By Donavan Fourie and Deon vdl.
Honda has provided some tasty upgrades to the darling of its sales range – the NC750X.
It’s not a complete overhaul but it’s enough to make a difference. The motor, frame and suspension stay the same, while the redesigned plastics are now partially made out of recycled material, especially the lining for the 23-litre boot which is made out of old car bumpers.
The digital dash has been replaced by a new TFT unit with lots of pretty colours, new handlebar switches, three rider modes and connectivity to your cell phone for music and navigation via Hondas “RoadSync” App.
The big new addition for 2025 is that the previous single front disk brake gets a buddy on the other side of the wheel to keep it company.
All this for a tidy sum of R150,749 for the manual like we had or R162,599 for the luxury of DCT.
And that’s the 2025 Honda NC750X. Now, what on earth do we do with it?
Mostly, the NC is a commuter, running a countless number of riders safely and economically to work and back every day, but since we didn’t feel like doing our commute route over and over something else had to be done.
The NC750 is most famous for its fuel consumption, so let’s look at that.
The book says it can do up to 400 km on a 14.1L tank but we wanted to push the boundaries so let’s go further shall we?
A mate of mine owns a predator park in Limpopo that’s a few kilos shy of 250km away. Why not ride out to him, say howzit and get back again on one tank?
Two friends of mine who both own the previous generation of NC said it’s impossible. On a normal day commuting, they get 25 km/L. If they take it easy, they get 28 km/L.
In order to do 500km, I would need to average 35 km/L.
“It can’t be done!” Say the experienced owners of the NC, so let’s do it anyway!
On a bloody chilly Friday morning, the NC with a ton of Donovan in the saddle left the RideFast offices near Kempton for Limpopo.
It was followed by Sean who had Honda’s NX500, and he wanted to see this predator park plus laugh at me when I ran out of fuel.
With a brimmed tank, it was a short ride onto the R21 freeway towards Pretoria where we would join the N1 freeway and then do a lot of riding northwards!
The trick here, having never done an eco test on this NC before was how fast do we go in order to get to the precious 35 km/L?
At first, we sat at around 100 km/h begging the fuel gods that it’d be enough.
The seating position is neutral with a seat that’s low enough for even short-legged members of the Fourie household to reach the floor. The wind protection is decent enough, especially at just 100 km/h which is what most people will manage during their commute.
The motor is a parallel twin with 745cc pushing 58hp and 69Nm. While the first version of the NC released in 2012 had the personality of a chartered accountant on Valium, Honda has slowly added more and more character to the bike until we get to this version. The superbike crew might still lament the somewhat subdued performance, but it has a laudable amount of sound and performance for the regular person to grin on the way to work.
We weren’t smiling, though.
Sitting on a freeway at 100km/h is beyond dull, so I started playing with the new joystick on the left handlebar that operated this fancy new dash. Daftly, I hadn’t downloaded the Honda app so I couldn’t play music and ask for directions, but I did find a helpful little bar that gives the rider the fuel economy in real-time.
For some reason, manufacturers prefer the L/100km unit so we used those. The bar started at zero L/100km and went up to four. Some calculations showed I needed 2.9L/100km so I just kept the bar below three.
With the throttle at a set position in top gear, we managed 85-90 km/h on uphills and 110km/h on the steeper downhills. I wouldn’t call it exciting but it was working.
After an age, we reached Modimolle (quondam: Nylstroom) and turned off the freeway onto rural roads that turned out to be a motocross whoop section that was tarred over.
At least that’s how it felt on the NC.
A lesson in economics – suspension is a bloody complicated thing, both the front forks and rear shock. And good suspension costs big money. A set of race suspensions from the likes of Ohlins will set the poor racer back a good R400K.
To save money, manufacturers fit non-racers like the NC with acceptable but not top-shelf suspension. Thus my poor aching bottom crawled into Modimolle town where it became essential to stop as little as possible. Each stop meant dumping a ton of fuel to get moving again, but soon we were out of town and on the open road again, winding through the majestic Waterberg Mountains and looking at the thriving (mostly) agriculture on either side of the road.
The MO of keeping the bar below three maintained even if some of the steeper hills were more tedious until we entered the town of Vaalwater and from there, it was a short ride to Jugomaro Predator Park.
Jugomaro is run by ex-bike racer Justin Fernandes and his mom Rosa.
Over the years, they have slowly built this place up so that it now comfortably hosts around twenty big cats (lions and tigers) with the odd wolf and Rooikat. Each animal has a connection to Justin and it’s fun watching them act like little puppies and kittens around him.
The Park also has a Portuguese restaurant where Justin will serve you an entire plate filled with beef and chips smothered in a garlic sauce. If you don’t give a stuff about lions and tigers, go there for this meal. It’s worth it.
With full bellies and zips taking strain, we departed Jugomaro for a straight trip home.
At this moment, the NC’s fuel gauge finally clicked over to half. All we had to do was maintain what we had done so far…
We crawled back to Modimolle before rejoining the freeway, and then it was a simple matter of patience – keep the throttle steady, and watch the digital bar. Don’t be tempted to give the throttle a good tug no matter how bloody bored you are.
All looked good as we entered Pretoria with the sun setting and the cold returning.
It was here that the fuel light came on.
Right, I thought. Steady on. We have maybe 60km to go. That sounds like a lot for a reserve tank but let’s go. The slow traffic along the freeway certainly didn’t help, partially because it meant lost momentum and because I couldn’t concentrate on my fuel bar.
A few times, accidentally, I found the bike crawling well above the needed speed and cursed myself outright each time.
The fuel gauge continued to mock us as we joined the R21 towards Kempton. Its mockery continued as we neared the off-ramp. It felt like an age had passed since it came on. Surely the surges of an empty tank were imminent any second now?
We made the turn-off and crawled through the suburban streets of Bredell.
At this point, I had stopped breathing. I kept not breathing right up until the RideFast gates. The driveway was a couple of hundred metres so I didn’t breathe there either.
Eventually, I put the side stand out in the RideFast garage and at this point, about seven minutes of lost oxygen suddenly came gasping back.
We had bloody well done it! On one 14.1L tank!
It gets even better because the next day RideFast’s Deon set off for a Pirelli launch on the unchanged NC, armed with a two-litre bottle of fuel in the boot.
The bike eventually spluttered to a complete halt at 521km.
Not bad. Not bad at all.
There are reasons we managed better mileage than the battle-hardened NC owners. Part of it was down to the manual gearbox that we believe is slightly more efficient than the DCT of our friends. Another part is due to the recalibrated fuel injection on the 2025 model that supposedly gives better midrange torque meaning less throttle is needed to maintain a speed.
Mostly it’s because we rode bloody slowly.
Still, not bad, eh?
Deon says:
I have been a fan of the NC750X for a few years, even before I started riding. Just before my 42nd birthday I bought myself a 2017 Honda NC750X. I love my bike and have had a lot of happy kilos on it. Ever since my first ride I have been wanting to test one of the newer models and then this one showed up.
The style of the NC has changed a lot over the years and the 2025 model looks completely different. The fairings are made from recycled plastics to keep things eco friendly, I think that’s pretty cool.
The first thing I noticed when sitting on the new NC750X is that it feels wider than mine. So I grabbed a measuring tape to see if it was, and no it is not, it just feels that way. The boot feels wider. The seating position is still just as comfortable and upright as before. I would perhaps just adjust the handlebars a little backwards towards me to give a slight more bend in my arms.
One of the biggest changes to the new model is the new five-inch full color TFT display, something the NC has never had until now and to make it even better it now comes with Standard, Rain and Sport mode settings.
The new NC750X is also equipped with Honda’s Road Sync App, a clever and awesome feature to make life a little easier, read more about the Road Sync App here.
We were given the manual transmission first, this was the best way for me to compare mine to the new NC750X. The clutch and shifting of gears are much smoother and as you shift through the gears I can feel that it produces slightly more power. One thing I really like about the new model is the throatier sound coming from the exhaust when you twist the throttle. The NC also comes to a stop much faster, now that it has double brake discs up front, this is without any shuddering or pulling to the side or dipping the nose. The feedback is great and gives you total control.
The few times I took it out in the traffic, I left it in Standard mode, manoeuvring through traffic is effortless and as always has the power you need to accelerate away from those pesky cars taking up the road. The bike feels light and makes cornering quite easy. I took the NC on a 100km trip over a weekend and this is where I got to put it in Sport mode, you can change the modes on the fly, all you need to do is use the toggle; switch to select your mode, close the throttle and “ta-daa” the mode is activated, I opted for “Sport”. I gave a good twist of the throttle and it growled to life with the speed climbing quickly, seeing that the NC was still new I pushed it until I reached 180 km/h and eased up, so it can do 180, but the NC750X is best when cruising at 140 km/h.
Everything on the bike is nice and smooth, the acceleration, the engine brake everything. I had a lot of fun on the new NC750X with my only complaint being, we only had it for a week. My personal opinion is that if you get a chance to test the NC don’t hesitate, Go for it.
Get intouch with your local Honda Wing Dealer to book a test ride.
