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Shedding weight.

i took my bike to work and parked beside the Suzuki owned by a guy in another department. We were out back shooting the shet when someone came out and joined us. The Suzuki guy began to rxplain about the NC slanted engine and low RPM but high torque. I thought to myself, he has obviously read up on my bike. Then he said, "Yeah it's half a Fit motor!", I moved to correct him but instead groaned and went back to work.
 
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[..."Yeah it's half a Fit motor!", I moved to correct him but instead groaned and went back to work...]

The bore & stroke dimensions are different than both sizes of Fit engines. They do share design concepts but no actual parts.
 
DirtFlier said:
They do share design concepts but no actual parts.
Click to expand...

I was under the impression they did share a handful of parts, but not major components. Things like piston rings and some bearings and stuff. Much of the "new" design definitely pulled from automotive division's expertise though. Talking about the old 700 engine though, not these newfangled 750's some of you have.
I could be wrong, I am certainly not an expert.
 
DirtFlier said:
[..."Yeah it's half a Fit motor!", I moved to correct him but instead groaned and went back to work...]

The bore & stroke dimensions are different than both sizes of Fit engines. They do share design concepts but no actual parts.
Click to expand...

Actually, the Honda L13A 1.3 liter Fit engine has the same 73 x 80mm bore and stroke as the 670cc NC series engine, and is, of course, twice the size.

[h=3]L13A i-VTECEdit[/h]
 
Sorry I am late to this party.

I think if you wanted a light bike, then your choice is poor.
There is no worse thing than to buy a bike which is optimised, and then try to reduce a significant weight off it.
It is way easier and wiser to just buy a light weight bike in the first place.
There is only so much you can shed.

Have fun though and let us know how you did it!
:D
 
I didn't want a "light bike" but I do want to make this bike lighter in anticipation of some added off road protection.
It would be cool to shed enough such that the bike does not weigh any more than it did stock after the addition of crash protection.

I don't think I started with the wrong bike.
Most of the other bikes that people are using to do what I want to do weigh much more than this one and then also need equipped with skid plates and crash bars and all that.
When its all said and done some of those bikes are likely pushing 600lbs or more.

As I stated earlier I am not getting all exotic about it but there is a game plan.
There are a handful of heavier items that can be swapped for lighter stuff.
Most of this "stuff" is "stuff" that a lot of people want to swap anyway.
The exhaust is a good example.

As also mentioned, the battery can be swapped for a LiFePO4 unit.

I am planning on ditching the factory rear fender in favor of one of those little splash guards that mount on the swing arm and cover the rear of the rear tire.
This does not have to be all that substantial so I may whip one up out of an old piece of carbon fiber fender.
During this process I will be ditching all of the factory turn signals and tail light.
These will be replaced with smaller (but brighter) surface mount LED bits for to save weight and keep the signals from snapping off in the event of a drop.

Might also mount a carbon front fender just for fun if I can find a beat used thing on the 'bay that I can make work.
However, I have a feeling that it will just get busted off the first time I drop the bike so maybe its not worth the trouble.

I will probably toss on some aluminum bars.

I am also building my own skid plate and engine and radiator guards that I hope will be lighter than some of the bigger pieces I have seen.

Each item on its own will not shed too much weight, Other than the exhaust and battery, but when you start adding all of the parts up you can likely drop a couple more lbs.

There may also be some other things I come across while I am in there tearing things up and I will examine alternatives there as well.

I also hope to work out a spoke wheel swap in the future.
Not sure if that will even drop any weight but I have a feeling that it will.
Anyway all that is a topic for another thread so I will cover that later.

On the topic of carrying less/lighter stuff I plan on doing just that.
I will just take my backpacking camp gear and maybe a couple luxury items since I don't have to hoof it for miles but all of it will fit in my frunk, a small-ish dry duffel that straps on my rear seat and or rack and my daily carry backpack.
Probably not riding to Alaska anytime soon so I don't need to much junk.
Might do a week long rides here and there but most will probably be close enough to civilization that I don't need to be completely self sustaining.
I will not be putting panniers or any other racks or bags on it unless I absolutely have to.

I probably will also try to drop a few lbs myself but that is also a topic for another thread, likely, on another forum.
 
the trouble with a lighter skid plate if doing off-road is that usually means thinner aluminum. as it is, the thickness of the typical NC700X skidplate will be punished harder by any hit than it would be on say a 250 dualsport, which incidentally have skidplates that need to cover less area and are mounted staunchly -- and the result giving more protection really, since the dualsport is so much lighter too.

so don't try to shave weight there. it wouldn't add up to much anyway, especially if you think of it as a percent thing rather than a total pounds thing.
 
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What I would really like to try is swapping the necessary body panels between the NCX and the NCS to essentially build and american NCS.
The NCS is already 10 lbs lighter than the NCX and they share nearly everything except most of the body panels.
That extra 10lbs must be in the front body panels and around the headlight.

That might be a cool thing if you could get the parts cheap enough from europe.

Then I could build an NCX scrambler which is what I really want anyway.
 
Take this, put on a small LED taillight, a simple headlight, a lighter muffler, and a seat. This photo is a DCT/ABS, so you'll want to save 25 pounds with a manual model.

12_NC700X_Tech_01_EU_medium.jpg
 
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Come on folks, shedding 100 lbs is not going to turn the NC into an ADV bike
that can go where real ADV bikes can go.
Put on a pillion and ride the same trails that you ride solo. Different riding skills
required; just need to get used to it.
But then, everyone's mileage varies
At risk of sounding corny:" It's 80%rider vs. 20% bike".
[video=youtube;6jJIVK-daGk]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6jJIVK-daGk[/video]
 
happy said:
Sorry I am late to this party.

I think if you wanted a light bike, then your choice is poor.
There is no worse thing than to buy a bike which is optimised, and then try to reduce a significant weight off it.
It is way easier and wiser to just buy a light weight bike in the first place.
There is only so much you can shed.

Have fun though and let us know how you did it!
:D
Click to expand...

Well said, Mr. Spock!:D
 
670cc said:
Take this, put on a small LED taillight, a simple headlight, a lighter muffler, and a seat. This photo is a DCT/ABS, so you'll want to save 25 pounds with a manual model.

View attachment 33004
Click to expand...

If it is DCT, I'll ride it in any shape or form.
Got to wear some biking pants for this one (pictured) :D
 
My bike is in the shop and I'm going nuts with the nice weather!
OK, RANT over.
 
Hmm.
Speaking of swapping some body panels how about just losing some?
Honda NC 700X: Urban Hunter - MotoSpeciali

I could totally do something like this.
Well maybe not quite exactly like it but I could ditch a bunch of body panels, keep the seat, frunk and its lid and build around that
Probably drop 10,15 or even 20lbs in the process.

Boy are my wheels spinning?
As is the snowball that all of my projects end up being.
My friends have affectionately coined the term "snow-Bill-ing" (my first name is Bill)
Get it? Kinda like snowballing but with my name in it.(not the snowballing referenced in the movie Clerks... Weirdos)

One thing leads to another. Next thing you know I get this vision. Then I get pumped to turn my vision into reality.

Meh we will see what happens I guess.
 
I don't know if the NC is as bad as the CTX for having heavy parts, but I was surprised today to find that the left foot peg/mount and the 10mm thick slab of steel that is an intermediate plate between the frame and foot peg mount (and which mostly seems to hold the horn and a small tab for a trim cover) together weigh 5.1 pounds. I presume the right side will be similar.
 
Iirc, it's also what the oem luggage carriers bolt on...but I may be mixing it up with something else. Just remember seeing something bolted to the back of it when I was looking over the bike the other day.
 
The factory tail light/fender assembly weighs about 4.5 lbs.
I bet I can ditch the majority of that with some carefully selected LEDs.
So with that, my new muffler that is 4.7 lbs lighter than stock and a lighter battery that would probably weigh 4 or 5 lbs less than the stocker we have managed to drop 12 or 13 lbs.
That's a pretty good start.
 
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