The RIDE 2019 Test Fleet
RIDE welcomes the DCT version of Honda’s Africa Twin Adventure Sports to its fleet. Should we all get ready to go clutchless?
Despite being almost a decade old, Honda’s dual-clutch gearbox still feels bafflingly new-fangled and foreign to me. if anything, it has the air of an invention from a slightly dystopian future. DCT could prove to move humanity another step closer to the machines taking over, as we hand simple tasks over to computers. no clutch lever, no gear pedal, but an intelligent self-changing gearbox. “i’m sorry Dave, i’m afraid i can’t do that block downshift…”
launched in 2010 as an option on the VFR1200, Honda has updated, adapted and refined the system since. DCT is now available on the nc750 family, two africa twins, the Crosstourer and the gold Wing. and it’s pretty popular — out of every 10 CRF1000S on UK roads, six are manual and four DCT. the public is embracing this technology. automatics, for the people.
my calm, critical, objective road-tester head appreciates the advantages. seamless shifts every time, a headbutt-free ride for pillions, no left wrist ache in traffic and an engine that’s always at optimum revs. but my egotistical, irrational, stubborn motorcyclist head is yet to be convinced. i’ll decide when to change gear, thank you very much soichiro. Your ECU could boast a squillion lines of code, but it won’t ever know when i’m planning an overtake. and how can i nail a confident full-lock U-turn when an invisible robot passenger has his hand on the clutch lever? Do asimov’s laws actually cover low-speed filtering?
my chance to understand DCT begins today. not on a one-hour test ride, not on a group test against manual rivals, but over three full months of daily focus. Honda’s africa twin adventure sports is playing host — as Ride’s adventure bike of 2018, we know the manual version is a belter. time to see what difference DCT makes.
First introductions are awkward. a button on the right bar engages first gear and the gearbox defaults to D (drive) mode. open the throttle and the atas pulls away smoothly, but then changes into second and third and fourth and fifth — that quickly. top gear is reached by 40mph. Who on earth rides like this? tickover revs give little engine braking when you roll off, while the incessant up-and-down shifting at low speed feels more like the gearbox finding work to do, rather than genuinely helping. enter a roundabout in second gear,
and by halfway round it’s climbed to fourth, then fifth as you flick left for the exit. After just one day’s 40-mile commute, it feels like a long three months ahead.
Mercifully, one button transforms things. Selecting S (Sport) mode (the middle of three S modes, to be precise) gives a totally different character. At 30mph it now holds third gear, like a sane person. Accelerate gently and it short-shifts but open the throttle wider and it revs higher before changing. Hold a steady cruising speed and the gearbox picks its way up to top, improving economy. Open it up again and the box responds quickly, jumping down from sixth to fourth, letting the 998cc parallel twin tap into its meaty midrange.
Sport still isn’t perfect — it can’t read my mind or see the road up ahead, but on a twisty B-road it’s right more often than not. You can tweak the gear choice with up/down buttons on the left bar, and if you prefer permanent control there’s a manual mode too. I still have loads of questions to answer over the next three months — feel free to email me yours too — but I’m pleased too have a solid starting point. Or maybe that’s exactly what The Machines want me to think… MARTIN FITZ-GIBBONS