We rolled into the Black Hills today, getting settled in at our home base in the RV resort. Today would be the first opportunity to really run the CTX with the Dual Clutch Transmission through some seriously fun twisties.
If you said, "What the crowd sings during the Neil Diamond song Sweet Caroline: 'Good times never seemed so good...' " you get 15 bonus po...
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After 3 months with this bike, I am convinced of what attributes DCT brings to the riding experience. Riding this bike hard in Sport Mode and regular use of the paddle (trigger) shifters to put the bike at the RPM I wanted was a delight, running through the curves today.
If you haven't ridden a bike with DCT and just go by various "reviewers" comments, you need to see for yourself what DCT can do. I was originally hoping the Honda Rebel 1100 or the NC750X would be a good fit for me, as these have the latest generation of DCT. I found the CTX to be a better ergonomic fit for me, and made the decision to do that route. This generation DCT has Drive, Sport, and Manual modes. I am impressed, especially after getting to push the bike in Sport Mode.
A couple reviews I read about DCT stated that one of the "cons" of it is: "the transmission cann't see what's coming ahead to be able to get itself in the best gear for the situation." Well,
duh! Neither can a bike with a manual transmission. The rider has to use his/her best judgement to get the most out of the bike... and you do exactly that with the DCT. In Sport Mode, you can still use the paddle shifters to up or down shift on the fly. The shift is instantaneous. After a day of running this bike hard through the curves, I am
even more impressed with the DCT. Today was a lot of hairpin curves, pigtail curves (more than 360º), some nice sweepers, and... entertaining riding.
For most of my day-to-day riding, I put the bike in Drive or Sport mode and just ride. Today, it was Sport mode and some additional imput with the paddle shifters. This transmission is great!
For full disclosure, I came to the CTX after 9 years of riding scooters (and 45 years of riding all kinds of motorcycles before that). I had some concerns that the CTX and the DCT might not be as much
fun as riding the Vespa GTS HPE (with a CVT transmission) through these curves. This CTX is a blast! The DCT just works - no fuss, no drama.
It may be those years of riding a scooter that convinced me that the riding experience is just as much fun without the shifting. The DCT just works.