Yesterday and today on the new X

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zacapa

Race Dog
Joined
Feb 28, 2012
Messages
2,110
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Location
East Coast of Africa in the Hills
Bike
Honda XR650L
This has been covered in another section on WildDog forum but I thought I may as well recompile it here because it fits the forum format.

Went to liberate my brand spanking new 700X today at Honda Pinetown at about 4 in the afternoon. Many thumbs up to Michael and Simone at the big H, you guys rock and thanks for a very decent deal  icon_thumleft icon_thumleft
I will definately be back for more when my 700X needs replacing after 150K km. This might be a while though......

The new bike had 2km on the clock when I first fired her up. Proves that the really hard working guys back in the workshop did their thing and drove the bike around the block to see that everything works the way it should. Just the way I like it coz If I had seen more mileage I would have been worried. All things good then so far. Michael was being the great sales guy he always is and I was soon on my way. Filled up with 95 unleaded around the corner for ZAR 90 coz thats all the cash I had left after paying for the bike so the tank was almost full. Easy warmup out of Pinetown and up Field Hill.

I proceded to Cato Ridge on the N3. All the cages in the way did not distract much from my enjoyment of the new ride. Varying the throttle and revs I gave it her maiden break-in ride in deciding to keep revs around 3000 - 4500rpm through the gears, at the same time not babying her so that the rings may get seated. Once off the N3 at Hammarsdale went the old road up to the Old Main Road junction and back through Monteseel and Drummond. Easy cruising all the way and giving it a bit of stick up to 5000rpm through the gears for short bursts. The torque is great, the handling is pretty good on these crappy roads of ours and I can see myself going a long way with this bike.

After 58km I rolled in home. My 77 year old father was out to greet me and he reckons its a pretty cool bike. Must be good then!

to be continued......

Next Day
Went riding on the 700X today, the bike has got 538km on the clock now and crikey! am I impressed after today's ride. Loads of torque where you need it most and she cruises ever so nicely. The bike is solidly built and feels very stable on the road, the brakes are great and the FI fueling is spot on. She loves to go where she is pointed and is not unduly worried by bumps in the road. The standard suspension is pretty good then for a budget bike.  Very flickable too as the light unsprung mass of 17 inch wheels and single disc/caliper dont have much hassles with what's thrown at them. Hardly any vibrations from the motor and very smooth throughout the rev range too.

Took the R56 to Richmond, Ixopo, Mzimkulu towards Kokstad and hit a left towards Port Shepstone on the N2, very nice stretch of road this and in a good state of repair for most of the way. The 700X is very different to my XR650L, but mostly in a good way if you are riding the bike for what it was designed for. Where the XR has the ability to get to 160+ on the GPS it was just not designed to be a big mileage a day roadmiles machine. Things get pretty uncomfortable on the XR at anything more than 120-130. Not so on the 700X, this bike was designed to be a big mileage eater it seems. Two things that will need attention though: the seat though comfortable for a good while will need some tweaking to make it an all day sofa, and the windshield while looking good out of the box does not offer the kind of wind protection and clean airflow around your helmet that is needed for comfortable all day riding. I'm gonna take the slow approach to sorting the windscreen and get hold of some Maizeys plastics whatever its called cheap stuff and try out some different shapes till it feels good and then only commit to buying the right screen that works for me.

Got to Shepstone and realized that some food and a good cup of coffee would be just the right thing. Dropped into Kwagga's Light meals and take aways. The delightfull waitress
served up a jumbo burger and a cup of filter coffee. While the coffee was good the burger was clearly the best burger in many a year :thumleft: Highly recommended so if you are in the area stop and try them out. They are somewhere along the coastal road there by Shepstone.

From there back home on the main slab and dropped in at my mate Paul's place who was keen to see the new bike. Another cup of coffee and a long chat and I was soon on my way again. All in all a fantastic day's ADV riding our sometimes crappy MX track type tar roads which could be better maintained if the fuel levy we all pay for was used for its intended purpose.

As for my new 700X - I am mightily impressed :thumleft: :thumleft: :thumleft:
 

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