I’ve Decided On a Bike

The winner after much deliberation is the Honda CB500X.  There are a few reasons for this choice which I will get into here but for a moment can we just enjoy the beauty of my first ever motorcycle?  Thank you.  We can now proceed.

I can breakdown the factors I used to choose this bike into three categories: Price, Reliability and Capability.

  1. Price – This adventure bike is a great value for what you get.  It isn’t going to blow your hair back with any particular skill but it is perfectly competent in several areas that might otherwise be overlooked by similar priced bikes.  As I plan to do most of my riding on tarmac with the occasional meander off road I wanted something I could be comfortable on for lengthy road rides.  This bike is essentially Honda’s street bike with some minor changes to make your ride a bit less aggressive.  It can also handle some light off road jaunts while only showing it’s deficiencies in some of the more technical or harsher landscapes.  There is also a package that can be bought to make the transition to off road more solid.  (More on that later.)
  2. Reliability – I am not a mechanic but I feel confident in my ability to pick up just about anything.  The good news is with the standard Honda engine that is found on the CB500X there are very few places in the world where I won’t find mechanics with experience to take the tough work off my hands.  This engine couldn’t be less exotic and with the several models of Honda currently supported by it, the commonality is remarkable.  Everything on this bike is made to last and very few owners have any gripes after logging some serious miles.  That means a great deal to me as I want to spend my time riding and not in a cold garage figuring out just how much I don’t know.
  3. Capability – This aspect is more longview but is one of the more exciting things about the CB500X.  Rally Raid has developed an add-on kit to take the Honda CB500X’s off road capabilities from passable to respectable.  It includes a pretty significant overhaul including wheels, rear suspension with your choice of spring rates, front fork hardware and some other miscellaneous items to completely retrofit this bike for adventure capabilities.  This kit isn’t cheap at $3000 dollars but will definitely get you a solid mid-size adventure bike for sub $10k.  The below video is a review of the Rally Raid kit as well as some other accessories which can be purchased in the US from Giant Loop.

 

With all that information it wasn’t a hard choice to settle on the Honda.  I found one at a dealer about 60 miles away from my home and a buddy of mine is going to go pick it up with me.  The deposit is down and within a fairly short amount of time I will have the bike.  Subscribe to this blog to get more updates as I outfit this bike and start my adventure riding.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *