Honda Deauville 700 Review

Used Buyer Review

The Deauville 700 is the motorcycle equivalent of a sensible estate car — deeply unglamorous, completely competent, and secretly brilliant once you stop caring what other riders think. Honda built this thing like a vault. The parallel twin pulls smoothly from low revs, the integrated panniers are genuinely useful rather than ornamental, and the shaft drive means zero maintenance headaches. Find a well-kept example and it'll likely outlast you. That said, go in eyes open. The steering is heavy at low speed — parking lot maneuvers require effort — and the dashboard feels like it was designed in 1987, because essentially it was. Fuel consumption is respectable but not class-leading. More critically, inspect the shaft drive output seal on anything over 50,000 miles; replacement isn't catastrophic but it's not cheap either. Used prices are laughably reasonable for what you're getting. A solid 2006-2012 example with full service history shouldn't cost you more than three grand. For commuting through all weathers with luggage capacity baked in, this is one of the shrewdest buys on the used market.