These days, motorcycles seem to fall into distinctive categories. So much so, that when a person buys a bike, they seem to buy it for a ‘specific’ purpose. Interestingly, I’ve actually wondered if a smaller bike offers advantages that outweigh many of the obvious disadvantages, particularly if you want to travel off-road.

First, most adventure bikes are quite tall. The Honda CB500X has a seat height of 32.8 inches, which for an adventure machine is reasonable so that someone of my stature at 5’9 3/4” can ride the bike without much flapping about.

Off-road is an interesting term, because I don’t know many motorcyclists who can take their tourer off-road. While the Honda CB500x can handle off-road excursions where you want to run into the mountains or an out of the way gravel or mud road. The weight of the bike is only 437 pounds wet, and its range is exceptional. You can easily tweak between 70 and 80 miles per gallon, if you don’t push the engine too hard on the highway. Maintaining a speed of 70 mph will generally reward you with 75 mpg in range. With a 17.7 litre fuel tank, you can easily expect a range in excess of 250 miles.

While not the best in terms of off-road capability, it is truly capable of decent off-road performance. It’s flexible suspension setup with inverted Showa front forks and a rear mono-shock, while non-adjustable, isn’t bad. And the rubber on the CB500x is quite good, making use of Dunlop Trailmix Mixtour tires with a 19” front and 17” inch rear alloy wheel.

Of course, like everthing else in life, there are limitations. It’s top speed is 113 mph, its 0-60 mph is 5.2 seconds and it only puts out 47 hp and 31.7 foot pounds of torque. For many this may well be called a beginner-friendly motorcycle, but for older riders who want to get where they are going reliably, affordably, yet still be capable of taking routes that your larger sport tourer dare not attempt, and you have what might be called a Swiss Army Motorcycle Knife.

Nor is simplicity a bad thing when it comes to off-roading. And while it comes in a fairly spartan package, there is a huge range of touring accessories. So if you’re looking for capability in a cost-effective package you could do a lot worse than the Honda CB500X. The technology, while basic, including its LED instrumentation provides all the necessary information, along with its basic ABS braking, which cannot be turned off, however it isn’t all that invasive and does as its intended.

This spring of 2024, I’ll be taking one for road test. If anything stands out as less or greater than presented here, I’ll let you know.

Also, I’ll be taking the CFMoto 650 Adventura for a test drive as well. It’s a bike that shows lots of promise, not for the off-road but for touring, yet costs only $8,000 in Canada complete with panniers, and with a 5 Year Warranty. So much for not standing behind their product. However, I digress. So, if anyone owns or has insights into the Honda CB500X motorcycle that haven’t been mentioned here, please drop me a line and explain your thoughts.

And one last thought, and question. How many of you would consider riding a 500 CC adventure bike to get you everywhere you want to go, instead of most of the way you want to go on your Sport Tourer?

It’s a fair question as many of my fellow riders are at the point where a sub-200 kilogram bike is beginning to make sense.

As usual, please let me know what you think.

Ciao…