Honda has been one of the first manufacturer to bring Dual Clutch Transmission (DCT) to motorcycles. The Japanese bike maker at present sells the Goldwing and VFR 1200F in India with DCT. Interestingly the Africa Twin which is confirmed for Indian launch later this year already sports this tech as an optional extra. Honda charges about $ 700 (little less than Rs 50,000) premium for DCT over the standard variant. And considering that it will hardly make a difference when we talk about scheme of things in India, there is a big possibility of we getting the Africa Twin DCT. Apart from this, its global line-up includes several interesting offerings with DCT like NC 750X.
Imagine what if the next Fireblade got one too? That may be far-fetched at this moment but as per a report on VisorDown, Honda might just bring this technology to sportsbikes!
What is DCT?
Dual-Clutch Transmission or DCT automates clutch and shift operation while not missing out on the direct acceleration pleasure of a conventional manual transmission. This way the rider can focus more on throttle input and braking when required. The following infographic explains more…
So what’s the hold up? Weight issues! A DCT or any other automatic transmission has more number of moving parts which makes it heavier than manuals. To give you an idea, the weight difference between the manual and DCT version of Africa Twins is 10 kilos! Honda is reportedly working on this and is trying to make the mechanism lighter.
In fact a senior member of the management claims that if two motorcycles of identical weight are raced, one having a manual gearbox and the other a DCT, the latter will be faster as it eliminates the loss of drive during shifting. He further added that this would also be the case for racing motorcycles like the RC213V and not just road centric models!
