Honda CB500X

Through its four years of existence, the Honda CB500X has gone through many improvements to serve its role as an adventure bike better. But the bike also must serve the additional roles of being a commuter and a highway cruiser. So, the bike is now narrower and more compact with a length of 2098 mm, width of 826 mm, and height of 1358 mm. The duckbill fender is short. The wheels are 17-inch on both ends instead of a bigger on the front. The wheels are alloys instead of spokes. The vented (to reduce vibrations) windshield is taller but could be higher still. This then, is not an out and out adventure bike but an adventure style commuter. So, it gets the adventure bike style engine protection, high and long exhaust and the stance, but it also gets a gorgeous candy Chromosphere Red paint job and LED lighting front and rear. The aforementioned wheels are 17-inch aluminum alloys wrapped in 120/17 front and 160/80 rear Pirelli Scorpion Trail tires. Also included is a digital dash with an LCD screen and yellow backlighting that might look dated but has good visibility.

The bike uses a tubular frame and a square pipe swing-arm, both made of steel. The 41 mm telescopic front forks come with preload adjustment. The rear gets a Pro Link with 9 step preload adjustment. Although it is not the easiest to adjust. The bike weighs 196 kg but hides it very well. The seat is high at 812 mm as expected from an adventure style bike. But the seat itself is very good. It is soft but holds its shape giving comfort with support. The tank is just the right shape for the rider’s knees to wrap around. This gives the rider a confidence boost when trying to take on corners hard. The high and wide handlebars with the position of the foot pegs give it an upright riding position. The width of the handlebars does not make it too wide for city traffic. In fact, they come in handy with slow speed maneuvering. The mirrors are just the right width too. The caster angle and the trail are just perfect and with a turning radius of 2.8 mm it is very good for slicing through traffic. With 170 mm of ground clearance, it is very good off the road too.

The engine in the Honda CB500X is a 471-cc liquid cooled parallel twin DOHC with 4 valves per cylinder. It uses Honda’s PGM-Fi fuel injection with twin 34 mm Keihin throttle bodies. It uses a six-speed transmission. The engine avoids the dip in performance above 5000 rpm – a characteristic of Honda’s other 500 cc engines – and gives a very linear power delivery all the way up to 8500 rpm. This 8500 rpm is also where the peak power of 47 hp is delivered. Peak torque of 41 Nm comes up at 7000 rpm.  The torque range is wide and allows quick acceleration and overtaking at any gear. The top speed itself is as high as 165 mm. With a counterbalancer, it also remains vibration free. The fuel tank can accommodate 17.7-litre and with a mileage of 30 kmpl irrespective of your style of driving, it makes for a  good range.

The Honda CB500X comes with a single wavy 320 mm disc up front and a 240 mm disc for the rear. The front gets a twin pot calliper while the rear gets a single pot calliper, both courtesy of Nissin. Also included is a 2 channel ABS unit. Honda also gives the bike some security equipment in the form of HISS that comes with an uncopiable microchipped key.   

The Honda CB500X is not the best adventure bike, but it is a lot for the price it is available at. It is a very good commuter adventure style bike with learner friendly character. With Honda’s extensive catalogue of accessories, you can also customize it to fit your needs. Motorcycle companies don’t target this end of the customer segment with adventure bikes and the Honda is certainly one of the better efforts.