Vultus Forum is no more

[NM4_Dude]

Seems the host of the VultusForum (the dedicated forum for the mystical Honda NM4 (NC700JD) is no longer in operation.

I hope that my brothers and sisters here in the NC700 forums would kindly welcome the black sheep (or is that the batman or perhaps the Judge Dredd) of the family to your humble home.

Thats me on the Mt. Washington Auto Road a few years ago during Laconia Bike Week.

Astute observers will note the presence of a lever on the left hand. Nope, not a clutch - that's the rear brake. I came from Maxi-Scooters and the foot pedal on the NM4 isn't all that great, so I repurposed a brake lever and master cylinder from a Honda Silverwing and plumbed it to the ABS controller. The topcase is mounted on a bracket I built myself. Whole bunch of other mods. Basically have a wonderful cruiser/commuter bike that is comfy as heck.

Underneath, she is still just a fun reliable NC700. Although this model is called the JD. I suppose that's because you should be well into a good bottle of Jack Daniels before putting money down on such a crazy looking motorcycle. (^_^) Well, that and you need to be in a mellow mood to deal with all the bodywork just to do simple work on the thing. (^_^)

 

[davidc83]

welcome to the group...I like the bike...always have.

 

[superdedooperman]

Welcome! Same here. I have always like it.

 

[Jt105]

Welcome! Unique bike for sure.

JT

 

[frog13]

Welcome brother.......and sisters! . Share your experiences, maintenance, mods if any. : )

 

[Deckyon]

I almost bought this bike when I was shopping. Even sat on one in the dealer. I liked the look of them (still do, really) but in the end, it was the price difference between the them that put me on my NC. No regrets either way. Like I said, I still like the looks of these.

 

[NM4_Dude]

Oh boy.. Experience, Maintenance, and Mods... Lets see...

So, here is the bike when I picked it up at the dealer. You can see the plate on the ground behind it ready to be installed. I still had on my coaches shirt as we came straight from my son's soccer game.

And since dealers only got 1 of these if they even got that, there were other photos for the website...

Don't worry, I didn't ride home like that. And no, the seat back was NOT comfortable at that angle. Spent a while at home finding the best location.

It didn't take me long to make my first modifications. I had already installed my topcase by the end of the weekend.

She's a great bike.

 

[NM4_Dude]

Other modifications soon followed:

I covered the left hand rear brake in my first post. That was pretty straight forward. Just had to put these parts in...

Here:

To Here:

And remove some stuff from here:

This is my favorite modification. Great control at the hands. The ABS works fine and the Silverwing master cylinder I used provided just the right pressure for the system. Now all my feet do is go along for the ride and hold me up when stopped. This is actually a good thing as the older I get, the more my diabetes is going to make fine control of my feet more and more difficult.

The biggest hassle on this bike is the body work. It seems to get in the way of all kinds of things. For example, the air cleaner is under the 'tank' area forward of the actual fuel tank. To get at it, you pretty much need to remove all the body panels from the seat forward. Needless to say I won't be touching it much. Then again, in the previous bikes, the air cleaner was never dirty. If I ever feel a need to take that much apart, I'll change it just because I'm there.

So, up front, I've added fork mounted Clearwater driving lights. Really helps light up the corners when low and greatly extends the visual range on high. Love the integration with the high beam so it's a one switch operation. Not cheap, but work fantastic.

Installed HotGrips heated grips with a variable heat setting. Love this NH company's products. This is the third bike I've put them on. also like that they are a bit thicker than most grips - makes for a comfy ride as my hands are more relaxed.

Added a USB port near the handlebars to allow cell phone or other device power. Don't use it much as I installed a powered mount for the Garmin Monterra GPS. This is a strange device. It's like having an android cell phone without the phone. Garmin hardware makes the GPS, altimeter, and other navigation functions a lot more accurate and there is plenty of memory for maps. When on WiFi I can use it to surf the web or check email, etc. The mount keeps it charged. Waterproof and rugged. But compared with the other Garmin products, it's not as easy to use. Still, it does the job, the bluetooth announces turn directions as expected, can play music and podcasts, but you have to upload them before the ride.

 

[NM4_Dude]

Added the "tall" windshield. The stock one puts the wind right at your chest. The upturned lip on the 'tall' has that wind skimming the top of my helmet. Perfect to add airflow for the helmet vent. Even helps keep rain off the faceplate when in motion. Yes, I've ridden this in the rain and it actually has really good protection. The fairing does a decent job.

As you can see in the photo in my first post, one of the most comfortable positions is to put your heels way out on the end of the footboards. The problem is that your heels are on a polished metal surface there and tend to slide. So, I use a 3M adhesive traction tape to cover the end of the foot boards to keep from sliding around. Such a simple modification really does the trick.

The seat is amazingly comfy. I love leaning back into the backrest. It did take some playing around with the forward/back bracket settings as well as the 3 angle positions to find the ideal for me (one step back from furthest forward and middle angle on the backrest) But that amount of adjustment makes for a wide variety of rider sizes. That said, I did have the lower seat rebuilt. I was on a fairly long day trip and we hit this road from hell. Lots of bumps, holes, etc. I took one good hit and I felt my backside slam the seat pan. For the rest of the day I suffered a sore butt from that one hit. A local auto upholstery shop took apart the Honda seat. Kept the cover and the pan, but completely redid the foam. The result is a lot wider support and cushion that does not bottom out. Before the cover was put back on, I took the bike for a ride to see how the foam felt. We made a couple small changes in the foam layers and then hollowed out a middle section to insert a gel layer to really spread out the weight. The seat looks 100% stock, but has way more support and is able to take hits. This is important as it is actually hard to get your feet up under you on this bike to act as suspension. Was well worth the $350. The gel insert was $100 in itself, so really a rebuilt seat was only $250. Well worth the effort. He also came up with a good way to make the seat bearable in the heat of the summer. Black seats in the sun are usually impossible to sit on. Using fabric from air cooled luxury car seats, he made a pad I could attach that kept the seat cool. Yes, my NM4 has a strap-on!

Behind the seat tucked into the foot rest for the passenger I have an SAE plug. It's a fused connection direct to the battery. I use it for attaching a Battery Minder charger/desulfator to keep the battery fresh during storage. I installed a much larger harness than the charger needs so that I can connect my Warm 'n' Safe heated gear on those colder rides. It can also be used to power the Cycle Pump inflator.

The NM4 does not come with a center stand and Honda does not make one for this bike. However, since it uses a common NC700 frame design, the install points for the center stand are there. I purchased the stand for a NC700S, modified the foot arm to clear the bodywork on the NM4 and it works like a charm. Perfect for lubing the chain, parking level, and doing rear wheel work. Best of all, it does not even come close to touching the ground in a turn. Feelers on the folding footboards do. No idea why Honda didn't bother with a center stand.

Behind the saddle, I built my own topcase mount. At the time I got my NM4 (2 months after release) there wasn't any means to mount a topcase. However, since the seatback was designed to fold flat and become the passenger seat, I knew there had to be some structure under there. Turns out there is a lot more than just passenger support. Honda released their own topcase mount and it bolted to the same support I built my mount on. Difference is that my mount didn't care about allowing the seatback to fold flat. The Honda one puts the topcase way back to still allow a passenger. I actually like my design better and not just because I got to do a welding project on a rare 2 day old bike. (^_^)

The factory rear panniers are very small. They are also a strange shape and open to the side rather than from the top. I've always kept a tool kit, tire compressor, rain gear, etc on my bike and I wanted to use no more than one of the panniers for this gear as I really wanted the other one for food/water and the topcase for overnight gear or for whatever I needed for work. (laptop, change of clothes, etc.)

So, I worked and worked and worked to get the right packing method. So this:

opens to this:

Which contains all this:

There is also a hidden MO-Door Garage door opener, Lojack, and more.

I've probably forgotten some modifications. Been rather busy over the years.

As for Maintenance, I do it all myself. Well, sometimes the boys help, but given the rather fragile nature of the body panels and the potential to make a huge mess changing the oil, I tend to do most of it myself.

Probably the worst thing I had happen is a clogged K&N oil filter. Been using them for many years. Never had an issue. During Bike Week up at Laconia two years ago, I came out of a cafe and noticed a puddle of oil on the ground. Long story short, the filter had either clogged, or stopped flowing for whatever reason and forced the oil past the seal. I 'fixed' it once thinking it just needed to be tightened and added oil. 30 miles later the bike shut down due to lack of oil. I ended up walking 8 miles in 92 degree heat to a NAPA for supplies to fix the bike. K&N was less than helpful - OK, I get it I didn't have the filter for them to inspect, but it didn't take much to find other such stories and that many tracks banned non OEM filters because of similar events.

I use Amsoil 10w-40 MC oil in my NM4. The Owner's manual says to use 5w-30, but the service manual says 10w-40 is fine. Every other NC seems to be OK with 10w-40, so no idea what the deal with the owners manual is. Why do I want the 10w-40? Because I can buy it in gallon jugs. Nice to just have one plastic container to dispose than 4. Also, I can pour the used oil into the container and have it recycled.

Other than that, nothing unusual when it comes to keeping the bike running. I had one incident where commuting to work one morning, the clutch would not disengage as I came to a stop. The bike was forcing me through the intersection. Thankfully the lights were in my favor and changed. Never had it happen before or since. That was over a year ago and nearly 10,000 miles.

I even made a couple videos for some of the maintenance items, but the style of the first one annoyed some people, so I made a second one. They apply to any NC, so you might find them useful... Let me know which style you prefer.

Adventures...

Several local riding groups. Mostly on Meet-Up. I grab rides when I can. I like to do a fall foliage ride up through the White Mountains of New Hampshire and I like to do the Mt Washington climb on "Bikes Only" day during the Laconia Bike Week.

Nothing like parking an 'odd' bike among a sea of Harley-Davidson on the Wiers Beach boardwalk.:

I typically map the ride like this loop over the White Mountains during foliage season:

Sometimes I go for a ride in less than ideal conditions, but damn is it pretty...

You think ONE NM4 is unique? How about 2 on top of Mt. Washington?

Rode with him on a different occasion. I guess you can have two of these in the same place and the world keeps turning...

 

[NM4_Dude]

Heh, you could say that me and my NM4 are on top of the world.....

And yea, if you go too far to the side of the road, it drops about 3000 ft down to the Great Gulf Wilderness. One reason I prefer to do this ride only when Motorcycles are on the mountain. (^_^)

 

[admin]

Seems the host of the VultusForum (the dedicated forum for the mystical Honda NM4 (NC700JD) is no longer in operation.

I hope that my brothers and sisters here in the NC700 forums would kindly welcome the black sheep (or is that the batman or perhaps the Judge Dredd) of the family to your humble home.

Thats me on the Mt. Washington Auto Road a few years ago during Laconia Bike Week.

Astute observers will note the presence of a lever on the left hand. Nope, not a clutch - that's the rear brake. I came from Maxi-Scooters and the foot pedal on the NM4 isn't all that great, so I repurposed a brake lever and master cylinder from a Honda Silverwing and plumbed it to the ABS controller. The topcase is mounted on a bracket I built myself. Whole bunch of other mods. Basically have a wonderful cruiser/commuter bike that is comfy as heck.

Underneath, she is still just a fun reliable NC700. Although this model is called the JD. I suppose that's because you should be well into a good bottle of Jack Daniels before putting money down on such a crazy looking motorcycle. (^_^) Well, that and you need to be in a mellow mood to deal with all the bodywork just to do simple work on the thing. (^_^)

Welcome to the site! Glad you found us. If more NM4 owners show up I will make a sub forum for them

 

[davidc83]

nice write up....dealer in Terra Haute Indiana had one on the showroom floor for years when it came out....everyone thought the same too many $$$$ for the size of engine in the bike...finally someone bought it after they dropped the price by at least 50% (they lost money on the bike).

 

[NM4_Dude]

Yea, it's certainly not a 'budget bike'. But if you compare to a BMW 650 at the time, it was in the same ballpark. And given the time, this bike was pushing technology. For example, there isn't a single conventional bulb on the bike. Everything is LED. When the bike came out, the headlight alone listed at nearly $2000. And the USA version doesn't even get the cool blue halo around the headlight that the rest of the world got.

That's not to say it wasn't expensive. At a time where you could get a leftover NC700X for the $6k ballpark, paying double that for the NM4 was a steep premium.

The bike absolutely has its quirks. And I'm not referring to the style or the tiny pannier boxes.

Take the chain for example. It does not track straight. The rear wheel sprocket is roughly 1/2 a chain width further out from the bike centerline than the sprocket on the transmision. This makes adjusting the chain and changing the rear tire a much more involved process. Thankfully the swingarm has very precise markings to help align the wheel, but it's still careful measuring from the swingarm pivot to be sure the wheel is centered.

If you look at where the fuel filler is, that's the top of the fuel tank. The tank itself is pretty small:

So, what the heck is all that space between the rider and the handlebars?

That's the top of the engine and the airbox. Yes, the seat is really that low.

 

[Deckyon]

Nice write up. I still like the looks of that bike. I dont have the link handy, but there is an NC meetup in May in North Carolina (Kickstand Lodge, Stecoah, NC). It'd be great if you could make it up there.

 

[Vultus_Croatia]

Hello everyone from Croatia!

@NM4_Dude This will sound funny, but I forgot how to set up different display colors for neutral, drive and sport modes, and I have lost the user manual.
Could you please help me remember?

 

[NM4_Dude]

 

[Vultus_Croatia]

@NM4_Dude Thank you very much !!!

 

[asgaroth]

The NM4 does not come with a center stand and Honda does not make one for this bike. However, since it uses a common NC700 frame design, the install points for the center stand are there. I purchased the stand for a NC700S, modified the foot arm to clear the bodywork on the NM4 and it works like a charm. Perfect for lubing the chain, parking level, and doing rear wheel work. Best of all, it does not even come close to touching the ground in a turn. Feelers on the folding footboards do. No idea why Honda didn't bother with a center stand.

Hi, i have been riding the vultus for 5 years. Not having a center stand is one of my biggest gripe. The struggle to oil the chain is real. Thanks for the pro tip.

 

[asgaroth]

Have anyone ever tried to open up the speedometer? I live in Singapore. The weather here is summer all year round. Most of the colors of the speedometer is faulty. I was wondering how i can repair it without purchasing a new speedometer.

 

[Rabbit]

I’d have bought one of those except I have to have a manual. Only auto for them.