For the 2022 model year, the Honda Africa Twin 1100 family isn’t getting too many updates, save for one that might turn a few heads – Honda is updating the settings on its dual-clutch transmission.
According to Honda’s release, both the Africa Twin and Africa Twin Adventure Sport with the DCT will see “refined” settings on the ECU, which Big Red says will bring smoother handling in the first two gears when starting and at low speeds.
Presumably this is to address the lurchiness (is that a word?) that the dual-clutch transmission can create during slow-speed maneuvers, which can be off-putting to riders who are used to feathering a manual clutch in those situations.
However, it seems Honda has yet to address some of the issues regarding the shift points for the DCT, especially in its less-sporty modes, which can see the automatic gearbox engaging sixth gear below even 40 mph.
Despite some of the drawbacks in Honda’s design, the dual-clutch transmission has been a popular choice for motorcyclists, with Honda claiming that over 200,000 motorcycles with the DCT have been sold since it first debuted in 2009 on the Honda VFR1200F.
Speaking from our own experience, a few months with the DCT-equipped Honda Africa Twin 1100 Sport ES has us convinced of the technology’s benefits, which is something this author did not expect to admit one day.
It’s not a perfect system (yet), but you certainly do miss it when you jump back onto a motorcycle with a standard gearbox, and Honda has continued to improve upon the DCT design over the past decade.CRF
As for today’s revisions to the software, it is not clear if Honda’s DCT update can be applied to previous model year Africa Twins with the dual-clutch transmission. More news on that, when we get it.
Source: Honda UK
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