Tarn not a lover of big singles, I apart from their ability to X make nice
noises and, in the case of big trail bikes, their immense comfort and
practicality for local journeys.
Attempt long journeys and the limitations of the engine soon become apparent.
All the world and his wife go thundering past, closely followed by their entire
estate packed into a removal truck. You open the throttle at 80mph to find that
it is already open.
Attempt a muddy trail and the limitations of the chassis make themselves very
clear. Big trail bikes are easy to ride into deep ruts but they are less than
easy to ride out again.
Honda's NX650 Dominator goes quite a long way to change all that. I regard it
as an honorary twin, although maybe that has got more to do with its name and
the fact that Honda have put two large exhaust cans under its tail. Or maybe
it's psychological, in the same way that I remain firmly convinced that the
Transalp has a shaft drive.
The best thing about the Dominator is that, compared to other big trail
bikes, it feels no more cumbersome than a 250, while keeping the grand luxury of
a forty inch seat height and several metres of suspension travel. On this
machine you could contemplate serious trail riding.
And it makes nice noises, two at a time from the unequal-length, twin
stainless system. It is perfect for riding to work, zipping into town, strapping
shopping to the back rack, which sits flush with the seat and so can handle
quite bulky items.
Its performance is on a par with other big trailers 90-odd sitting up, and
80-odd is often a struggle when the elements and bulky oversuits combine against
the 37 horsepower bike plus the aerodynamics of a brick with large air scoops
all over it. It hit 105.5mph during our top speed runs, but it was so deep into
the red that it wouldn't do the engine much good to ride like that for very
long. Perhaps we should try raising the gearing by a tooth or two it is
certainly flexible enough to pull it. One of the nicest features is the thump
which comes in at 4500 although the rider feels it best when he opens the
throttle just above 3000 and the motor cracks on to the increasing part of the
torque curve where wheelies start to get a bit exponential.
.
Below this speed, around 2000 to 3000rpm, it goes through a really chunky
vibration period which shakes the bodywork from side to side like a terrier
grappling with the first rat of the day. Honda have prepared themselves
for this and have mounted the plastic on things that look like flexible rubber
rawlplugs. So it all flaps about without doing itself any mischief. If rats had
been developed by the Japanese, terriers would be out of business by now.
Actually it wasn't completely devoid of vibratory problems. Within a couple
of weeks, both rear indicator mounts had broken. The indicator stalks are
mounted on a central screw, with a little peg which presumably stops the
indicator from twisting. The pegs disappeared, which may have been caused by
vibration because the nuts loosened off as well, or it may have been caused by
people putting bungees around the indicator stalks because the holes in the rear
carrier are the wrong shape.
The only other damage it suffered was some broken rear plastic when Sarah got
a bit over-enthusiastic and rear-ended Fiona. Or it could have been the other
way round (that's enough of that, Editor). Otherwise the old Norton has
proven itself to be eminently crashproof. Or rather, Mark proved it at Three
Sisters when he turned a half-Freddie into a full Sarron on the way out of turn
ten. And not a mark on it, ho ho. In its 10,000 mile career, the Dominator has
probably done more miles on race tracks than it has on trails. It crossed the
Pennines on a largely off-road route, and it spent a practice day at Mallory,
where it wasn't the slowest machine on the track and where Mark managed to
scrape the paint off the footrest hangers. ("If you can ground a big trail
bike then you are either fat or clever", P. Comely, 1989, expert on big
trail bikes and owner of several refrigerators).
We picked the bike up with 8,000-odd miles on the clock this year, but a
close look at the sump plug revealed it to be the very same machine that we
tested last year. The mechanic who serviced it must have wondered why a trail
bike would come back with its sump plug lock-wired. The answer is that it had
just come fourth in a hill climb immediately after two days of getting up to its
waist in Yorkshire mud, racing a Trans-alp across the Cat and Fiddle and doing
half a dozen laps of Oliver's Mount. All on the same tyres.
Review
Tarn not a lover of big singles, I apart from their ability
to X make nice noises and, in the case of big trail bikes, their
immense comfort and practicality for local journeys.
Attempt long journeys and the limitations of the engine soon
become apparent. All the world and his wife go thundering past,
closely followed by their entire estate packed into a removal
truck. You open the throttle at 80mph to find that it is already
open.
Attempt a muddy trail and the limitations of the chassis make
themselves very clear. Big trail bikes are easy to ride into
deep ruts but they are less than easy to ride out again.
Honda's NX650 Dominator goes quite a long way to change all
that. I regard it as an honorary twin, although maybe that has
got more to do with its name and the fact that Honda have put
two large exhaust cans under its tail. Or maybe it's
psychological, in the same way that I remain firmly convinced
that the Transalp has a shaft drive.
The best thing about the Dominator is that, compared to other
big trail bikes, it feels no more cumbersome than a 250, while
keeping the grand luxury of a forty inch seat height and several
metres of suspension travel. On this machine you could
contemplate serious trail riding.
And it makes nice noises, two at a time from the
unequal-length, twin stainless system. It is perfect for riding
to work, zipping into town, strapping shopping to the back rack,
which sits flush with the seat and so can handle quite bulky
items.
Its performance is on a par with other big trailers 90-odd
sitting up, and 80-odd is often a struggle when the elements and
bulky oversuits combine against the 37 horsepower bike plus the
aerodynamics of a brick with large air scoops all over it. It
hit 105.5mph during our top speed runs, but it was so deep into
the red that it wouldn't do the engine much good to ride like
that for very long. Perhaps we should try raising the gearing by
a tooth or two it is certainly flexible enough to pull it. One
of the nicest features is the thump which comes in at 4500
although the rider feels it best when he opens the throttle just
above 3000 and the motor cracks on to the increasing part of the
torque curve where wheelies start to get a bit exponential.
Below this speed, around 2000 to 3000rpm, it goes through a
really chunky vibration period which shakes the bodywork from
side to side like a terrier grappling with the first rat of the
day. Honda have prepared themselves for this and have mounted
the plastic on things that look like flexible rubber rawlplugs.
So it all flaps about without doing itself any mischief. If rats
had been developed by the Japanese, terriers would be out of
business by now.
Actually it wasn't completely devoid of vibratory problems.
Within a couple of weeks, both rear indicator mounts had broken.
The indicator stalks are mounted on a central screw, with a
little peg which presumably stops the indicator from twisting.
The pegs disappeared, which may have been caused by vibration
because the nuts loosened off as well, or it may have been
caused by people putting bungees around the indicator stalks
because the holes in the rear carrier are the wrong shape.
The only other damage it suffered was some broken rear
plastic when Sarah got a bit over-enthusiastic and rear-ended
Fiona. Or it could have been the other way round (that's
enough of that, Editor). Otherwise the old Norton has proven
itself to be eminently crashproof. Or rather, Mark proved it at
Three Sisters when he turned a half-Freddie into a full Sarron
on the way out of turn ten. And not a mark on it, ho ho. In its
10,000 mile career, the Dominator has probably done more miles
on race tracks than it has on trails. It crossed the Pennines on
a largely off-road route, and it spent a practice day at
Mallory, where it wasn't the slowest machine on the track and
where Mark managed to scrape the paint off the footrest hangers.
("If you can ground a big trail bike then you are either fat
or clever", P. Comely, 1989, expert on big trail bikes and
owner of several refrigerators).
We picked the bike up with 8,000-odd miles on the clock this
year, but a close look at the sump plug revealed it to be the
very same machine that we tested last year. The mechanic who
serviced it must have wondered why a trail bike would come back
with its sump plug lock-wired. The answer is that it had just
come fourth in a hill climb immediately after two days of
getting up to its waist in Yorkshire mud, racing a Trans-alp
across the Cat and Fiddle and doing half a dozen laps of
Oliver's Mount. All on the same tyres.
The OE Dunlops actually work very well and their wet grip is
good, too. The only problem was that they showed a tendency to
slide very suddenly when the bike was well banked over. I
suppose that it was predictable in the sense that it was
inevitable; but it was unpredictable in the sense that you never
knew when.
The first test (Oct 88) proved that it was the most versatile
of the big trailers, even if it was slower than the Transalp.
The second test is demonstrating its versatility over a long
term. It has now put 2000 more miles on to its very varied
total; more race tracks, more motorways but mostly general
commuting all without incident, apart from the morning when
the Honda wouldn't start. We tried all the usual things
pretending to ignore it, creeping up on it suddenly, pushing it
up and down the road and then we found the cure. This involved
fetching a CBR and using it to tow the Dominator to the nearest
dealer. The dealer put the spark plug lead back on and all was
well.
(Editor's note: quite why the Technical Editor of the most
revered magazine in the UK should be unable to locate a loose HT
lead is something which provided much entertainment for the rest
of the week).
(Technical Editor's note: the reason is simple. Being towed
down a bumpy road behind a CBR looked like being more fun than
getting at the spark plug buried somewhere deep inside the
Dominator. You'd need to be a gynaecologist to even contemplate
changing it).
Ride comfort, handling, braking, midrange grunt are all
pretty good. Pillioning isn't too bad but the extra suspension
travel does some weird things to the steering. It feels nice to
sit on, there are a few quality touches and, after 10,000 miles
the whole thing feels free and loose. The only regular complaint
is that the main tank runs out at about 95 miles.
Perhaps the best thing about it is the light, positive
handling which is perfect for back roads and for heavy traffic.
It has revised my opinion of big singles, but I'm not fully
convinced that 37 horsepower is enough...