I was intrigued by the Deauville 650 when I found it on the European Honda website in about 2000 or 2001. When the NT700V Deauville was announced in 2006, I fell in love with its looks and its apparent practicality and versatility.
Then in 2008, I went "Over the Pond" as a Tag-a-long rider to the GCE Rally in Switzerland (GCE means GTR Club Europe; it's the European equivalent of the Concour Owners Group). I got to sit on an NT700V at the Honda dealer in Mannheim, Germany, and fell in love with the bike. I was surprised that I didn't see (or notice, one or the other) a single Deauville while riding 3800 miles through Germany, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic, Austra, Switzerland, and Licthenstein.
When Big Red finally announced that they were going to import the NT to the US in 2010, I knew I'd be buying one. When I pulled the trigger, I started the process of making it exactly the bike I wanted. I'll probably tweak it a few more times before we're done, but I've finally got the bike I've been wanting since I started riding in 1997.