CB500X (2013 - present) review
A taste of the adventure flavour for A2-licenced riders, though mechanically identical to the naked CB500F
ADVENTURE biking is all the rage nowadays – so say the sales figures. Well, at least, buying adventure bikes is in. But, as intrepid travellers have flitted across the globe on everything from C90s and Vespas to GSs and Africa Twins, what really is an ‘adventure’ bike anyway?
A bike that is comfortable to sit on for long periods for both rider and pillion, has enough power to meet all legal road speeds yet won’t shy away from the odd gravel road, with a respectable tank range, and looks inspiring enough to make you jump on that ferry? Or posey bikes for well-matured gents who need to sit upright so they have space to rest their paunches as they putter down to the local B&Q, imagining that next year, or maybe the one after, they will finally embark on that intercontinental trip they couldn’t afford when they were thirty years younger?
Honda’s latest launch, the CB500X, will, like others of its ilk, stoke this evergreen debate. But, it adds a new twist by bringing it down from the 1000+cc, £10+K level to the relatively empty middle of the market. We spent the better part of a warm spring day riding the X in the beautiful mountain twisties around Catalunya to see how it fits in.
The fraternal twin of the sports-styled CBR500R and the naked commuter CB500F, which we rode back in February, the X is Honda’s dose of cut-price adventure stylee for the masses. Cost-saving platform engineering means that the differences are relatively minor – most obviously it has a different face, complete with mini ‘adventure beak’, with a deliberate resemblance to the Crosstourer – but there’s more to it than just new panels (which, in my opinion, are quite handsome, albeit in a typically-Honda understated kind of way).
Read more at http://www.visordown.com/road-tests-first-rides/first-ride-2013-honda-cb...
ADVENTURE biking is all the rage nowadays – so say the sales figures. Well, at least, buying adventure bikes is in. But, as intrepid travellers have flitted across the globe on everything from C90s and Vespas to GSs and Africa Twins, what really is an ‘adventure’ bike anyway?
A bike that is comfortable to sit on for long periods for both rider and pillion, has enough power to meet all legal road speeds yet won’t shy away from the odd gravel road, with a respectable tank range, and looks inspiring enough to make you jump on that ferry? Or posey bikes for well-matured gents who need to sit upright so they have space to rest their paunches as they putter down to the local B&Q, imagining that next year, or maybe the one after, they will finally embark on that intercontinental trip they couldn’t afford when they were thirty years younger?
Honda’s latest launch, the CB500X, will, like others of its ilk, stoke this evergreen debate. But, it adds a new twist by bringing it down from the 1000+cc, £10+K level to the relatively empty middle of the market. We spent the better part of a warm spring day riding the X in the beautiful mountain twisties around Catalunya to see how it fits in.
The fraternal twin of the sports-styled CBR500R and the naked commuter CB500F, which we rode back in February, the X is Honda’s dose of cut-price adventure stylee for the masses. Cost-saving platform engineering means that the differences are relatively minor – most obviously it has a different face, complete with mini ‘adventure beak’, with a deliberate resemblance to the Crosstourer – but there’s more to it than just new panels (which, in my opinion, are quite handsome, albeit in a typically-Honda understated kind of way).
Read more at http://www.visordown.com/road-tests-first-rides/first-ride-2013-honda-cb...
