Discussion
I'm finding it more difficult to ride a manual bike after many years of riding due to arthritis in my left hand. I bought a 10 year old vfr1200f dct a couple of years back and that's pretty good. The early dct is a little bit janky and I only ever ride it in manual mode. Has the system development much in the last decade.
I didn't originally buy the vfr to alleviate the pain in my hand. I bought it to replace the 1190adv I had that got pretty uncomfortable on a weekend trip to the south of france. The vfr solved all the comfort issues... and just happened to be dct which I thought was a neat idea. I really like it but wonder wether the technology has improved.
Thanks.
I didn't originally buy the vfr to alleviate the pain in my hand. I bought it to replace the 1190adv I had that got pretty uncomfortable on a weekend trip to the south of france. The vfr solved all the comfort issues... and just happened to be dct which I thought was a neat idea. I really like it but wonder wether the technology has improved.
Thanks.
flushedmonkey said:
I'm finding it more difficult to ride a manual bike after many years of riding due to arthritis in my left hand. I bought a 10 year old vfr1200f dct a couple of years back and that's pretty good. The early dct is a little bit janky and I only ever ride it in manual mode. Has the system development much in the last decade.
I didn't originally buy the vfr to alleviate the pain in my hand. I bought it to replace the 1190adv I had that got pretty uncomfortable on a weekend trip to the south of france. The vfr solved all the comfort issues... and just happened to be dct which I thought was a neat idea. I really like it but wonder wether the technology has improved.
Thanks.
Judging by the R1300GS ASA I test rode a couple of months ago, there’s still a long way to go. I didn't originally buy the vfr to alleviate the pain in my hand. I bought it to replace the 1190adv I had that got pretty uncomfortable on a weekend trip to the south of france. The vfr solved all the comfort issues... and just happened to be dct which I thought was a neat idea. I really like it but wonder wether the technology has improved.
Thanks.
It was pretty dire, changing up to 6th gear by 45mph, shifting from 2nd to 3rd at lean on roundabouts, jarring shifting mid corner that would quite noticeably unsettle the bike. Not being able to slip the clutch made tight, off camber mini-roundabouts very unpleasant as the bike feels like the idle is too high to prevent it stalling. Very poor.
I suspect the Honda application of DCT is probably now very good, but I was staggered BMW signed off on the ASA.
Mine was in for a service a few weeks ago and I asked them for something sporty as a courtesy bike so they gave me a twist'n'go... 
ok, it was an R1300RS, so at least it gave me a chance to try it.
My biggest concern (low speed maneouvering) turned out to be a non-issue, I was impressed at how easy it was to ride at low speed, even in heavy rush-hours traffic. Accuracy was not affected and I only reached for the non-existant clutch once.
The autoshifting was another story, and I found it interesting that the system defaulted to manual shifting anyway. Perhaps if it suits how you ride you'll feel differently but for me, being sat on the motorway at 50MPH in fifth gear was unnatural, I'm usually in third on my 1250. A car indicated to pull in so I dropped two gears in anticipation, started to roll on and it went back to fifth.
Eventually I settled in to using it in manual mode, where it made sense as an effective quickshifter unlike the normal boxer clunky 50/50 affair. At that, I could live with it. But I wouldn't buy it.
ok, it was an R1300RS, so at least it gave me a chance to try it.My biggest concern (low speed maneouvering) turned out to be a non-issue, I was impressed at how easy it was to ride at low speed, even in heavy rush-hours traffic. Accuracy was not affected and I only reached for the non-existant clutch once.
The autoshifting was another story, and I found it interesting that the system defaulted to manual shifting anyway. Perhaps if it suits how you ride you'll feel differently but for me, being sat on the motorway at 50MPH in fifth gear was unnatural, I'm usually in third on my 1250. A car indicated to pull in so I dropped two gears in anticipation, started to roll on and it went back to fifth.
Eventually I settled in to using it in manual mode, where it made sense as an effective quickshifter unlike the normal boxer clunky 50/50 affair. At that, I could live with it. But I wouldn't buy it.
In manual mode the vfr will have me in 6th by the end of the driveway. Sport mode is a little better but lacks any kind of sense. The manual mode is a lot better but you have to almost signal to the bike what your intentions are before you change gear. So if you're accelerating it'll guess correctly that the next gear is likely going to be one up and if you're braking then it correctly guesses that the next gear will be one down. If you're just rolling in to a corner and want to change down then it'll have the right gear ready about half the time and it'll be smooth and the other half will be a bit clunky. What I've found is that if you 'signal' that you're slowing down going in to a corner by applying a little bit of brake then it gets the intent nearly all the time and then next gear ready will be the next gear down.
I'd be interested in trying the yamaha system out but I had heard that the bmw one was not great.
I'd be interested in trying the yamaha system out but I had heard that the bmw one was not great.
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