I am inherently intrigued by the new Honda NT700V. It has the engine from the same family as the Transalp and the Hawk GT, two of my favorite bikes. Motorcycle.com has just done an excellent review of the NT700V vs the Aprilia Mana 850 GT. They won me over by not complaining about lack of wheelie power or Ricky Racer canyon carving ability. Instead, they invented the term Sport Touring Lite and proceeded to evaluate them on the basis of what they were designed for; commuting and simple touring. Not everyone wants a Concours 1400 or Goldwing to take a weekend trip to the mountains. Certainly nobody wants to take one of those on their daily commute through rush hour traffic.
I rode my Transalp across country a couple of years ago and found that 600cc was more than enough to propel me at any speed I wanted. Kevin took his Transalp from Boston to Alaska to Panama without a problem. For me, light and fun is much better than big and heavy not matter how much hp is involved. YMMV.
The two bikes turned out to be amazingly similar in ride, comfort, and power. The Aprilia has an automatic transmission with a sport option, the Honda has shaft drive, integrated bags, and a better fairing. The Aprilia costs ~$1000 more and the Honda has a better dealer network if you venture across the USA.
Maybe the key idea for these bikes is a return to sanity. Great rides for those of us who have our hormones under control and don't need to prove anything except our love of the highway. Read the article here if you missed the link above.
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