A couple of weeks ago, we rode a Honda 2025 NC750 from the RideFast offices in Benoni to the Jugomaro Predator Sanctuary in Vaalwater. Limpopo. The idea was to get there and back on one 14L tank of petrol, a sum total of 500km. We did it and then some – 529km before the bike spluttered to a halt.
By Donovan Fourie
If you’re interested in hearing more about this and the 2025 NC750, you can find that story on this website. Here’s a quick rundown of the bike – It is an easy-to-ride, reliable, dependable workhorse that will move its rider wherever they may choose endlessly. The new NC has a snazzy TFT dash with connectivity and all the works. It looks better than the last one, has better power delivery than the last one and is more fun to ride than the last one. The motor is a 745cc parallel-twin that pushes 58hp and 69Nm of torque. It weighs 216kg wet and, as we have found, can do 529km on a 14L tank if you are not in a terrible hurry.
However, that was a manual transmission NC750. This one is exactly the same as that bike in every way, apart from a DCT automatic transmission. That means no clutch, no gear lever and more buttons in the switch complexes.
If this were a sports machine set on breaking lap records, or a stunt machine designed to wheelie all day, we might take exception to its automatic status; however, as a commuter designed for taking you from A to B, why the hell would you want to faff around with clutches and gear levers and things?
In the early days of DCT, perhaps you had a point in being sceptical. It was a little clumsy with a lag that often made us a bit nervous when overtaking.
Times have changed – since the first version in 2009, every version of the DCT has been an improvement. If they haven’t already, they can now proclaim that they have got it right.
During the shoot for The Bike Show, I was doing some on-board chatting whereby I talked to an Insta360 camera on the handlebars while attempting not to crash the bike in distraction. We stopped at a stop street where the gearbox clicked into first. I pulled off slowly while explaining to the camera that we are going to pay attention to see how well the gearbox clicks into second gear. I was cut short when I glanced at the gear indicator and found that the blasted thing was already in fourth gear.
I didn’t even feel it change.
On the public road, riding calmly as commuters do, the DCT will meet every need you ask of it, but we decided to take this test one step further…
Later that day, we rolled into the Formula K Circuit, the fancy go-kart track off Snake Road in Benoni. Calm road riding is simple, even for an electronic brain. Riding around a racetrack takes intuition that generally requires something like a human brain with its trillions of neurons and billions of years of R&D.
Before navigating a corner, the bike needs to be set up for the corner beforehand. Braking must be done to ensure the correct speed. The bike needs to be steered to the correct place to best take the corner. And the gearbox needs to be in the right gear so that the bike can seamlessly accelerate out of the bend.
The former DCT boxes generally changed down in the middle of the corner, upsetting the bike or, worse, changed down multiple gears as the rider started accelerating.
To make matters worse, we were at a go-kart track, a place where gear changes are harsher and sometimes even human brains struggle to get the gears right.
Nonetheless, we parted with the pitlane to meet our fate. This wasn’t about lap times – I was wearing normal riding jeans and jacket – it was about finding out if this version of the DCT can cope.
Out of the pitlane and the bike saw its way up to third gear going through the flat-out first sweep. The second corner was a sharp 180-degree hairpin and would serve as the first test.
It failed rather spectacularly, riding on to third gear and leaving much to be desired on the corner exit. It stayed in third for most of the lap until eventually clicking second gear about halfway through.
Oh dear.
Nonetheless, we pursued, once more thundering down the short pit straight where the gearbox finds third before again smoothly peeling into the flat-out sweep. Again, we braked for the hairpin where it failed last time. There was a tense moment after I shut the throttle and hit the brakes, where the number three sat defiantly in the gear indicator slot. It seemed like it was to stay, until…
…there was the slightest of shudders through the bars as the bike clicked second.
My initial thoughts were that this was an improvement over keeping it in third, but this hairpin deserved first gear, surely? That was until I opened the throttle.
The rev counter showed 2,500rpm, a little more than idle, and yet the bike pulled like it was nothing – no shudders, no snatching and no bogging.
This bike churns out 58hp, which, given everything else that’s out there, is not going to trouble the earth’s rotation; however, it seems that the NC produces that 58hp from 2,000hp right up until the redline at 8,000rpm. And that’s cheating.
We came to Formula K in order to test the gearbox, but with the broad power band, it circulates the entire circuit in just second and third gears, hardly changing between them at all.
However, as the laps tallied along, the bike seemed to “learn” the circuit, changing down sooner as we went along.
If this were a manual gearbox and I was entrusted with choosing the gears myself, I’d have chosen them exactly as the DCT had done. This 16-year-old gearbox is as clever as my billion-year-old brain.
Don’t we feel worthless?
Thanks to Honda Wing East Rand for the loan of the bike.
Price: from R162,599
