Honda NX500 (2024) - Review

Technical Review - Michael Mann, Nov 23
Riding Review - Steve Rose, June 25

All three of the perennially popular Honda 500s had a makeover for 2024 and two of them got a new name. The naked CB500F became the Hornet 500 and the CB500X adventure bike became the NX500. NX stands for ‘New X-over’ (we've also seen it described as 'New eXplorer') and is a prefix best remembered in the UK on the NX650 Dominator of the late-80s/early-90s, which was an air-cooled single-cylinder trail bike.

The current A2-adventurer sits alongside the CBR500R and CB500 Hornet which all share the same 471cc parallel twin.

Honda's updates to the NX500 include revised ECU settings to improve acceleration, new wheels to save weight, revised suspension settings, a better headlight, new windscreen and switchgear with enhanced tech.

Pros & Cons

2024 Honda NX500 Price

List price is £6899, which used to put the bike in a class of one with no real competition until the recent arrival of a handful of Chinese competitors.

On a PCP deal (9.9% APR) that £6899 works out to £99 a month over three years with a £1270 deposit and final payment of £3384 if you want to own the bike outright.

Three-year-old CB500Xs sell for around £5000 in a dealer at the moment so the final payment will be a little less than the bike is worth giving you a bit of equity for the deposit on your next one.

Many riders will add either individual accessories or the accessory packs. We’d expect heated grips, a top box, 12v socket and centre stand to be the most popular of these. Sadly, there isn’t one pack containing all of them, so you’ll need to order individually if you want the genuine Honda accessories. For all the essentials listed above (including the rear carrier for the top box and pillion backrest on it too) that’d be an additional £1221. Added to the PCP it wouldn’t make a huge difference to your monthly payment, and it might also be worth haggling on these as well as the price of your bike.

And if the price of a new NX500 is out of reach right now, there are plenty of well cared-for used CB500Xs out there from £2k upwards.

2024 Honda NX500 Engine & Performance

Honda’s 471cc liquid-cooled parallel twin has a reputation for being bullet-proof, economical and a whole lot of fun too. So, wisely, they chose to leave it mostly alone.. To remain A2-compatible, it makes a peak power figure of 35kW, which is 46.2bhp at 8,600rpm. Peak torque of 43Nm / 31.7 lb ft can be found at 6,500rpm. Fuel injection settings had been improved for the previous version though some still complained of a ‘jumpy’ low speed throttle connection. This latest version is very smooth at low throttle openings.

Twin-cylinder engines work well for A2 giving the right mix of low-down power, midrange and top-end to help new riders learn about throttle position and gears down a twisty road while also being confident in town and easy-going on the motorway.

The NX500 engine is all these things and while those buying the sportier CBR500 might want a bit more top end power and rpm, in the NX it works brilliantly. This engine purrs through low-speed traffic in a choice of gears, cruises easily at an indicated 80mph on the motorway and revs quickly for thrills and overtaking on the back roads.

The gearchange is light and accurate. Finding neutral is easy and the clutch action is very light while also predictable and consistent to help new riders learn and older hands feel even more accomplished.

The flip side of that is that riders (and some journalists) who just jumped off a more powerful machine might describe the NX’s engine as uninspiring and maybe a bit boring. Ignore them they’re wrong. The joy in this engine and gearbox is that it makes 90 per cent of riding easy with a bit more in reserve for those who can also work it a little harder. That’s a good thing because it helps build skills and/or practice the ones you’ve got.    

2024 Honda NX500 Handling & Suspension (inc. Weight & Brakes)

‘My favourite motorway slip-road’ is a niche activity that I suspect is only played by motorcyclists. For motorcycle road testers it also provides a chance to assess the high-speed handling of a bike in relative safety. I have a couple of personal favourites; the one leaving the M25 anticlockwise joining the M11 northbound is a particularly challenging one that forms a tight S-bend that sharpens-up downhill while changing camber. My other favourites are the south side of the M25 at Sevenoaks and the junction for the M23.

I won’t mention actual mph numbers but the NX500 is one of my favourite bikes for a long time around all three of these. The confidence with which it hits impressive lean angles at high speeds and holds a line without wobbling or weaving is very inspiring.

Softly sprung adventure bikes with suspension set-up for absorbing bumps have a tendency to move around in high-speed corners but the NX500’s simple set-up allows ‘spirited’ lean angles at speeds you’d be pleased with on a much bigger bike with absolute confidence.

New spring rate and damping settings in the Showa 41mm Separate Function Form Big Piston (aka SFF-BP) Upside Down (USD) forks are said to “improve reaction and feel for both road and off-road riding”. Meanwhile, similarly new settings can be found in the rear shock absorber – an area of the CB500X that BikeSocial highlighted as a weak point after Honda improved the front suspension in 2022. Back then we felt the stiffer, new USD forks were mismatched with the rear. The new shock addresses that.

Sportiness is just one side of the coin though. The NX also steers quickly enough to make town riding and filtering easy while the suspension on this sub-£7k bike soaks up bumps in a way that made the Yamaha MT-07 I was riding before it feel uncontrolled and harsh.

The twin front discs stop the NX500 really well but also offer plenty of feel, wet or dry. The rear brake is less impressive. It takes a lot of pedal pressure to have an effect, removing some of the subtlety that a dab of back brake can bring to help control the bike in corners.    

The 19” front and 17” rear cast aluminium wheels are a new design, moving from a Y-shaped 7-spoke design to one with 5-spokes to save a combined 1.5kg between them which should marginally improve handling with an emphasis on turning quicker. The already lightweight package now weighs 3kg less than before, at a total of 196kg.

2024 Honda NX500 Comfort, economy, running costs

Comfort is a good compromise between the expectations of an adventure bike (tall seat, lots of legroom, upright riding position offering good visibility) and a likely customer base still building their confidence on bigger bikes or downsizing from those bigger bikes for something more manageable.

The seat is quite tall at 830mm and wide enough to be comfortable for a couple of hours. Legroom is ok (I’m six-foot with a 32 inch inside leg) and I can get both feet flat on the floor, but my creaky, old knees ached after about 90 minutes of motorway riding. On twistier roads with more rider involvement the aches take longer to set in. Back, shoulders and neck are unaffected by any of this thanks to a smartly designed relationship between seat and handlebars and a screen/bodywork that manages airflow better than their sizes suggest.   

The NX500’s price means things like hand guards and heated grips are available as accessories but not standard and the (effective) screen is unadjustable.

Part of its charm is its low running costs - the 17.5-litre tank and a claimed economy figure nearing 80mpg should allow 275-miles between fill-ups. The fuel gauge is a little pessimistic and shows two of the six bars remaining with almost eight litres left.

In 600 test miles our brand-new engine (it arrived with just 22 miles on the clock) averaged 71mpg. Most engines get a little better on fuel after the first 1000 miles, so I’d expect to see that closer to 75mpg when fully run in.

Servicing is every 8000 miles or 12 months with the valve clearances checked at 16,000 miles. You can buy service plans from Honda when the bike is new that either cover three scheduled services if you do a lot of miles (which will include the valve service) for £639 or three annual services if you do less miles, for £399.

Other running costs should be fairly low. Insurance is usually reasonable depending on your personal circumstances, tyres are common sizes (with a 19in rather than 21in front) and should last well given the engine performance. Other consumables are available as pattern parts as well as OE items because the CB500 platform has been around unchanged for a long time.

2024 Honda NX500 Equipment

The 5” full colour TFT screendisplay can be configured in different ways to show the information you prefer and switches automatically between day and night mode. It is controlled by new switchgear on the left handlebar using a micro-rocker switch.

The range of functions displayed is limited to trip meters and fuel consumption with additional features to custom-set the gearchange shift-up warning.  I couldn’t find a display for remaining fuel range in miles or outside air temperature even though the bike’s electronics will know both of them.

Honda offers a RoadSync connectivity app for on-screen turn-by-turn navigation for IOS and Android devices. You’ll need a Bluetooth helmet headset to enjoy the other functions such as making calls or listening to music.

Pairing a phone to the Bluetooth to use the app is straightforward according to the manual and others I know have managed it easily, but I failed to do it on two separate occasions in addition to the three others when I failed to do it on an NC750X with the same system recently.

All of which points to ‘operator error’ rather than a fault with the system and would be sorted in five minutes with your dealer on handover, but make sure you do it or waste a weekend trying.

The NX500 has traction control and ABS but no rider modes or cruise control.

The new headlight is ok, but not brilliant on low beam with a good throw, but not quite enough brightness. On high beam it’s adequate up to around 50mph on an unlit road.

2024 Honda NX500 Rivals

The fight for the A2 licence holders and/or those wanting to experience a light and upright option perhaps as their first bike, additional bike, or when coming back from a bigger adventure machine.

Voge DS625X | Price £6199

Read more

Power/Torque

63bhp / 42lb-ft

Weight

206kg

CFMoto 450MT | Price £5699

Read more

Power/Torque

41.6bhp / 31lb-ft

Weight

200Kg (wet)

Kawasaki Versys 650 | £8349

Read more

Power/Torque

66bhp / 45lb-ft

Weight

219kg

2024 Honda NX500 Verdict

Every rider who complains that new bikes have become too expensive should be given a Honda NX500 and told to ride it for a couple of weeks. If you’ve just jumped off a bigger bike you might take a week or so to adjust to the power delivery, but once you’ve done that, you’ll probably wonder why anyone would spend two, three or four times the price on a bigger, faster bike.

The NX500 provides all the thrills and also the practicalities and benefits of motorcycling in an easy-to-ride, affordable package with a 12-year record of reliability and strong resale values that most of its rivals can only dream of.

Ego-aside, if you want a motorcycle that will get you to work in half the time of a car, squeeze your adrenal glands on a weekend and take you to places (physically and emotionally) on your holidays that you never imagined you’d experience, this might well be it.

Easy-but-enjoyable to ride, equally easy to live with and afford to run and versatile enough that you’ll use it for more than just 12 Sundays each summer. The NX500 lacks some of the gadgets and gizmos of the emerging Chinese rivals but delivers carefully refined and reliable performance with the promise of strong resale values and a national UK dealer network.

The upgrade from CB500X to NX500 was evolution rather than revolution, which is a good thing when the previous bike was already very capable.

Honda’s recent focus on value-for-money pricing means there are good deals on nearly new CB500Xs too if you can’t quite afford a new NX.  

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2024 Honda NX500 - Technical Specification

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MCIA Secured gives motorcycles a rating out of five stars (three stars for bikes of 125cc or less), based on the following being fitted to a new bike as standard:

• A steering lock that meets the UNECE 62 standard

• An ignition immobiliser system

• A vehicle marking system

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• A vehicle tracking system with subscription

The higher the star rating, the better the security, so always ask your dealer what rating your bike has and compare it to other machines on your shortlist.

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