Honda just announced that the Deauville will be coming to the US as a 2010 model - as the NT700V and NT700V ABS. There's also a VTX1300C fuel injected model and a new bobber - Shadow Phantom For 2010, the CBRs get: wait for it... wait for it.. "Exciting new graphics." No word yet on an updated VFR.
We've been discussing this in the other thread. My first thought was the bike is way overpriced. But a ABS DL is $7500. Figure $1000 for good hard luggage. So your now at $8500.00. You are paying extra for the shaft drive and no valve adjustments (doesn't it have hydraulic lifters). So you are starting to get within range of the Deauville with a DL650 if you wanted shaft drive. The BMW F800 St is $10,600. How does it compare to that bike?
Sounds like it's taking over for the VFR in '10. Don't worry, they'll all be on ebay in '11 for $8k...
Correct me if I'm wrong but this is also the same engine which is in the DN01 - it doesn't have hydraulic lifters and does require valve checks.
...last summer up on the AlCan (Yukon). It's a tidy touring bike, perhaps what BMW should've built. I would expect the F800ST to be a bit more powerful. But the valve adjustments on one of those aren't especially home-shop friendly. I wonder how difficult it is to remove the rear wheel. Some shaftys are far more difficult than they need be. That's one BMW has consistently gotten right for decades. Honda build quality + Honda dealers EVERYWHERE may make this a great alternative to huge, heavy, megapowerful "sport-touring" rigs available. Tom in Salem
Gleaned from: http://www.deauvilleuk.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=23&p=43973 ukiboy » Fri Mar 28, 2008 21:19 Servicing charges - now there's the achilles heel... Sorry to be a damp squib and bring up a negative but this is one thing thats bugged me for a while. The DV isn't that practical and easy to live with when it comes to maintenance. Just giving the darned thing a good clean and trying to get into the usual nooks and crannies which need cleaning (rear brake caliper, swingarm, back of engine, frame...) is a nightmare of a job so it follows that the servicing bits are even worse for accesibility. (is this why no dealer bothers to do the valve check every 8k, and if they don't why does Honda specify it?!?!). i have a real problem with service schedule items being left out and not done come service time and in the case of our bike i think its because its such a bind to get to... Anyone else have these thoughts? Speaking of servicing.... Every 4000 miles?!?! No problem when you do that in a year but i do 12 - 14k in a year and i'm starting to feel the pinch. Why can't Honda make the intervals every 6k like BMW, Triumph and Yamaha. Come to think of it, why can't they do it every 8k seeing as thats the interval they specify for the oil and filter change...
I had pleasure. Worked on brand new Deauville of my friend and rode with him for 6000 km. How difficult? VERY! It is one of most maintenance un-friendly bikes I worked on. I hated every minute. To take rear wheel off you need to remove exhaust, which requires 1 foot long extender for wrench, but if you drop exhaust you will break lambda-sensor wire, which can not be unplugged from connector on frame because part of connector that are fixed on frame is the one that comes off exhaust!!!:eek1 Then take off brake caliper, rear mudguard can stay if you lift bike rear like 2 feet in the air. When my friend dropped it left side front indicator broke mounts and sunk into fairing. We wanted to fix it, but plastic fixed in a way that half of bike must be taken off... Then he broke Honda original bellypan in first fall at 30 kmph. Went into pieces from slight knock. Comparing to ST1300 I worked on at same time (prepared bikes of my friends for Norway ride I led them in) it was horrible. Yes, and ST1300 not most maintenance-friendly. Build quality of middle class Euro-hondas are down a lot. While CBRs and some models built superbly all middle-class bikes built like junk. Horrible welds, bad paint (thou not as bad as Kawasaki), cheapest materials... That goes for new Transalp, new Deaville at least. BTW factory-balanced wheels were off balance - reason I was taking them off his bike. Had to be re-balanced and with considerable weights. Bike was new with mere 1000 km on the clock. Ride-wise it was OK, load of clearance (by the looks more than new Transalp), easy handling and just enough power. Very good fuel economy, tons of space for luggage. But by God it was so heavy we had to push his bike every time we had to maneuvre it in tight space. When I checked out new Transalp on test-ride I was horrified - it looked like it was built before era of robowelders and quality control. At same time on this background CB1300 looks like rolls-royce built quality. Same goes for CBR and few other bikes. Go figure.
Honda are kinda strange, in that they specify 4k service intervals but the bikes are over-engineered and rarely need servicing that often. For example, a CBR1100XX 'should' have the valves checked every 16k; but the foremost independent 'bird mechanic in the UK says he's never known the valves to be out of spec below 65k. His advice is to leave them until at least 48k is on the odo. But, it's also kinda strange how much, or little, folks in the USA are prepared to pay for a bike. There's no way you'd get a bike like the Dville for £5000 and change over here (a Ninja250 is £3899..). You can't have your cake and eat it too.
Valve adjustment on an FZ6 is 26k miles. It has no lower fairing, and comes stock with a centerstand. I think I know where my middleweight touring dollars are going.
More than agree! Superbird just brilliant bike by any means. To be fair - that 700 Deauville engine probably is bulletproof and being undertuned does not need valves work for a while. But what pissed me off - it is consumables that need changing with such pain in the...back side....:huh Tyre change? See above. Coolant change? Tricky. Electrics - I won't even touch that subject. Spark plugs? Oh God, please spare me! Even brake pads is pain in the a...se because of sliding calipers need to be taken off for that and rear one hardly fits into rear rim... That friend of mine could not believe his eyes when I took my DR800 apart in 30 minutes on patch of grass in camping in mountains, checked all electrics (because of bike age wire soldered to lights switch simply rotten off it :)) identified problem and fixed it with couple of alien keys and soldering piece. All in all - 45 mins. But he was also surprised when I changed spark plugs in my VTR Firestorm (superhawk) that required simple taking seat off No, I am no luddist type. I am ex-engineer from engineers family. Mechanical devices must be serviceable as much as possible. Rule...
I rode CB600F Hornet from year 2000 and NEVER had to adjust valves or do anything except consumables. Try to service FJR and then we will talk Or latest Diversion. Try it.
For sporttourer - yes, certainly not worse than ST, rather easier. All is relative of course. I consider contemporary approach to amount of effort required to change consumables in some bikes and most of cars really strange, because it it totally opposite to what is happening in industrial world.