Shifting priorities
Getting to grips with the CB1000R+’S toys
I’VE SPENT MOST of my time this month getting used to one of the CB’S features that is new to me, namely the quickshifter that this ‘+’ model comes with. It’s not just one-way though – clutchless upshifting while using positive throttle is increasingly common on bikes now. The Honda has an ‘auto-blip’ function allowing clutchless downshifts on a closed throttle as well. This has been the preserve of big-budget sportbikes until relatively recently.
My other half gets to test many sportsbikes and I often hear him talking about auto-blip on this, auto-blip on that, and knew what it was about but had not had the chance to experience it for myself until now. The first few times, there was a fair bit of wincing on my part before dabbing my toe down with my fingers still wrapped around the clutch lever just in case! It’s an unnatural thing to do, having spent all my riding life using the clutch for downshifts. It’s very much like my first go on a bike with a quickshifter to aid firing up through the
gears, but there’s something that feels very alien and dare I say it, mechanically unsympathetic, about ‘forcing’ the bike down the gears without manually disengaging the engine from the gearbox. It works though. In fact, extremely well. Just close the throttle, press the gear lever down and the clever electronics take care of the rest.
It’s possible because the Honda uses fly-by-wire throttle so the bike itself can control the fuelling and ‘blip’ the throttle to unload the force on the gearbox, snick a lower gear and resume engine braking in a fraction of a second. It’s extremely smooth, and after a while I realised that it keeps the bike more composed in more situations more efficiently than I ever could. Because downshifts are so fast, the bike is less unsettled than if I were to go through the process myself. In fact I’ve quickly found myself relying on the bike to do it all so well for me that, coming to a stop, there’s been a couple of times I’ve forgotten to pull the clutch in, until the last moment.
Next I turned my attention to the riding modes, which I’ve not really fiddled with. Power, engine braking and traction control can all be switched between pre-set modes so next month I’ll be getting techy with those. Hopefully I can figure out the multi-coloured shift light that apparently can be configured to depict various functions. I’ve never seen a purple light on a bike before but it’s certainly unusual, even if I don’t know what it means. Yet! CAROLINE BARRETT