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@qwerty: No one says you need to be coasting and braking downhill, you could be engine braking while coasting. Second, most brakes are well upto the task to make the bike come to a complete stop. Most scoots I have, usually have one bad brake, and one good one (usually the front brake is good, while the back brake is bad; strangely on my ATM50 it's reverse, the back brake locks up the wheel when using it hard, and the front brake I never got to the point of locking). The bad brake is more than enough to slow down the bike even on a downhill, coasting. The good brake makes it stop fast.
Engine braking only takes a few percent off the brakes, and I've yet to see a scooter that needed brake pad changes. All mine I sell before that, and my ATM50 with 5500km on it the pads still look like new!
The Honda NC700x is a great bike. I have been eyeballing the Kawasaki KLR-650, but wasn't as impressed with the gas mileage it gets. The Honda at least gets 10MPG higher, probably due to more efficient gearing, as the kawi is also semi-geared for off road conditions.
Perhaps I'll take a look at that bike at a local dealership!
On most of my Chinese scoots, the ODO is surprisingly correct! It's usually the speedo that's off, I've never had an odo that was off by more than 1 or 2%, compared to the Google maps results, so I don't think MPG is in any way affected by the false speedo readout.
It's quite easy to see, when doing a 100 mile tour, and fueling up just $4 on gas, or $10 like on my Honda VT750.
For people living on the flats, and those who live in minor hill areas, you actually would prefer a neutral. Being in N while rolling downhill saves a huge buttload of gas, and makes MPG numbers skyrocket. It's not less safe than taking your bicycle out on the road, downhill.
the difference between 70 and 80 is really not much, but it starts counting over time.
What you need is a bike that fits your pattern of riding.
The Roketa MC-05-127, with a rear sprocket change from 41 to 31T, does that for me. It rides in town just fine, while having over 110MPG.
If there would be an option for the same bike with an easy to access Neutral, I would get that bike instead, and probably reach over 120MPG (I'm getting an avg of 115MPG on my last rides, with a 118MPG peak on an easy ride).
So compare 120MPG, to 60 or 70, and yes, that's a lot of difference!
That's like paying half the price of gas, with the only downside that the 125's top speed is rather low (55MPH)
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