![]() You can see why retired couples saddle up with these and head out to look for America. It took a little while to stop ghost-shifting the ghost-clutch, because it wasn’t there, but once I broke myself of that habit, it was pure cruise control (another feature, cruise control on a motorcycle!). Riding around town was a little like piloting the starship Enterprise. Three luggage compartments (none of which would hold my full-face helmet, btw). You can raise and lower the windscreen electrically. My test bike was fully loaded, “Loaded up like your living room floor on Christmas morning,” I wrote in my notes: parking brake, four-speaker stereo, reverse, heated grips, heated front and rear seats and infotainment that looks like what you’d find on a car. That is formidable for a bike that weighs around 800 pounds, depending on how you load it up. Honda doesn’t release power figures but intelligent guesses have put it at 125 hp and 125 lb-ft of torque. As you may recall from the new model’s introduction in Autoweek two years ago, the new ’ Wing is powered by a new 1,833cc (1.8-liter) liquid-cooled flat-six. Not that I’m getting older-I just turned 61-but I really grew to appreciate the comfort and ease of movement the Gold Wing’s DCT transmission offered. I have ridden both the LiveWire and several Zero electric bikes and have enjoyed them all, particularly the way the regenerative braking functions to slow the bike entering corners in the same way downshifting does that on a conventional, shifter bike.īut I also got another chance to ride the new Honda Gold Wing with the DCT recently. “It’s one part of the reason consumers are drawn to the overall performance of LiveWire: its ease of ride, its instant speed, the quick charge and range.” “The LiveWire does not have a clutch so there is no shifting,” said Harley spokesperson Jennifer Hoyer. ![]() ![]() Iconic bike maker Harley-Davidson has pinned a lot of hopes on the all-electric (and shiftless) LiveWire model. Harley-Davidson all-electric LiveWire has no shifter. and for the first time over 1,000 in Europe,” said about the Zero electric motorcycle. “In 2019 sales (of Zero motorcycles) grew up near 1,500 in the U.S. Most popular is the NC750 DCT they want a lighter bike, they don’t want the clutch.”Įlectric motorcycles are by design very similar to DCT bikes in that there is no clutch to operate on an electric motorcycle, you just twist the throttle and go. They know them from the high-end supercars, like Ferrari runs them in all their cars. Customers are specifically looking for that DCT. “I honestly dig this technology on this clutch because I’m missing my left arm (he lost it in the Army in Afghanistan). Perez has a reason to appreciate the DCT on Hondas. “It makes it easier at the stop light, especially on hills.” “A lot of customers really prefer that,” said Giovanni Perez, a customer care specialist at Bert’s Mega Mall in Covina, California, one of the largest motorcycle dealers in the country. Word is getting out about the shiftless option. I gotta think that feature will have a tremendous appeal to both older buyers and when it comes to luring in new riders of all ages. But the straight-up DCT transmission doesn’t require any input from the rider other than a twist of the throttle. On the Hondas you are even given the choice of shifting with a pair of buttons on the left-hand grip. In any case, you don’t have to operate a clutch or even change your throttle position to shift gears. Honda is way ahead of any other bike-maker when it comes to automatics, or more precisely, DCT dual-clutch transmissions, which is a quick-shifting variant of the automatic. What will save the motorcycle industry long term? I say, automatic transmissions. You could credit the most recent months’ sales increase in dirt bikes to a bunch of Americans cooped up inside for months and months, desperate to get out and ride. This is good news, especially since just a few years ago the industry was pretty bleak, taking seemingly forever to crawl out of the recession of 2008-2009-etc. There are around 450,000 or so new motorcycles sold in the U.S. Sales of street bikes are mostly flat but are still significant. Dirt bike sales are up over 50% for the first six months of 2020, according to the Motorcycle Industry Council’s retail sales reporting. Sales are up! The motorcycle industry in America is actually experiencing an upsurge, especially in dirt bikes and side-by-sides.
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