Honda says it wanted to create a fun and user-friendly motorcycle when it set out to build the 2012 Honda NC700S — a simple, practical, two-cylinder get around town motorcycle. At 47hp and 44 lbs•ft of torque, the Honda NC700S isn’t exactly blowing the doors off with its performance figures, but of course that is not really the purpose of Honda’s new motor, which the NC700S features. Designed to be a compact, rideable, and efficient power supply for Honda’s new commuter entries, the Japanese company hopes that the 670cc motor, with its broad torque curve, will power a new generation and category of machinery.
Fairly unassuming in its outward design, the Honda NC700S shows its lifestyle practicality with features like a helmet-sized storage compartment under the faux-fuel tank, a low-slung seat, and low-cost maintenance structure. Available with Honda’s second-generation dual-clutch transmission (DCT), as well as Honda’s combined anti-locking brakes (C-ABS), the NC700S should be a fairly easy motorcycle for new riders to learn, especially with the DTC’s automatic-shifting feature.
Despite all the marketing jargon the winged-company has thrown around the 2012 Honda NC700S, the reality about the bike is this: it’s the return of the street-standard. A genre lost with time, Honda hopes that the NC700S will return a desire for the all-round go anywhere do anything motorcycle (they’ve even helped this purpose further with the NC700X, which boasts longer suspension and a more off-road focused look to the otherwise vanilla machine). Don’t take our words as a detriment though, as there is something to be said about what is largely considered to be the last honest motorcycle genre.
True to form, Honda has put a tremendous amount of time and energy into its new 670cc twin-cylinder motor, which has been designed to be mounted as low as possible in the NC700S’s steel frame chassis. With many components on the motor doing double-duty, like for instance the the camshaft also powers the cooling pump, these technical efficiencies amount to an estimated 78+ mpg. Sipping from the Honda NC700S’s 3.7 gallon fuel tank, owners can expect a theoretical 288 mile range, which should be more than enough for the 474 lbs (without DCT) daily commuter to use as it slips through the morning gridlock. We expect pricing on the 2012 Honda NC700S to be aggressively cheap.
Source: Honda
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