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“After my first review in May 2005, I have now owned...”

written by gazza4457 on 14/11/2006

Good Points
Riding position, good gear ratios, waterproof storage paniers, glove boxes, brilliant economy, long service intervals, very easy on tires - I have over 20,000ks out of my first set, and the combined brakes work well on loose surfaces.

Bad Points
Clunky gearbox, lack of fuel gauge, temperature gauge.

General Comments
After my first review in May 2005, I have now owned the bike from new for just over two years, and I have a few points for the long term owner. I have noticed some piston knock after 12,000 miles / 20,000ks. I live in a country town and it takes about 40 seconds of slow riding and I am on a highway at the 100 KPH to work each day, and now the Honda NT650V Deauville motorbike is showing accelerated signs of piston wear. I am familiar with the noise, and I repair a lot of small engines, as I am a small engine mechanic. These bikes will last a lot better on synthetic blend oil once run in. Do not use the plain motorcycle mineral based oil, as it doesn't protect the motor enough. The bike doesn't slip out of second gear as much, in fact hardly at all. You have to learn to be gentle with the gear changes and take your time. Do not rush it like you can on an in-line four cylinder bike. Another chap wrote that his fuel sender broke, which is an interesting point because my bike held me up at the 20,000 K mark, and it just shut down, leaving me stranded on the side of a country road. I rang the Honda dealer and told them of the problem, and that I had noticed the FUEL PUMP was real hot and that no power was getting to it. They gave me the wire colours to check for a signal from the computer (12 Volts), and if that was OK then there is a fuel pump relay under the back area kerb side behind the seat. 1. it could be a blown fuel pump, 2. a blown relay or 3, a blown computer. The computer delivers the signal to the relay, which powers the fuel pump. With a multimeter I checked the Black with yellow stripe wire from the computer, and bingo, I had 12v so the computer was OK. I then checked the power from the relay - nothing, so $86 later I installed a new relay, tested it and still no power. I decided to recharge the battery and crank the motor,and I got 12v intermittently. In between all this, I pulled the fuel pump apart and noticed a set of contact points that were badly corroded, and a little over centre spring not sitting in its place (was like it was from the factory, made me think how many have Honda made the same), so after some fiddling cleaning the points, which by the way are made of real soft metal like lead so don't file them too much, and re-set the spring in its little locator (which any one with some patience can do), screwed the rear cap back on, I ran 12v through it and bingo it worked a treat. All that was left to install was the thing back in the bike and kick it in the guts. On cranking it over I noticed the pump only works on each revolution of the motor. This means the pump only gets power if the computer senses the motor is turning over. That's why I did not have any power to the fuel pump when the ignition was on and the motor not running.



I am now looking at putting a capacitor across the power side of the fuel pump to reduce the wear in the points. Just like the points in the old cars distributor. The bike is running fine now, but in the back of my mind is the possibility that the fuel pump can stop at any time, which is not the sort of thing you want to be thinking about. A fuel pump is around $280 Aussie bucks or about 120 pounds, which is a lot of money in any one's language. So fix it first and see if you can get the thing going before you shell out you hard earned money. Don't do what I did and buy that relay, as the chances are it's OK, and I wasted my money not knowing how the signalling system works, neither did the dealer though. Cheers and happy riding. Chappy.