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2010 VFR1200F with DCT Review
 

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2010 VFR1200F with DCT Review

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Nice article, most-interesting technology. I still have my own shifting preferences, but Honda can sure make technological wonders. The question remains, though: will anybody buy it, or will it go the way of the "Hondamatic" of the '80s?

The DCT is superior in every single way to the Hondamatic - except price.

"Either way, an Acura-level owner experience is offered, and Honda has 15 carefully designed accessories to enhance the package adding up to $4,399.25 over the base price of $17,499."

Well, I'm sold. This will be the perfect bike for owners of Acuras, Ford Thunderbirds and Audis to enter the motorcycle market.

I don't know
 

I have lusted for a new VFR with the performance specifications this new bike offers. The new DCT technology sounds interesting but I like my motorcycles and sports cars to have a manual transmission. I also have a problem with some of the styling cues (like that muffler). As much as I'd like to be I am just not that passionate about this VFR. Especially when you look at it from the spending 20 large perspective.

So, spend 16 large on the manual-trans version, bungee your luggage to the seat, and fit an aftermarket slip-on muffler!

Maybe thats the answer
 

That may be the answer KD. I have found that I will need a new Honda,Ducati,Triumph and BMW to achieve total consciousness,I mean happiness. I needed a reason to rethink this bike. I do not want to drop Honda off my list.

Honda sure can come up with neat technology. Smart of them to offer the new VFR in a manual model though. Car guys like all the new bells and whistles, but MC riders tend to be traditionalists - witness all the folks riding around on Harleys. Even the sport bike riders tend to gravitate to the proven orthodoxy.

Also, it seems to me that tech hungry and willing to pay for it "car guys" tend not to be MC guys. Sure some are, but these are generally mutually exclusive enthusiast interests in my experience.

As for me, I like the simplicity and operator involvement of motorcycles. As a result, the DCT bike has little appeal to me. No doubt it works great, but after covering most of my internal combustion miles in an automatic transmissoin car, it is fun to stir a shift lever on the bike.

Biggest beef with the new VFR is that it's face looks like that of a Cylon Centurion from Battlestar Galatica. Oh wait. Maybe that is a good thing...

I'm sorry but this type of technology IS for car guys, not for the REAL motorcyclist, but that's just one opinion. The more this type of technology pops up the more it takes the riders input out of the equation which is the whole fun in riding a motorcycle in the first
place isn't it. I mean I perfer a stick over an automatic when I drive a car. The other thing that caught my eye in this informative article was the fact that they took experienced riders to come up with these shift points. Sorry but when I ride I want to learn and if that means me hitting the ground then so beit. Lessons are not learned without consequences. That my friends is what riding motorcycles is all about!

Automatic bikes perpetuate riders with lazy skills. People that don't go through the learning process which involves crashing aren't going to be lasting buyers into the future. It's like the gazillion riders you hear or talk to that rode once until they had one accident then never rode again.
Being a motorcyclist you have to expect to get hurt, it's part of the learning process. Probably not popular but it's my two.

It's an impressive machine, even without DCT. In the car world, they talk about "aspirational" models. I see the VFR in the same way.