I am sorry to have to post this review but here we go. I bought a brand new XL700V Transalp in September 2010 and did 4200mile before chopping it in 7 months later. The most serious problem is the fundamental instability of the bike. Searching the forums about half the bikes have this, the rest don’t' - BAR WOBBLE.

On ALL the bikes I have ever owned, you can be riding along at say 40 mph and take your hands off the bars - nothing happens, you put your hands back on the bars and away you go. With my XL700 Transalp, if you take your hands of the bars, you would get 2 seconds of wobble say 20 degrees of wobble then instant full on tank-slapper, the faster you were going the more violent and the quicker the reaction would be. Just riding along with both hands on the bars you could feel the front of the bike getting unstable and "light".... Anyway Honda UK said it was normal and you should not be riding along with your hands off the bars. They failed to do anything about it so I chopped it in before it had me off (as you could feel this was going to happen sooner or later). This bike was the most unstable bike I have ever owned.... and I am not alone in this, read the XL700V forums! It's a design issue with the bike and cannot be "fixed" with new rubber or dropping forks etc. Trust me I could not fix it and its been the same for others.

Pros: Nice stopping power and good seating/riding position, good for new riders.

Cons: The seroius tank-slapper steering issues as mentioned above. The wheels are terrible; spokes are not stainless and corrode/turn black after every ride regardless of how often you cover them with ACF-50. The rims are as soft a cheese, so you won’t be going off-road with this bike very long before you dent the rims. Only 5 gears as has already been mentioned. Heated grips are poor quality and prone to failure. Very low ground clearance due to Cat. Honda warrantee is next to useless. Not a great tank range.

Overall: Don’t buy one unless you ride it and see if it is one with the bar wobble – not all do but if you end up with one it is shockingly bad and in my opinion dangerous.

Not waterproof but fantastic for the price.