Honda is known for taking a different approach when it comes to its middleweight bikes. Unlike its Japanese contemporaries, Big Red seems to be taking its own path in the 400 to 800cc segment with bikes that, technically speaking, are unrivaled in their respective categories. For instance, its beginner-friendly model range based on the CB500 platform is slightly bigger and just a tiny bit more powerful than its competitors' 300cc-400cc bikes.
The same story goes for the 650 to 700 class, with Honda offering just the CB650R naked bike and CBR650R sportbike. It seems that it's missing an entrant in the highly competitive middleweight ADV segment, wherein Yamaha's Tenere 700 shines the brightest among the Japanese adventurers. Granted, rumors have been floating around that a Transalp 750 from Honda could be making a comeback, so we may have to stay tuned for that. Nonetheless, it looks like Honda will soon be releasing yet another range of adventure/dual-sport models in the form of the NX.
The Honda NX was a popular dual-sport model that saw production from 1988 to 2002 in the form of the NX650 Dominator. Similarly, smaller iterations of dual-sports, all bearing the NX name, were in production from the '80s to the mid 2000s, and served as lighter, more versatile commuter machines. With Honda exhibiting a trend of resurrecting older model names such as the Hawk and Transalp, and basing these on exisiting platforms, we can expect the NX to be no different.
Given that the names NX and NX 500 were both registered, it's more than likely that Honda will be capitalizing on the massively popular CB500 platform. The closest model in the 500cc range to what we would conceive to be the NX 500 is none other than the CB500X, so maybe Honda will be tweaking that bike to come up with a more rugged, off-road-focused NX 500. As for the Dominator name making a comeback, this isn't looking likely, as several other manufacturers such as Norton and TVS are already using the moniker.
It's also worth noting that Honda has plans of releasing smaller NX models in Asia, particulalry in India and Indonesia. The NX200 and NX150 are in the pipeline for the two Asian countries, and the release of a globally available NX 500 will tie the model range together very nicely. At the moment, however, everything surrounding the future of the NX is purely up to speculation. That said, we'll just have to eagerly wait and see what Honda's cooking up for us.
