Saxeus
New Member
Hello from South Africa!
I've been doing a bit of research on riding motorcycles recently as an alternative for commuting as well as a suitable open-road vehicle with good mileage. What sparked my interest were two things. The increasing price of fuel and everything else that gets driven up with it, and the introduction of good automatic transmissions for bikes.
I'm not a bike rider nor do I own a bike yet, but I have always been interested in two-wheelers. Previously I had dismissed the idea as our roads here are not the safest (the traffic department is a joke, making pitiful efforts to make the roads safer; instead we have little more than an army of speed-trap operators). With the ever-increasing price of fuel and hybrid cars still being prohibitively expensive, I believe the only option for many people is to start biking. I came across the NC700XD while reading about this years local bike-of-the-year award, which was won by the BMW-something-GS, but I also noticed many user-submitted comments singing the praises of the NC700, not least of which was the apparently game-changing technology of its auto dual clutch transmission. I immediately liked the look of the bike as well as the design goals of putting practicality and affordability over performance. With Honda build quality being its legendary self, I was more than a little intrigued.
So I set about doing some more digging for reviews, especially the long-term ones, and general opinions of the machine. That's how I found this forum, coincidently. I only have one friend that's an experienced rider so I've started picking his brains a bit about motorcycling in general and some advice on safety equipment I should consider both for myself and the bike (when I decide to get one, that is). Sadly my late uncle is not around to help me now - he was an avid biker in his youth until he suffered a fairly severe accident. I still have his vintage leather jacket though, complete with a silver-winged "Velocette" pin.
As I've never ridden a bike before, the idea of an automatic transmission seems like pure gold to me, until the skills of counter-steer cornering are confidently mastered. I've also started looking into some necessities apart from the bike itself, most importantly the helmet. I've seen an advert for a UVEX enduro helmet made of carbon-fibre and kevlar weave; extremely light but a little expensive so I'm not sure if it's worth getting that level of protection. I'm not familiar with brands and quality at all so I'm hoping this forum can assist me with this.
Ok, that's enough from me for one post.
I've been doing a bit of research on riding motorcycles recently as an alternative for commuting as well as a suitable open-road vehicle with good mileage. What sparked my interest were two things. The increasing price of fuel and everything else that gets driven up with it, and the introduction of good automatic transmissions for bikes.
I'm not a bike rider nor do I own a bike yet, but I have always been interested in two-wheelers. Previously I had dismissed the idea as our roads here are not the safest (the traffic department is a joke, making pitiful efforts to make the roads safer; instead we have little more than an army of speed-trap operators). With the ever-increasing price of fuel and hybrid cars still being prohibitively expensive, I believe the only option for many people is to start biking. I came across the NC700XD while reading about this years local bike-of-the-year award, which was won by the BMW-something-GS, but I also noticed many user-submitted comments singing the praises of the NC700, not least of which was the apparently game-changing technology of its auto dual clutch transmission. I immediately liked the look of the bike as well as the design goals of putting practicality and affordability over performance. With Honda build quality being its legendary self, I was more than a little intrigued.
So I set about doing some more digging for reviews, especially the long-term ones, and general opinions of the machine. That's how I found this forum, coincidently. I only have one friend that's an experienced rider so I've started picking his brains a bit about motorcycling in general and some advice on safety equipment I should consider both for myself and the bike (when I decide to get one, that is). Sadly my late uncle is not around to help me now - he was an avid biker in his youth until he suffered a fairly severe accident. I still have his vintage leather jacket though, complete with a silver-winged "Velocette" pin.
As I've never ridden a bike before, the idea of an automatic transmission seems like pure gold to me, until the skills of counter-steer cornering are confidently mastered. I've also started looking into some necessities apart from the bike itself, most importantly the helmet. I've seen an advert for a UVEX enduro helmet made of carbon-fibre and kevlar weave; extremely light but a little expensive so I'm not sure if it's worth getting that level of protection. I'm not familiar with brands and quality at all so I'm hoping this forum can assist me with this.
Ok, that's enough from me for one post.
