Another Trip with the Honda NC750X

I just returned from a 3,468-mile, two-week trip east to Rhode Island, then Maine. My main purpose was to see my daughter, Tess, who just completed her qualifying exams in preparation for her dissertation in natural-resource economics. But like on all my long trips, I, too, got an education about riding my motorcycle.

With my daughter, Tess, after eating seafood
in sight of the beach in Rhode Island.

Starting from Dubuque, Iowa, I couldn't get out of town without my first construction-related detour. The bridge to Illinois, crossing the Mississippi River, was closed, forcing me to take the other Dubuque bridge into Wisconsin. An auspicious start.

I had left home early on a Saturday, and traffic wasn't bad for the first couple of hours. Then I hit Chicago and stop-and-go traffic. From there, I took the I-90 toll-road for a couple of days. Later, I rode through Providence, RI, and Boston, MA, again hitting stop-and-go on my way to Maine's Acadia National Park. Then I headed home through a massive heat dome and 4th of July traffic.  

Here are the main lessons:

• I greatly prefer riding the West over the East. The heat, humidity, traffic, and construction would have overwhelmed me back when I had less experience and different motorcycles.
• The Honda NC750X suited me well. I can flat-foot, which when stopped on the road is a great comfort.  
• The low center of gravity made driving near a huge number of trucks far less anxiety-inducing. And doing U-turns in the middle of nowhere left me pissed at Google Maps, not the motorcycle.
• The NC750X has plenty of power for merging onto interstates and for overtaking the "slow" cars and trucks that dared drop below 75 m.p.h. It has a top speed of 105 m.p.h. and a 0-60 m.p.h. time of 4.5 seconds.  
• With panniers on the back plus a waterproof bag for my camping gear, I carried everything I needed with space to spare.
• Before I left, I purchased a new mesh riding jacket from Sindt Motors, the source of my bike, encouragement, and knowledge. I love both the jacket and the guys at the shop. Riding through that heat dome in my old jacket wasn't possible.

In summary, this trip was about being comfortable with unpleasant riding conditions.

I'm now ready to take the bike in for its 16,000-mile maintenance. Not bad for two years of riding—and it's still early in the season!

Oh, one last thing.  Because of the low seat height and stability of the NC750X, I stopped and got off it a lot more.  Riding the Loop Road at Acadia National Park, it was easy to stop for photos or the famous popovers at the Jordan Pond House. Here are some of the photos:

The view from the back patio of the Jordan Pond House.

The creatively named Sand Beach.

Time to get back on the road!

Honda NC750X Review

 I've gone through far more two-wheelers in the last 15 years than cars in nearly 50.  My first car, purchased when I was not yet 17, was a wrecked-and-rebuilt Ford Pinto that I bought with money from working summers in the NC tobacco fields.  I drove it till I was 29.  It broke down at convenient times, and I always new that if a girl went out with me, it wasn't because of the car.

Motorcycles came much later.  My mom was risk-averse, and then I had kids that kept me from justifying the purchase.  I started small, literally, with a used Chinese-made scooter.  It was the one on which my wife and I got our motorcycle licenses.   A few years later, my older daughter ran it from the gas pump into a wall of the service station.  She was unhurt, but the scooter was finished.  Time to move up.

In the next few years, I went through a Kawasaki, a Suzuki, a Honda scooter (which I still have), a Honda NC700,  a Kawasaki Versys 650, a Honda Africa Twin, and a Yamaha X-Max scooter.  The Yamaha scooter had a top speed of 84 m.p.h, which sounds like a lot, but my experience on Montana and South Dakota interstates made me leery of being topped out when big trucks were zooming by.  Instead, I have now settled on a bike to stick with, a Honda NC750X.

My Honda NC750X in front of a favorite coffee shop, Rosie's in Epworth IA.

I loved my Africa Twin, riding it on a 5000+ mile trip west for over 6 weeks.  But I also dropped it a few times, always at slow speeds.  I never felt quite stable on it.  It was just a bit too tall for me.  Still, riding it so much and so far helped me determine what I really needed in a bike:

1. Low seat height.  I'm 65 now and have some arthritis in my hip.  On the NC750x, I can put both feet on the ground.  
2.  Low center of gravity.  I want stability.  Falling hurts more when you get old.  The NC750x has the gas tank under the seat.  Where the gas tank is on most bikes is a storage compartment that will hold my helmet.  
   
   
   
3. Grip warmers and cruise-control.  These were standard on my Africa Twin, and they made long trips possible.  I get cramps in my hands, so I had the warmers and cruise-control added to the NC750X.  They are working great.
4. DCT.  As I mentioned above, I have arthritis in my hip.  The left hip.  The side you normally change gears with.  Honda makes the DCT, and it is available on the NC750X.  DCT stands for Double-Clutch Transmission.  In practice, it works like an automatic transmission, but a very smart one.  It is virtually impossible to stall a Honda with a DCT.
5. Panniers.  I like to camp overnight, and I plan a couple of weeks out west again this summer.  I have a soft waterproof bag I put over the back, and I added Shad panniers to the sides.  It's more than enough storage, even without the frunk.
6. Navigation.  I have yet to find a built-in navigation system that I like as well as Google Maps.  So I ordered a phone holder made for motorcycles.

The advice that any beginning rider gets is to buy a bike that fits.  Good advice, as far as it goes.  But needs---and bodies---change.  I'm not the sort to own a dozen bikes for a variety of needs.  I hang on to my Honda sh150i scooter for around town because it's too old to get much for it, has bigger wheels than most scooters now come with, and insurance is nearly nothing.  Plus, it's a load of fun. 

But for longer, higher-speed outings, the HC750X is about as good an all-rounder as you'll find.  Excellent stability, great gas mileage, a top speed of 105 m.p.h.,  good low-rpm torque, and that Honda reliability---a Honda has never left me broken down on the side of the road.  

I'll post photos of my next outing.