[Cunundrum]

Have a had 2 Goldwings, love them. Trying to get feedback on to DCT or not to DCT. I am a big fan of shifting and seems like a foreign concept to me to consider an automatic

Any feedback with experience is welcome

Heya.. I just picked up my first GW and its a DCT Bagger. I have ridden 20+ bikes over 35 yrs. I will admit I was a skeptic, but wanted to try it. I find myself really enjoying it, I find with the weight of the bike and a possible passenger it works better than self shifting. That Touring map.. is freaking butter, so smooth and short shifts are spot on. Sport mode is like as it says.. sporty, takes off quicker with less throttle and rpm shifts are higher. With the power and torque of the GW, dct works really well. Don't think it would be as enjoyable with anything with less power.

 

[DonF]

I grew up on dirt bikes , then added street bikes, Honda, Suzuki, Harley and Goldwing. Ya I thought shifting was cool, the real man’s bike would always have a clutch. Bull butter. I have a 22 DCT I would not trade it in for a clutch if they gave me the new bike for free. I can not (after 27k on the bike) come up with 1 single reason or advantage of a manual, not one. If you like to shift, if that’s your thing then put in it manual mode and shift to your hearts content. When “ touring “ I can not imagine a clutch anymore. If you ride hard and want to do the tail of the dragon with your GoPro then put it in sport mode, it will literally learn to up shift or down shift when you want it to, or shift it yourself. The DCT is the best of both worlds. There are times when going up hill in tour mode the tranny will not downshift when I want more juice so I just hit the downshift button to get the rpms I want. When passing DCT will kick it down and if you are pushing hard it will hold the gear longer if it senses that you are riding harder. Never had an issue as I have seen DCT detractors post about at slow speed maneuvering, sport mode solves that. What’s fun about counting gears, down shifting to get back to first at a light or busy intersection. There are more important issues to worry about than if you got it into first. When I want to go I goose it and it goes every time. Again if you want to play the shift game you can but if you want one less thing to manipulate and one less distraction to worry about then GO DCT.

For me clutching and shifting is part of the fun but to each their own. Clutching and shifting is second nature to me, it isn't a distraction it's something that I do almost without thinking. Auto-DCTs aren't the best of both worlds their in their own world. For some like docsbw it's what they like, many others like it too. Otherwise Honda would have quit making them. But as the shift in sales is more to the sport bike side I don't see DCT's with a torque converter taking over the market. They will remain a niche market, but as long as enough are sold to keep the manufacturing profitable they will continue to make them for the GW, Rebel 1100, NC750X, and Africa Twin. But they also have more problems, especially in the hotter climates.
It is worth mentioning that a lot of sport bikes are coming out with DCTs as you can shift gears faster with them. But they aren't auto shifting and you have to pull in the clutch to stop.

 

[JoeBiker25]

Another reason to go for the DCT: you won't bang helmets with your pillion passenger during gear shifts!

 

[mirek]

Polish:
mam 4 motocykl hondy z tego drugi to automat i tak juz zostanie bo naprawde super dziala na honda africa zrobilem 58tys bez problemu i teraz gl1800dct 36 tys wygoda jaka daje automat to cos czego musicie sprobowac

English translation:
I have 4 Honda motorcycles, and the second one is automatic, and it will stay that way because it really works great. On the Honda Africa, I did 58,000 km without any problems, and now the GL1800 DCT, 36,000 km— the comfort that an automatic provides is something you have to try.