[Billnoroville]

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Motor and speed observations: I am sharing my experience after 2 days and 80 miles. I know a lot of you might be waiting to get yours or thinking of getting one. Sure comfort is nice but that is a preference or you would not think of this model. Sitting on it is not aggressive like a sport bike but it will corner well and stop well. Coming off a VFR I was looking for smaller, lighter and more comfort. I will miss the 109 HP and 11.5k redline. The CTX is a very easy bike to ride.
Day 2, Honda owner’s manual calls for shift at these miles per hour and I estimated what rpm that would be close to.. 2nd at 12 mph (2100), 3rd at 19 mph (2000), 4th at 25mph (2100), 5th at 31 mph (2100), 6th at 37 mph (2200).
The engine generates44 ft. pounds of torque at 4750 with 51 HP at 6250 and red line at 6500 so My max will most likely be around 6 if I get in a hurry.
After reading the above I decided that 2100 is too low rpm for me to shift. Lugging the engine in my mind is not a good thing. So for now I am using about 3000 as a low and 5000 as my normal driving range. Yes there may be times when I go above or below but you get the idea I hope.
At lunch time, I collected the following data by looking at the tach and speed trying to be accurate.
At 30 mph, 2nd gear rpm 3750, 3rd gear 2900, 4th gear 2400, At 40 mph, 2nd gear rpm 5000, 3rd gear 3800, 4th gear 3100, At 50 mph, 4th gear rpm 3850, 5th gear 3300, 6th gear 2650, At 60 mph, 4th gear rpm 4700, 5th gear 4000, 6th gear 3250, At 70mph, 5th gear rpm 4600, 6th gear 3750, At75mph, 5th gear rpm 4800, 6th gear 4000. Those who want to see more get out your graph paper and make a chart.
Now based on mileage markers in two miles I gained about ¼ of a tenth so that is about 2.5-3% indication over actual speed (going slower than indicated) so at 40 indicated you might be going 39.
Now I will relay my feelings on the ride. I have owned two nice Honda Hawk 650 GT’s which I know most have never seen one since they were only imported 1988 to 1991. This CTX accelerates close to it. The Hawk red lined at 8500 and would kick the CTX’s ass in a drag race or in the twisties. That said around town and driving normal I feel they are about the same. The weight is more but it is down low and that makes them feel the same rolling it around the garage (very easy). I took it out on my favorite twisty road on Day 1 with only 50 miles of experience on it. I was within about 5 miles per hour on most turns. I am still figuring when it will drag a peg, so far not once. The biggest difference is getting used to the lower shift points and working the torque curve better AND when you pick up your feed remember to put them forward not under you, lol, Figure about 500 miles for that.
Glad to have this forum. Sure used the Hawk and VFR forums.

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[Pete]

when you pick up your feed remember to put them forward not under you,

Haha... that's funny.

Quick question: does the CTX700 have an MPG display like the CB500?

 

[Billnoroville]

Pete,
the only fuel item displayed is a vertical 5 bar display on the right side of the instrument cluster, when it gets to the last on it will soon start flashing indicating you are on reserve. My VFR had a similar display and I thought it was good and I got to where I knew about what each bar meant as far as miles go but then I always hit 155 -165 and it always had at least a gallon left when filling so just used trip A and watched the miles. I use trip B to indicate how long it has been since I oil the chain (2-300 miles is my regiment).

 

[Billnoroville]

Pete, lol... yep, put your feed in front of you and your feet too.

 

[Thumper]

Thanks for the ride report Bill. Looks like at 75mph, and rpm only 4500 in 6th gear, the engine should be happy.
Did you feel any buzziness in the pegs or bars at any of those speeds?

 

[Pete]

Pete,
the only fuel item displayed is a vertical 5 bar display on the right side of the instrument cluster,

Thanks. That's too bad. The cluster in the cheaper CB500F also displays instant and average miles per gallon.

 

[Billnoroville]

I have a Prius and a Mustang Cobra, I don't want to worry about my gas mileage display telling me what I am doing wrong. My Cobra does every thing wrong but what a ride.

enjoy

 

[Thumper]

I have a Prius and a Mustang Cobra, I don't want to worry about my gas mileage display telling me what I am doing wrong. My Cobra does every thing wrong but what a ride.

enjoy

Your garage is in total conflict Bill! A Prius and a Cobra? That is about as far to the left and the right as you can go.

 

[Pete]

Your garage is in total conflict Bill! A Prius and a Cobra? That is about as far to the left and the right as you can go.

He's obviously trying to balance things out.

 

[Billnoroville]

hey Pete and Thumper, LOL. I got my ying and yang going. Traded in the the VFR so the fast side was not overbalanced. The ctx is about in the middle so still figure it is balanced.
Just got in from another 70 mile ride. 198 total now.

 

[Billnoroville]

Thanks for the ride report Bill. Looks like at 75mph, and rpm only 4500 in 6th gear, the engine should be happy.
Did you feel any buzziness in the pegs or bars at any of those speeds?

Thumper, went out for 70 mile ride and 75 is right at 4000 rpms. Looks like about an 800 rpm difference if you drop to 5th gear. Looks to me I will spend the most time in 4th and 5th around my area with lots of 55mph roads and 65 freeways . This will keep the rpms above 3k.

As far as buzz goes, the engine having low rpms and a counter balance I can only feel some vibration around 5000 but not buzzing but just enough to let you know you have a twin. rubber mounted pegs don't transmit much of anything I would call vibration. Very smooth engine and chassis I'd say.

 

[Thumper]

4000rpm at 75mph is even better! Thanks Bill, it's hard to wait for a bike to show up that you already paid for and haven't ridden yet. Dealers down here in Florida don't generally allow test rides unless you are at Bike Week or an event. Still, on paper and sitting on the naked CTX was enough to sell me on the bike. The details you have provided have helped fill in the questions I still had.
Our bike will most likely show up while we are out of town. I told them to just keep it crated until we get back so my wife can see her bike uncrated. This is her fourth motorcycle, but she always got one off the showroom floor.

 

[gregsfc]

Fantastic report Bill. Those RPM numbers sound really good for a bike with an engine of that size. By good I mean that it just seems to be tooling along at highway speeds. Shifting between 3K and 5K is just what I like to see in a bike.

I was learning how to ride a bike yesterday. It was a Yamaha 1100 cruiser of some type. It was showing 3600 RPM @ 64 mph, but I found out from the Harley rider behind me that I was actually going only 60 mph. I really liked cruising along around that engine speed.

My biggest problem coming off a scooter was getting the bike to pull away from a stop without killing it. I ran the battery down once before we could get going. Just like any straight shift, car or bike, one has to get used to the clutch. I finally got it. Problem number two was remembering that the left hand brake is not a hand brake and that I had to use my right foot. Problem number three (which is the one that I struggled with during the entire training session) was figuring out how to keep the bike from rolling on hills at stop signs or traffic lights. I never made a major mistake, but sometimes I had to do a lot of thinking things through at intersections. Problem number four, something that I hadn't gone through in my mind before hand, was the way I had to switch moving one foot down and then the other in order to get the gearing down to number 1 and then switch feet and get the right foot on the rear brake so that I could keep the bike stopped while waiting to release the clutch. I had not gone through the thought process before riding that I wouldn't be able to keep my hand on the front brake and feather the throttle at the same time. This took some getting used to. The last problem I had was remembering to release the rear brake while pulling off. Sometimes I would forget that my foot was on the brake and that's why I wasn't rolling backwards. Remembering to put feet forward was not a problem for me, as I've only ridden a scooter before hand and did not have the habit of bringing my feet up and back.

 

[Billnoroville]

Gregfsc, I have never ridden a scooter so I am sure I would be terrible at it for awhile. Once underway bikes are easy. Most problems come under 1 mile per hour. I often come up to a stop and put down only my left foot. If a long light, I hold the bike still with the front brake and put both feet down. When ready to go I put my right foot on brake so I can release my hand brake and use the throttle. You can learn to brake and throttle with your right hand with practice. All manually shifted vehicles will stall if rpms are not enough to move the weight so and each vehicle is different with what works. This is one the areas to master first. The Honda clutch has a very light pull. The adjustment is right on the lever to allow you to adjust when it engages (far or near the grip). Once moving, only a few feet the clutch can be let all the way out. When shifting only pull in to shift and let right out. Some people let the clutch out slowly when shifting to higher gears. and that will slip it some and cause it to ware out faster over time. Also I downshift once I am slowing down so I get back to first gear around 5 miles per hour and not so much making the engine revs slow me down. As a new motorcycle rider, avoid the front brake at slow stops as many intersections are dirty with oil or gravel and many slow tip overs happen here. Try only using 2 fingers on the front brake at most when going straight and feather it till you get to know it's stopping power. Most braking (as in cars too) comes from the front brake so know it before you really need it.

good luck in the transition, you will get it.

 

[gregsfc]

Gregfsc,

good luck in the transition, you will get it.

Yeah. I caught on to the downshifts right away and upshifting too. After the first couple of minutes and figuring out how the bike handled and leaned, higher speeds were just fine for me. Seems like I didn't have to do much at all with the clutch to upshift; just barely gave it a jab.

The most confusing thing for me, other than getting used to keeping all four limbs busy to ride, was keeping track of what gear I was in when I was decelerating and/or stopping. It felt like the bike had eighteen gears at that point. I'm used to just feeling the gear shift or just looking down to see what gear I'm in. I didn't have a problem on the highway accelerating, because I'd just look at the RPM gauge and when I had it down to 3000-3800 RPM, and I was at highway speed, I knew I was golden, but when I was holding in the clutch and downshifting without engaging the clutch between downsifts, I wasn't doing a good job counting, and therefore, when it was time to roll on the throttle again, I was just hoping I was somewhere close when I engaged the clutch. Usually I was, but once, I should have been in second; I don't know where I was, but I nearly killed it.

I know...it comes with time and experience. I'm not worried.

 

[Billnoroville]

If not coming up to a stop and your are dropping a gear or too, always let the clutch out between gears to let the engine catch up with road speed. This will prevent over reving the motor or worse yet cause the rear wheel to slide. Soon you will not have to look at the tach as the sound will tell you what the engine speed is. At 45 to 65 4th and 5th are the most used gears. If going down hill I may get into 6th but most of the time I will not till about 65 or better. I just do not want to use the motor below about 4k. Always get into 1st before a total stop as the transmission shifts better while the rear wheel is still turning half the gears in the trans at all times, clutch in or not.

 

[gregsfc]

Good tips Bill. Thanks. I think being a first-day rider, things felt like they were happening real fast when I was slowing down, and I felt like I didn't have time to do the traditional downshift pattern, when in fact, after I got used to it, it wouldn't really be a big deal.

Speaking of engine sound. Can you hear the CTX700N while riding?

Folks on the CB500 forum struggle with this aspect. The engine is so quite, they can't hear what is going on, and with no gear indicator and the RPM gauge hard to read in certain instances, they get lost.

If I'm not mistaken, with the CTX700 and 700N, the DCT comes with a gear indicator, and the manual does not. Seems like Honda has it backwards for what is needed for the rider.

 

[blackspirit]

I fitted a gear position indicator to my cbf600. It plugged into the diagnostic socket and worked out gear position by comparing speed and revs. Worked well and very useful when familiarising with the bike and still useful 3 years later!

I find keeping track of 5 gears OK but with 6 gears it's good to have this feedback.

 

[DewaltDakota]

I can see the gear position indicator spots on the LCD for my manual tranny CTX700N. I wonder if the brain is in there to support it, and we could somehow tap into it and activate the bugger. I'd certainly prefer to do that, over adding another display to my bars.

 

[mwambsganss]

I've been trying to find out if this is possible, but I can't find anything on it. I asked at my local Honda dealer. He said that you'd probably have to replace the wiring harness too, which he called stupid expensive.