1601 DT final

is some “slippage” between the
two clutches and the gearbox.
It is ever so slight, and almost
unnoticeable. However it does
rob a little bit of performance, so
to remove this, Honda has fitted
a button marked “G” just below
the screen on the panel. Press it
once and the clutches and all the
other bits work like demons…
still smooth and seamless, but
with a pleasing taughtness
that combined with a fabulous
induction howl make canyon riding
enormous fun.
Ok so now that we’ve
done our best to
explain how it all
works, what is it like
to ride?
On the fully automatic DCT version
it only takes 30 seconds from
selecting 1st gear with the right
hand rocker switch and turning
the throttle to pull off to forget that
bikes ever even had things like
clutch and gear levers! Everything
just feels so natural and it all works
so well. We were put into groups
of five, each behind a riding leader,
and told not to pass him, which
we dutifully did not do… for about
five kays. It was a brilliant Karoo
summer day, with such clear air
we could probably have seen
Madagascar from the top of one
of the nearby hills. After 5 kays
we came to a T junction, and all
of us had the same thought in
mind. If we were expected to ride
the 150 something km route like
this we were going to turn right
at the first opportunity when the
riding leader turned left. Luckily
for us Heine and Dieter second
guessed us and we were asked
to follow a film crew in a truck
one by one for some video shots,
so we forgot about riding away
from our minders. After that we
were taken on a succession of
brilliant mountain passes, and at
speeds we all enjoyed, and which
exposed the new Africa Twin to
real, fast touring conditions. One
of the great things about riding
in South Africa is that the roads
are generally in great condition,
traffic is sparse and policing is
minimal. Our minders proved to
be excellent riders and kept us
all at a fast but safe pace. As
the day wore on we stopped
quite often and the entire group
“One of the great things about
riding in South Africa is that
the roads are generally in great
condition, traffic is sparse and
policing is minimal.”
52 DIRT & TRAIL MAGAZINE JANUARY 2016
1601 DT Africa Twin.indd 52 2015/12/16 9:41 AM