The review your bike, gear and more thread!

Sonics2k

I think we could perhaps use a big aul mega-thread for our own reviews and honest opinions of our bikes and gear.

Let's be honest, we all love to brag and talk about our bikes as much as often as possible, and as we get an awful lot of people coming in and asking about different bikes it'd be good to be able to compile as much as possible here and save people trawling through thousands of posts.

Of course, feel free to review previous bikes you've owned, helmets and so on.

Format
Bike: (Make, Model, Year etc)
Engine Size:
Price Range:
Your Review:
Pros:
Cons:

Sonics2k

Bike: Honda Deauville NT650. 2000
Engine Size: 650cc
Price Range: Used, approx €1600-€2000 depending on condition.

Your Review:

I picked up my Deauville a little bit over a year ago, after a number of years away from biking. Due to a new job across the city and sick of sitting on a bus in traffic for 3-4 hours a day I started to shop around and look at the bikes on DoneDeal and Adverts.

I'm not a massive guy, but I'm a little bit over 6ft, heavy enough and don't have the best back, so a racer or cafe style bike wasn't an option for me. Plus I prefer a bigger bike.

After weeks and weeks of browsing, I noticed a large number of Deauville's for sale and started to read up on. Seemingly, despite the almost affectionate name of Dullville, each review was extremely positive about it as a commuter. Such a good bike that various Police forces across the world were using it for well over a decade.

After putting in over 7,000 Km in the last 12 months this bike has taken me through literally every type of weather we've had, from flooding rains, icey days and intense wind. The weight and weather protection of the bike has proven to be ideal for country roads and motorway commutes.

Having ridden through winds of 100 Kmh I honestly can't think of many bikes I'd feel safer on. It's heavy enough to not be pushed around too much, but also light enough to control for those heavy oh-god-I-shat-myself gusts of wind.

Comfort wise she's damn near perfect for a stock seat. Soft enough to ride for long trips, longest so far being a 6 hour round trip with only two 15 minute breaks.

On speed, well the Deauville is never going to win that prize but was never intended to do so. Don't get me wrong, time your gear changes and she'll hit 100 Kmh surprisingly fast. At a rough guess it feels about 5-6 seconds.

Fastest I've gone on her was 90 Mph (144 Kmh) so she can certainly hit the high speeds on a good stretch of road.

The honest and truthful downside is, you can never call a Deauville sexy or cool. I obsessively polish and clean her every weekend, but she'll never stand out like a well-polished cruiser or Ducati style bike.

Overall, I would absolutely recommend the Honda Deauville (of any year) to someone who wants a great commuting bike, of decent size and power to anyone either starting off on their biking journey, doesn't want to go above 700cc or simply doesn't want to splash the cash on a larger BMW Commuter, Pan-European or other in the high end range. The good news is they tend to sell for around the same price consistently and well looked after ones can fetch that bit more cash on re-sale.

Pros: Extremely reliable. Great for long distance and commuting.

Cons: Not a sexy bike. Replacement parts are tricky to get and expensive. Honda pipes are prone to rotting massively, so before buying (or if you own one) keep a very close eye on that as they are extremely expensive to replace.

Cian_ok

Bike: Honda CRF250M (2016)

Engine Size: 250

Price Range: 5K ish(new)

Your Review:



I started riding 2 years ago, middle-aged, average height and weight. I wanted to commute (15km each way). I did the IBT, then bought this as my first bike. I got my full A licence within the year.



I struggled a little with the sports bike on the IBT - lying in the foetal position on top of a bike just wasn't for me. So I went looking for sometime in the adventure style - upright position, but not too big - and this seemed to tick the right boxes My commute is inside Dublin (where the "speed limits" range from 80 - 30 kmph).



I've clocked up about 15,000km since then, commuting 5-days-a-week, 52 weeks a year - hail, rain, wind, and (more recently) glorious sunshine.



The bike is small, and naked - so it is a exposed; and isn't great in high winds (interestingly I find the wind more scary when I'm stopped than when moving). There is zero



A few times I've venture off-road - nothing crazy - just along dirt/gravel paths; and that is certainly good craic. I've also realised that I don't think twice about bouncing up/down curbs, or going through flooded roads - I'm not sure if you'd do that on a scooter/sportsbike!



I've done a few trips on the motorway - and really notice the lack of power. It can do about 125kmph - but the bike is flat out. So I'll take the scenic route when I can.



For the last 6 months I've started to feel that I want a faster bike - but this is usually when I try for the phantom '7th' gear - and then I inevitably come to the conclusion that (a) I'm already breaking the speed limit, and (b) that even if I had more power it really wouldn't be sensible to go any faster. But by then I'm coming up to traffic stopped at a red light, and my bike is light and nimble and I can snake up to the lights.



Overall, I'm going to stick with my CRF for a while longer. I still arrive into work wearing a smile. When I go on holidays there is a tiny part of me sad that I won't be able to ride for the week (although I suspect the is A bike thing, rather than MY bike thing :-) .



Pros: Price - cheap to buy, insure, service and run; It's nimble; It's great fun.

Cons: Lack of power; No wind protection


* this is the same model bike that Steph has travelled the world and all 7 continents.
http://www.stephmoto-adventurebikeblog.com/

Cienciano

Cian_ok wrote: »

* this is the same model bike that Steph has travelled the world and all 7 continents.
http://www.stephmoto-adventurebikeblog.com/

When travelling the world something simple and easy to fix is the way to go imho

Lumen

Bike: Yamaha XSR700 2016
Engine Size: 700cc
Price Range: ~9k + Akra exhaust
Your Review: Utterly viceless, fun, nice arse. Only used for commuting, wouldn't fancy it for long motorway work (more than an hour).
Pros: Comfy, fast enough, not a theft magnet (is this code for "nobody likes it"?)
Cons: Winter is coming.