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Africa Twin DCT ride and thoughts

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Kris
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Joined: 03 Feb 2002
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PostPosted: 12:18 - 12 May 2017    Post subject: Africa Twin DCT ride and thoughts Reply with quote

I had the opportunity to ride the new Honda CRF1000L-DCT Africa Twin for a few hours the other day. Might be of interest to some so thought I’d post some musings.

https://www.bikechatforums.com/download.php?id=99631

I don’t know about you but the Dual Clutch Transmission (DCT) offered on a few of Honda’s newer bikes has always had me puzzled. Surely the manual act of changing gear is a necessary part of the experience? Anyway, the offer of the bike for a day was too much to pass up. Plus as an added extra it meant I didn’t have to ride their piece-of-shit NC750…. Thank the Lord.

(If you don’t know what DCT is – have a read here: https://www.dirtrider.com/what-you-need-to-know-about-africa-twin-dct-explained-1-3#page-2 )

I told the dealer that I hadn’t ridden a DCT bike before, so a brief explanation was given in the car park. As we approach the bike I decide I really like the look and colour scheme that this bike has. It looks tall and firm, and very Honda. If the badges were taken off I’d still know it was a Honda – if that makes sense?

The bike is started using the kill switch and rumbles into a polite tick-over. Then the chap explains the two drive modes on the rocker on the right hand switchgear. ‘D’ means Drive, ‘S’ means Sport and move the rocker right to get ‘N’ which is Neutral. A small symbol on the dash indicates which mode you are in. All good so far. Then he shows me the left hand switchgear which has a button where your thumb is with a ‘-‘ and a button where you’d normally expect the high beam flasher with a ‘+’. Turns out that in both Drive and Sport you can override the computer and change gear yourself using these. Very Playstation. Very Happy I look down and sure enough, no gear lever.

“What’s that?” I ask pointing to the clutch lever.

“Handbrake” comes the reply, “Squeeze to release it.”

So I do and the lever pings back. It actually sits further away than a clutch lever and retreats to the depths of the handguard so you can’t grab it by mistake. Applying is a bit of a faff involving holding the lever in whilst manoeuvring a small catch-lever into place to hold it on. At this point I’m left to my own devices as there really is no need for me to explore the off-road settings that this bike also has.

The dealer chap wishes me a safe ride and I’m left alone in the carpark to digest the information received. I decide I’m ready for the off and reach for the clutch lever. Twat. Laughing

Into Drive mode and I ease off out of the car park. I’ve ridden scooters before but it all feels a bit surreal to be riding a £12k automatic motorcycle. I pull out onto the dual carriageway and the bike changes gear almost instantly after the next. ‘Bam, bam, bam, bam, bam’ and we’re in sixth. Eh? I decide to cruise down to the set of lights, do a u-turn and accelerate the other way. Same thing happens, the bike senses gentle throttle openings and puts the bike in top gear as soon as possible. Hmm.

Anyway, now we’re cruising at 70 (ish) I can concentrate on the ergonomics, which are great. The bars are very wide which hinders filtering and are a little high presumably for off-road convenience. If this was my bike I’d lower them a bit for on-road comfort. There’s a large Perspex screen that is almost high enough for me to completely hide behind, and if I duck a little removes windblast to the head. The seat is amazing; supportive and very comfortable for distance. The pegs are low for a tall chap like me and the throttle is light with hardly any vibrations felt at the grips. Very smooth. Only my shoulders are suffering from the windblast. Suspension feels quite firm.

Eventually I decide I’ve had enough motorway and aim for a country lane that I know well enough to test the handling. Now I know you’re probably not going to buy a bike like this to hoon around twisties on, but I’ll be fucked if I’m not taking this bike down here today. The sun’s out and the road is empty so it’d be rude not too wouldn’t it. I hit the switch to activate Sport and blast down the lane. After a few fast sweepers it’s clear the firm suspension lets you carve through the corners well, but the large diameter front wheel and long travel suspension keep you from going too bananas. It does have feel but tends to feel slightly remote when really pressing on. The brakes also impressed with decent feel and controlled dive to the forks when braking hard for a hairpin. You can definitely have fun on this… which leads me to the DCT…

In Drive mode the bike wants to get into sixth gear as quickly as possible. I imagine if you ever wanted to ride a bike completely pissed after a very, very hard drinking session then this would be the mode for you. Drive mode makes for very sensible cruising and probably great mpg but if you’re like me you will tire of this mode very quickly. Unfortunately, and typical of Honda-Fun-Police, the bike defaults to this mode.

In Sport mode the bike will downshift quicker when you re-apply the throttle for an overtake etc, and will hold the gears for longer, but only at large throttle openings. At part throttle, I found Sport just wasn’t sporty enough and needed constant persuasion to stay a gear lower. Perhaps I’m expecting too much here, and will happily admit that my riding in this mode may have been out of the design brief spectrum but I says-as-I-feels yo. Who wants to be in fourth at 30mph in Sport mode? Doesn’t make sense to me.

The saving grace for me was the manual gear shift buttons. Without them I’d have condemned DCT to the pits of Hell. If you’re riding ‘spiritedly’ then you will need to override the computer at some point. For me this was on the approach to a corner when you want a downshift a gear or two. The computer doesn’t know that you want to be in third rather than fifth for the rapidly approaching corner so you have to force the issue and downshift twice with your thumb. I found the changes are instant and it holds the gear you want long enough to exit the corner. I played with the overrides on the move and soon learnt that the computer will hold your gear selection for approximately four seconds, then change gear again if it deems it unsuitable for the revs and throttle position. If your throttle openings make sense to the computer then it will hold your gear selection for slightly longer.

After reading a few reviews online it may be that the bike has a fully manual mode, but this was never shown to me and it’s not on the mode-selection rocker switch. If it does then perhaps that mode would be better for spirited riding but the upshift button was hardly immediately to hand. I found it unintuitive.

So after riding for about 120 miles I dropped the bike back off at the dealers. I’m glad I tried it but it’s not for me. The bike itself is great, a really nice looking machine. Very comfortable and I’m told good off-road too but no good in very tight traffic and I think I’d find the DCT too much of an interference to my riding to be of any benefit. There’s no doubting that the bike is very easy to get used to. I only reached for the clutch twice, and one of those was at the very start. So I guess neither the bike, nor DCT are for me – but I’m glad I checked. Very Happy
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ScaredyCat
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Joined: 19 May 2012
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PostPosted: 13:19 - 12 May 2017    Post subject: Reply with quote

You can get an optional foot shift for the DCT bikes that emulates the buttons.

I rode the manual version but if you didn't change the traction control from level 3 then it would have affected your acceleration too. I think the general consensus is if you're going to do off road, get the DCT otherwise get the manual. I enjoyed the bike, the suspension was lovely in comparison to my NC - but in reality I wasn't excited by the bike that much. For a stock exhaust the sound isn't too bad either.

Also bashed my shins on the rear grab handles getting on, twice.
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