Deauville

[yorkie_chris]

I'm also considering one for the joys of winter commuting.

How much would a ratty one go for and how do they handle 33bhp restriction?

Ta

Chris

I bought an '88 for £500 to use as commuter bike.

It's as Embee said. It does what it says on the tin. It does it bloody well too. Keep on top of the front brake servicing and no problems. They work quite well.

When it's dry I use B roads to work. About 16 miles of them. I've had both pegs scrape the floor without trying. It's a heavy lump to push around but it is also a very well balanced bike and you don't feel the weight at all once you get going. The built in panniers are next to useless as standard so I got bigger lids for them which is a little better. I only really use it for getting me to work and back and for that it's brilliant.

I get 200 miles and more out of the 17 litre tank. It handles very well on Z6's but I am about to put some Continental touring tyres on and stick with the motorway commute. £100 the pair.

If you get an early carbed one, you'll need to make sure the carbs are balanced, else it struggles to start and idle in the mornings. I have also found that the carbs go out of balance rather quicker than I'd like. With it being a faired bike you have to take off the faring and the tank and the air filter housing before you get to the balance screw, so bit of a lot of work for 1 minute of balancing. Jo knows as she did it the last time.

Very happy with mine. I bought it for a specific purpose and it does it extremely well. I dropped it 4 times trying to get up the hill when it snowed and the only damage was to the water pump housing which had an existing repaired crack which consequently started to leak again. Other than normal servicing parts I have not had to pay out for any repairs. It's been a solid bus and serves me well. It'll cruise at around 90mph easily, and I've regularly had 3 figures on the speedo without any concerns.

Will you get one with this RACE REP lol,

As I have reached a more mature age than most on this site and not much interested in "scratching" but more touring orientated I was considering buying the new 2007 as a "Last Bike". My only concern being would I notice the power/ease of riding comparison to my Sprint ST?. I suppose the only way to find out would be to have an extended test ride but nobody local has one for test
My other choice in this class was the 800 BMW but the price difference with all the trimmings is considerable against the Honda

Yo muffles...."going for a song" means selling for singing a song instead of money, I think it may have originated in ale houses, if you couldn't afford to pay you could sing to entertain and so pay that way!

Originally Posted by RhythmJunkie

Yo muffles...."going for a song" means selling for singing a song instead of money, I think it may have originated in ale houses, if you couldn't afford to pay you could sing to entertain and so pay that way!

Ah ok got it...so basically they are cheap

[embee]

Originally Posted by Dicky Ticker

...I was considering buying the new 2007 as a "Last Bike". My only concern being would I notice the power/ease of riding comparison to my Sprint ST?. ...

Look at the Deauville forum,
http://www.deauvilleuk.org/forum/index.php
there were quite a few "early impressions" a year or so back when the 700 first came out. You can always ask questions there, though it's an audience with vested interests!

On the European meeting this year (Deauville-meets-Deauville, D-m-D 2007) http://www.deauville-meets-deauville...ault.php?lg=en
the 700s definitely had a lot more mid range grunt than the 650s coming out of the hairpins up the Stelvio! The combined effect of bigger capacity and 4-valve/FI has given it 20% more torque than the 650, very noticeable.

On the issue of 650 prices, something presentable in the 98-2000 era could probably be in the £1500 range, cheaper ones down at £1k. There are some tatty (e.g. broken plastics) ones at £600 up.

Courier ones might have slipping clutches, the clutch pack was improved at 2002 (V2).

The Deauville was called NT650V, the previous model without the fairing etc (but shaft drive) was the NTV650. Earlier still the chain drive ones were the Bros/Hawk variants (alloy frames, single side swingarm).
Deauvilles started at 98 with the NT650V-W, then -X,-Y, then they became NT650V-1, V-2 etc. The facelifted ones start at V2 (like mine!)

Thanks for your input guys. I like the look of the race rep version I could pootle around Jellystone park on it and badger Yogi and Boo Boo

I've got an NT700 for commuting and touring, it's a great bike as long as you understand what it's all about. I don't mean to insult it at all when I say it's like a 2 wheeled car, comfy, starts always, predictable, easy to ride, easy to clean, shaft drive and unbelievably practical. I can call in Tesco on the way home and put 4 carrier bags of shopping in it and still filter through the jams. It's quick enough and has excellent top gear roll on, more than the spec and reputation would suggest. 90mph on the motorway is relaxed and super-comfy, handling is good too. It's nice to go the beach and be able to put your bike gear in the panniers and walk around in normal clothes instead of power ranger kit.

It's a bike for going places, not for just going out on if you know what I mean. It's not boring but it's not exhilarating either, just does what it says on the tin!