Is the NC700X for me?

[shapemaster]

I did a 6 day, 1700 mile trip a couple of weeks ago through Georgia, Tennessee & Alabama. I'm 5'-7" and just under 165 lbs. I spent a considerable amount of time with mods to make the bike better for long distances. I settled on a Sargent seat with an additional 1/2" layer of firm, closed cell foam, and it works fine for 400+ mile days. I'm using a Puig windshield. I tried a Madstad and it's sitting in a box in my attic. I prefer to lean forward on a bike and the Madstat blocked so much air I would get a sharp pain between my shoulder blades from holding my head up. The Madstad is also so big that it has a noticeable detrimental effect on the bike's already not so perky high speed performance. The bike is perfectly happy to do 75-80 all day long with very little vibration. A tingle comes in past 80. A helmet with good aerodynamics makes a big difference in how much your head gets buffeted around. (I got a Shoie RF 1200 and it made a big difference.)
The biggest issue I have with the lack of zip with the bike is on two lane, twisty roads with lots of elevation changes: the amount of distance needed to make a safe pass of slow moving vehicles is often longer than most straight sections. The bike handles fine once it has a set of decent sport bike tires. I find the suspension to be good here in the South where there is little to no snow & ice that breeds potholes. In places with crappy roads, the ride can probably be harsh. The front end is a little under damped, but that can probably be addressed with a change of fork oil.
Depending on how future trips go, I think I may be looking at something like the Yamaha FJ-09 next year.

I am running Battle Axe tires. What are you running that you like?

 

[shapemaster]

2 NC's?

Since you like power, protection from the wind, and seat comfort, the stock NC700X has three strikes already.

It can work for you, but you WILL need an aftermarket windshield, you will need to spend at least $800 on suspension, you will probably need to try 5 seats because aftermarket seat builders have a hard time getting it right, and even though you say you don't need the power, there is no guarantee you will be satisfied. The power will be 40-50% of what you have with the 1200.

The NC was built with fuel economy as a top priority. You did not mention that on your checklist. The economy is excellent if it's ridden right. If you flog it and drive the mileage down, the range becomes a big issue because the tank holds only 3.7 gallons.

Find a way to test ride an NC700X, but I'd say in your case the Versys might also be worth checking out.

I do love my NCs (I have two), but they are not for everyone.

Which Two models do you have?

Are you customizing one? or both?

Photos to share?

So far I love my NC. It's a 2013 and from what I can tell and I agree with you if you ride this as intended it will bring 74 plus in MPG.

Smiles per gallon are even more!

Ken from Illinois.

 

[VE258]

I'm 5'9" w/ 32" inseam, 165 lbs.

No. i'm about same size 5 '9", 155 lb. you will struggle on it. the bike is too high for us. i mean-you can ride on it and all,but (!) once you pass a certain angle( you dont need much)-you will fall. specially slow turns and other maneuvers. think about it. you will be standing straight on your tip toes. by the time you stand on a full foot-you already passed the point of no return. a small couple inches pot hole on the road-you step into it-you will lose the balance and fall. standing.i dropped it 4 times already. 2 times in the garage, 1 time taking it out from garage,foot got slipped a little tiny bit and one more time on really slow turn (like 20 mph) on gravel. never happens on other bikes that i owned before NC. and mine was lowered with home made links (about 1" on seat area + seat itself is shaved a bit). it's a good bike, great riding position,inexpensive,cheap and reliable, but if you ask me-would i buy it again? my answer will be no. too high.

Thanks!

 

[670cc]

Which Two models do you have?

Are you customizing one? or both?

Photos to share?

So far I love my NC. It's a 2013 and from what I can tell and I agree with you if you ride this as intended it will bring 74 plus in MPG.

Smiles per gallon are even more!

Ken from Illinois.

The two NCs are manual transmission 2012s that may have even been built on the same day, as the serial numbers are very close. Both are highly modified. I counted up 40 modifications made to one of them. I plan to eventually fuse the mods into one machine and get back to one NC, so maybe next year when the Versys 300 starts going cheaper and has some aftermarket following, I can play with it. Or maybe play with a CB500X. I like the smaller machines.

 

[dduelin]

No. i'm about same size 5 '9", 155 lb. you will struggle on it. the bike is too high for us. i mean-you can ride on it and all,but (!) once you pass a certain angle( you dont need much)-you will fall. specially slow turns and other maneuvers. think about it. you will be standing straight on your tip toes. by the time you stand on a full foot-you already passed the point of no return. a small couple inches pot hole on the road-you step into it-you will lose the balance and fall. standing.i dropped it 4 times already. 2 times in the garage, 1 time taking it out from garage,foot got slipped a little tiny bit and one more time on really slow turn (like 20 mph) on gravel. never happens on other bikes that i owned before NC. and mine was lowered with home made links (about 1" on seat area + seat itself is shaved a bit). it's a good bike, great riding position,inexpensive,cheap and reliable, but if you ask me-would i buy it again? my answer will be no. too high.

Thanks!

Though I'm even shorter at 5'6" and 29" and my NC is raised about .75" from standard I have no such problems. OCR is shorter than I and he's probably ridden a million miles on all sizes of bikes.

This is solely my opinion but I believe there is a popular paradigm that one must be able to flat foot bikes with both feet to control them. Short riders have to break this paradigm or be forced ride only low slung cruisers or modified standard bikes. For example I use both tippee toes or one flat foot on the ground to paddle the bike around garages and parking lots. Sliding off the seat to one side gets one foot completely flat then a pushing-hopping motion works just fine. Or sliding off the seat from side-to-side gets alternating feet down to walk it. Learning to control any motorcycle at slow speed takes practice and perhaps a certain technique or skill a taller rider doesn't need,

 

[b_rubenstein]

I am running Battle Axe tires. What are you running that you like?

I replaced the original Dunlop Trailmax tires after a few months for Avon 3D Storms that held up well for 11k miles, and just had a set of Dunlop Roadsmart IIIs put on. So far, they feel fine, but have no idea how well they'll hold up.

 

[DirtyDog]

Same thoughts, is the NC for me

Hi,
I got the An NC700x in early may, after lots of reading, studying, pricing, etc.
it was between the versys and the NC, either one I was looking for a couple years old, with low mileage.
Found a 2014 NC with just over 2000 miles on it at a dealer in Santa Ana and went for for it. I think I was just sick of looking and they made it easy, all the versys I had found in the 5-6k price range had too many miles.
It came with a givi luggage rack, but no boxes, and a puig wind screen.
My goal way to find a relatively inexpensive bike that I could ride 1-2 days a weeks for work and take a few long trips every year. And also ride some mild trails along the way.
I rode a little over a 1000 miles to evaluate before I bought any accessories or did any mods, as well as studied this forum inside and out.
About me, I'm 5'9", 165. Only had one bike before, a ninja 250, which was fun to learn on, but got old really quick when I realized it didn't have near enough power. Logged about 20-25k on that bike and other bikes that friends let me ride.

Anyway, first things I did were:
Grip puppies
Cheap amazon wind deflector
Sargent seat
Bolted large 40 cal ammo boxes to the givi racks.
RAM phone mount
Made forward pegs (exhaust clamps welded to cheap cycle gear pegs)
Clip on cruise control, throttle holder.
Shinko 705 tires.

Just got back from a 3200 mile week long ride, here's my thoughts,
Seat ht ok, can stand flat footed with combat style boots (about 1" heel, regular shoes sketchy)
Sargent seat is ok, good quality, works good on 500 mile days with Advil, should have got a russel day long.
Grip puppies, great for the price.
Amazon wind deflector, worked good the first 6 days, riding in very strong head winds, it bent the whole wind shield back and ended up in my lap, I think it was to heavy.
Ammo cans worked great, not too heavy, water proof, kept everything dry when I hit rain.
RAM phone mount, awesome.
Homemade forward pegs, awesome(copied from a post in the forum)
Clip on cruise control, co cruise, flawless.
Shinko Tires, 705, great, especially with Siri taking me down a 32 mile dirt road in Wyoming.
Here's what I'm gonna change before my next long ride:
Get a Madstad wind shield and someday maybe a day long seat.

The NC preformed very well overall.
I had to accept the fact that for adequate power, I needed to use 5th gear a lot when passing and going up grades, once I got used to it, it was fine.
I went from sea level (Palm Springs CA) up as high as 14,000 feet (pikes peak) and she ran perfect the whole time.
Gravel roads, did great, sandy roads, not so good.
With about 100 pounds of extra stuff, (ammo cans, roadside tools, camping gear, personal stuff) it didn't effect performance that much.
Temperatures as low as 31deg (top of pikes peak) to 116 deg (mesquite NV, strong head winds, smoke from fires) the bike did great!

Anyone considering buying a NC, should plan on spending a bit for the Madstad windshield and a Russell day long seat for long travels, everything else is great.