After riding motorcycles with conventional transmissions for 59 years, getting one with DCT transmission has been the biggest new biking-experience for me since learning to ride on a 125cc BSA Bantam.

What is DCT? It’s Dual Clutch Transmission, a system which has two permanently engaged clutches side-by-side, each one serving a set of gears waiting to be told to change. One clutch operates gears 1, 3 and 5 and the other 2, 4 and 6. DCT can operate much like an automatic car with D and S modes and as a manual change using an up-change forefinger lever and a down-change thumb-button on the left switch-block. There is no clutch lever and your left foot has nothing to do but come along for the ride. Unlike a CVT system, as most scooters have, with DCT the revs don’t soar ahead of road speed when you accelerate.

https://youtu.be/cuMt88e3aTc
https://youtu.be/s8reh-GWbMs

Arthritic joints were making conventional gear changing painful for me so recently I bought a bike with DCT. It’s a Honda NC750 SD, a water cooled 750cc inclined parallel-twin with a six speed DCT transmission and ABS. Honda make other models where DCT is an option; The NC range, the Africa Twin, the VFR1200 and the latest Goldwing. My bike is a 2014 model. Later models have DCT refinements and more than one S mode. I prefer to buy new bikes but Honda NZ don’t import NCs with DCT and not even with ABS!

There is a bit of a learning curve to use DCT, which is one of the things which makes it interesting. You can simply select D and ride away in a docile manner, or select S if an engine-response feeling pretty much like a manual bike is preferred. Another source of interest is that you can ride in three modes; D, S and MT and change between them and change gears manually at any time.

D mode is aimed at economy running by changing gears early and calling on the quite generous torque at minimum revs. I prefer to change gear before there is any lugging sensation so avoid D until almost at highway speed. At any time in D and S the manual trigger and button can be used to change gears, after which the automatic mode will engage again automatically. At highway speed you can get the bike to change down two gears as fast as you can move your left thumb and without altering the throttle position between changes – just open the throttle and start changing down. Lovely!

At idle while in any mode, there is no creep forward; just open the throttle and first gear will be engaged and off you go. Surprisingly quickly actually. Care is needed not to blip the throttle when in gear at idle because the bike will roar forward! Whenever you stop, the bike will be in first gear in all modes ready to accelerate away. The engine cannot be stalled either which must be great on the Africa Twin.

Full-lock figure-8s are best done in MT 1st gear to avoid an unwanted down-change, but otherwise the usual trailing of the rear brake while keeping some revs up is the way to go. If you don’t keep some revs up there is a risk of the bike selecting neutral, leaving you with no drive. How tight U-turns could be done worried me before I rode the bike but I needn’t have worried, it’s even easier than with a clutch lever, especially in right turns.

Manual changing isn’t always necessary in MT mode in that you can slow just by closing the throttle and letting the gears change down automatically, or you can use the thumb button to change down manually. Because you can’t blip the throttle to rev-match while down-changing this is where a clutched bike is smoother. I ride across the Rimutaka Hill road a lot and for that the DCT in S mode is brilliant in that I can roll into bends on a closed throttle, letting the bike change down automatically and barely need to brake except at the few real hairpins. No need to change gears when crawling along behind large trucks going uphill either. That is literally a pain on my Buell.

With DCT the bike can’t be left in gear when parked so a parking brake is provided. On my bike there is an actuating lever on the left ‘bar, a dedicated small caliper on the rear brake disc and an indicator light on the dash. I love this feature and use it whenever the bike is parked and when re-fueling.

DCT upward-changes under acceleration are extremely smooth, but otherwise I’d rate a convention transmission as potentially smoother, especially with manual down-changes. Despite that, IMHO, DCT is a brilliant system. The latest Goldwing has a ride-by-wire throttle which would make all manner of wonderful things possible with DCT. I’d love to try one.