Santa Monica, Calif.—The Honda NT700V isn't the kind of bike that'll impress the sportbike throttle jockeys at the local weekend hangout. In fact, it probably wouldn't turn a head amongst the hardcore iron-butt Harley crowd or the BMW sport-touring crew either.
Nope. This bike is an entry-level sport tourer so subtle and non-threatening it slips almost anonymously amongst the sea of more macho two-wheelers. But that's a big part of the reason we like it so much. We racked up more than 450 miles in the comfy saddle of the NT700V all over Southern California—from the Malibu Coast to the mountains above Santa Barbara to the high desert.
THE SPECS
The NT700V is a new entry-level sport-touring bike for the U.S., but that doesn't mean it's actually new. For several years, Honda has sold this bike in Europe as the Deauville. At the heart of this 571-pound motorcycle is a 680-cc 52-degree V-twin with fuel injection. This is the same engine Honda uses in the wild DN-01 motorcycle scooter hybrid . It's paired to a five-speed manual transmission and routes 60 hp to the rear wheel with a maintenance-free shaft drive, like most Hondas.
The 58.1-inch wheelbase chassis uses a 41-mm front fork with 4.5 inches of travel and a preload adjustable rear shock with 4.8 inches of travel. The seat height is a relatively low 31.7 inches. The NT700V comes in two flavors—one with ABS, like our fully loaded $12,273 test bike; and one without that costs less than $10,000. Both wear dual 296-mm discs up front and a single 276-mm disc in the rear.
Because this is a touring bike, the fuel tank is a generous 5.2 gallons with a 0.9-gallon reserve—plenty for running more than 200 miles between fill-ups. There's a handy fuel gauge in the instrument cluster too, which takes the guesswork out of fuel stops.
The NT700V comes with standard hard saddlebags that have a handy horizontal pass-through, so you can carry longer items—like cattle prods or tennis rackets, depending on what you do with your leisure time—that otherwise would be left back at the ranch. Our test bike was equipped with the $600 top trunk along with $150 wind deflectors, heated grips ($315) and additional padding ($210).
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