One of the advantages of living in the Orlando area is the AIMexpo that comes to town every Oct. And for the first time Honda showed up big time with many different machines for demo rides. I showed up early and snagged a ride on the CB500X. At Bike week in March I was able to do a demo ride on the FJ-09 (my first ride since my wreck). Now is was the CB500X's turn and it fit me to a T. Of course it needs a bigger windscreen and a bunch of other farkles but the basic platform was what I was looking for. I had no trouble flat footing, I rode in an upright position, the seat felt good (half hour ride), plenty of zip, 6 speeds and 300 mile range (oh, and a 430 lb weight.) There was certainly no top heavy feel to it. From what I have read, it will do 80mph all day on the slab and also do forest service roads, etc. There is an amazing amount of farkles made specifically for the bike and I already have the farkles I want to use picked out. It's fairly cheap as you can pick up a 2013 model for about $4K. Of course it is not in the same league as the NT in the areas of weather protection, storage, shaft driven, power, etc. The expo itself was great and I spent most of afternoon walking the isles and talking to vendors. It was amazing the number of Chinese companies that were represented. There was a special section for FREE motorcycle parking and I walked through it a bit and saw one other NT there (FL plates). I didn't really see any new models that would take the place of the NT (mid-size tourer with shaft drive). All in all I had a great time. And I certainly enjoyed riding again.
Wendell
Wendell
