I had a great day/night on the rally, met some very nice people and did a lot of miles which helped me to get used to the new bike - here are a few thoughts.........
The V4 engine is a great piece of engineering - it sounds really purposeful, is silky smooth, and has plenty of power (I haven't explored full throttle application or over 7,000 rpm as it's breaking in). Fuel consumption is a little worse than the NT - I am getting 50 mpg while breaking in, the NT used to give me about 55 mpg in normal use. I anticipate once I can explore all the power it will return maybe 45mpg, but I can live with that, it's giving me 41bhp additional fun so a little more fuel is worth it. I can detect no vibration through seat, pegs or bars. I found several times that I was cruising along in 5th gear instead of 6th, several years of NT ownership seems to have programmed my brain to stop changing up when I get to 5th, this is despite there being a gear indicator on the dash display. Cruising is effortless - an indicated 70mph has the engine spinning at 4400 rpm in top gear, similar to the NT, although with the red zone starting at 12,000 there is a little more to play with at the top end.
All controls have a quality feel we can expect from Honda - a nice touch are the adjustable clutch and brake levers which enabled me to fine tune the reach. The clutch is hydraulic and has a very slightly heavier pull than the cable arrangement on the NT which may be an issue for some. The LED lights were something else, I have never felt so confident riding out in the country at night although of course this did not help when a deer darted out of the undergrowth just in front of me - happily we did not collide.
In terms of comfort I think it would be wrong to expect total comfort over 700 miles on any completely stock bike. I can say that I had no knee or hip issues which had troubled me on the NT before I lowered the pegs. The seat gave me no more numb-butt than the stock NT seat but is something I will be looking to modify in due course as my modified NT seat was a revelation. A new issue I had was some pain across the back of my neck and shoulders. I believe this may be due to the extra width of the bars combined with the very upright riding position. It wasn't a huge issue and I'm hoping that I may find this fades as I get more miles under my belt and my body adjusts to the new riding position. I also found the grips a little skinny and hard as I used to run grip-puppies on the NT to help with the vibrations, so I may get a set for the Crossrunner.
Tyres are Bridgestone Adventure A40s which seemed perfectly fine in both wet and dry as we had a little rain during the night, I did not once see the traction control light flash which would have indicated some intervention from the bike.
Finally the stock screen is OK and is height adjustable, but I think I may change it for a touring screen which will give me a little more protection.
In summary - I love the new bike, I don't believe there is a perfect bike that suits every rider straight out of the crate, and the things I may need to change are relatively minor and not required urgently as they are as a result of me being probably excessively picky.
If I haven't bored you too much and you are still reading this, I hope it may have been of some interest to you. Now get onto your dealers to get this bike imported! The USA needs this bike.