautiously on back roads going from Oregon to Washington state on a bad tire. Keeping the rpm over 4,200 on the X-way, full loaded plus my fat butt, brings the mpg's down to the low 50's.
 
I keep reading about y'all getting crazy MPG numbers. We have a few thousand miles on the NC, mostly around town, 3rd gear sort of stuff, but a meaningful amount of highway. Never has it averaged more than 60 on a tank, and we ride it like it was meant to be ridden. I even use non-ethanol fuel in it, and Motul 7100, so don't talk to me about fuel or friction losses! Good on everyone for getting better. I am typically seeing in the 50's on a tank.
Let’s just say that any NC700/750 is capable of getting great gas mileage. What mileage your NC gets is almost entirely based on how it’s ridden. Ride it like you want and don’t be concerned with the mileage it gets. For me, high MPG comes naturally, but some people have reported that they would be very unhappy with the riding style it takes to get high mpg numbers.
 
.....And we ride it like it was meant to be ridden.......
I would think that would be hard to define.

Some think bikes are " meant to be ridden" in the upper end of the rpm zone, where peak hp is, while while others feel it should be in the bottom end of the rpm zone using the engine's torque to propel the machine. As a DCT rider, I use std mode and lets Honda's engineer's algorithms to determine what gear I'm in.

To simplify it, some riders are luggers, while other are revvers. "Generally speaking", the luggers will get better gas mileage than the revvers, especially with a motor like the NC's.
 
I got mine barely used for a good break off MSRP at a shop in Idaho. I flew out there from near Seattle and the guys looked at me like I was an alien for going all that way to get an NC. They all stood around and chatted me up about why that bike? When they understood I'd had Concours 14's that are faster than most bikes in their shop, they eased off a bit. They make so little margin on an NC, and it's hard to fault them for trying to encourage the public to consider more profitable bikes. They work on commission, after all, and anyone walking into a dealer expecting an honest, unbiased perspective belongs in a Dickens novel.

But one of the great things about the NC is that Joe Public has no idea! They see a shiny red bike, hear that rumble, and for all they know you are on a HP beast. We ride away smiling down at our gauge showing 55mpg.
I also have a concours 14 and went 500 miles to NM and back to get my 18 NC with 2200 miles on it.

Its a great bike with character. My concours is more proficient at highway trips but lacks character
 
I also have a concours 14 and went 500 miles to NM and back to get my 18 NC with 2200 miles on it.

Its a great bike with character. My concours is more proficient at highway trips but lacks character
I now have a BMW K1300S as my travel bike, and boy I love that thing. I'm still getting an enormous kick out of riding the NC on my short town commute only ever in Sport mode and hearing it spin up earnestly with so little result! As we all know it's easy to get away from cars on it and pull away at red lights and that stuff, but when I have to take the NC on the freeway that my normal commute doesn't involve, boy, it distresses me that I can't twist the throttle and evade people like I do on my high power bikes. I realize it's partly a riding style thing. Besides preferring fast acceleration, I ride pretty aggressively on highways, and so need high torque and horsepower. If I was more mellow, I could see the NC being my do anything go anywhere machine. I might reach that level of mellow when I'm 85. But that's over 30 more happy years of ripping my arms off with 150 hp or more!
 
If Im going from OK to the grand canyon and back, or WY and MT concours 14, if Im going from OK to AR to ride those curves NC750X. If Im going to spend a week in Tellico Plains, TN riding all those great roads, Tail of the Dragon, etc. I would trailer the NC750x there because it would be missing out on tons of fun if I had to ride the concours there.

They both excel at their intended purposes, you don't need 150hp to have a blast on the Tail of the Dragon.
 
I've ridden the Tail of the Dragon maybe a dozen times since 1981 on bikes from 65 hp to 150 hp. Never had a "blast" on any of them, as I am one who prefers sweepery roads to technical roads. The Dragon is just work plus there are too many idiots on there that want to "challenge" themselves and end up endangering others including me. I prefer riding the nearby Cherohala Skyway or the BRP for that matter. The same reason I enjoy my DCT, all the fun of the ride without all the "work".
 
Plenty of roads other than Deal's Gap in the northern Georgia, western North Carolina, eastern Tennessee, eastern Kentucky, southwest Virginia, West Virginia that can be whatever you want. I live an hour from Deal's Gap. I find it pleasant, but seldom go there except when it's the best way to get somewhere else.

Living in the middle of Nirvana...Knoxville, TN...1.5 hours from GA, an hour from NC, VA, and KY.
 
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