2025 Honda NT1100 DCT Review – First Ride

Big Red finds its sport-touring roots in the NT1100 DCT

Three years ago, those of us with our feet planted on North American soil began counting down what turned from days into months and eventually years before it would be our turn to frolic on Honda's new 17-inch-wheeled sport-tourer. Amongst a sea of ADV and ADV-adjacent offerings, there is a Stateside sect of riders who opine for a roadgoing all-arounder – those doe-eyed hopefuls wave a hearty checklist in hand: sporting ability, touring necessities, and affordability neatly assembled in this carefully balanced package. Well, my tarmac-affectionate friends, consider your yearnful cries answered because the 2025 Honda NT1100 DCT has arrived – huzzah!

2025 Honda NT1100 DCT

They say that good things come to those who wait, and Big Red's traditional sport-tourer is a rare example of when that might be true. See, our friends across either pond were the guinea pigs, as it were, allowing the NT1100 platform to mature. There, it had time to evolve, enjoying the upgrades from the recently refined Africa Twin platform that the NT1100 shares its frame and Parallel-Twin powerplant with. The noteworthy changes don't stop there with a slight aesthetic refresh that adds a user-friendly, manually adjustable windscreen and larger accessory panniers. Besides that, 6-axis IMU-supported rider aids join the party, as does the brand's latest semi-automatic Dual-Clutch Transmission (DCT) programming. However, on the technology front, we are missing the Showa semi-active suspension offered by model variants in Europe. Perhaps it is fitting that it's offered exclusively in blue. Pearl Hawkeye Blue, to be exact.

A brand like Honda won't vie for your dollars unless it makes sense, which is the rough reasoning behind the NT's fashionably late arrival. The North American market has embraced ADV in all its derivations wholesale, and the data from nearly every manufacturer support the notion.

In recent years, an uptick of 17-inch wheel-wielding sport-tourers with the likes of the Yamaha Tracer 9 GT ($12,599), Kawasaki Versys 1000 SE LT ($19,499), Suzuki GSX-S1000GT+ ($14,299), and Moto Guzzi V100 ($15,490) has reinvigorated interest, which made Honda question its sport-touring-shaped hole within its lineup. It also provides a nice opportunity to undercut the competition at $11,899.

With shaft-driven offerings like the ST1300 and VFR1200F put to pasture long ago, the Africa Twin CRF1000L, in its various forms, served as replacements during a bullish ADV market. The thing ADV or ADV-inspired "tall-arounders" have in common is tall seat heights, often larger front wheel sizes, and longer suspension travel with more ground clearance. That all helps in off-road situations. But if the dirt isn't your bag, there's no reason to lug those attributes along for the ride.

Sport-touring is exceedingly broad and equates to bikes that need to be adept at navigating concrete jungles just as well as handling wide-open mountain passes, lest we forget about everything in between. As luck would have it, we have plenty of that in the greater Southern California region, which saw us traverse multi-lane super slabs before venturing the fun way from Costa Mesa to Borrego Springs, California, and back. Simply put, we hit some of the best roads the Southland offers and, coincidentally, the type of riding that is all day's work for the NT1100 and ilk. 

Powering the NT1100 is Honda's punchy 1,084cc Parallel-Twin engine, sourced from the proven and recently polished AT platform. Those updates coax out a little extra midrange due to engine fiddling in the form of higher-compression pistons (10.1:1 to 10.5:1), as well as larger intake ducts and airbox trumpets. The 270-degree crank toots a delightfully meaty tune out of the revised exhaust that now features an additional post-catalyst oxygen sensor for tighter performance, emissions, and misfire monitoring, per Euro5+ rules.

With that bit of homework done, we can dive into what amounts to about 100 horsepower at 7,500 rpm, and thanks to all that mechanical rejiggering, achieves its 82.6 lb-ft of torque at a more easily attainable 5,500 rpm. For the record, those numbers were pulled from our cohorts at Honda UK, while American Honda rarely publicly cites claimed figures.

The NT's mill is classic Honda in that it puts the everyman (or woman) first with its welcoming approach. On-demand low-end is helpful when scooting around town, while the wide midrange wave makes for excellent canyon surfing or when asking for highway passing power. There's even a little left up top, though it begins tapering around 6,500 and leaves the rest of revs as overrun to the 8,000 rpm redline. There's bark, a sensibly sporty bite, but its real strength is that it makes a play at plenty of customers – moving up from a middleweight? You'll wrap your head around it quickly, and those salty veterans will still be satiated.

As stated in the name, we'll also notice Honda’s well-established DCT badging on the engine case. In fact, that's the only version of the NT1100 we'll receive currently, and the semi-automatic transmission is primed for a sport-touring application. Here's DCT in a nutshell: It does the shifting for you and transforms a full-sized motorcycle into a high-powered twist-n-go scooter that also happens to have decent fueling.

Honda's DCT deserves praise for its near seamless gear transitions, which are done deftly by the IMU and computer-aided gismos. Gear changes can be heard and felt through the engine itself, though the way it deftly slips the clutch to put down without a hint of jerkiness or driveline lash is impressive.

Those familiar with the longstanding system also seen in Africa Twin, Gold Wing, NC750, and Rebel 1100 platforms will also recognize the three DCT modes offered: Drive (D), three-level Sport (S), and Manual (MT). While the brand has updated things for better low-speed shifting manners and it now uses IMU data to help decision-making, the automatic modes behave similarly to what we've experienced in the past: D is the most docile of the bunch, almost hilariously rushing through the gearbox to often settle in 6th at 35 mph. That's your daily donkey work mode.

Meanwhile, S alights closer to what most human riders would deem appropriate gear choices, specifically in the most aggressive level 3 setting. Still, there are instances where it holds onto gears entirely too long or perhaps won't downshift quickly enough as you'd like while braking. These moments usually crop up when the throttle is being cracked with any gusto. The automatic DCT modes can sometimes be quirky, and owners will likely learn its eccentricities, though it is still a net benefit within the sport-touring scope.

However, if you're going to sow your wild oats, then you'll want to be in Manual mode, whipping through the gearbox via the paddle shifters on the left switchgear. That's just a good time, kiddos. On that note, overriding the automatic systems can be done by hitting the shifters at any time, but they won't react with the same immediacy as when DCT is set to Manual.

Five ride modes fall in line with the techno goodies (Urban, Rain, Tour, and User 1 and 2). Those preset modes manage three-level power modes, engine braking settings, and lean-angle-sensitive traction control settings – adjusting ABS is off the table here. User modes are fully customizable. Settings are tweaked through the brightly shining 6.5-inch touchscreen TFT display that offers a dizzying array of menus, with each mode defaulting to one of three wildly different dash layouts when flipping between ride modes. Conventional cruise control is standard as are heated grips.

If that description sounds confusing, it's because it is. Thankfully, an exploratory dive into the menus will allow riders to customize things to use the same display regardless of the ride mode. Admittedly, these critiques apply to NT1100 neophytes, while owners will become accustomed to them. Still, Aprilia, Triumph, and KTM have all demonstrated how to create feature-filled interfaces that aren't as daunting. It's not a deal breaker, but there are better ways.

On a positive note, Apple CarPlay and Android Auto are standard and allow much easier mobile integration. Proprietary software has shown to be varying degrees of dumpster fires (lookin' at you, BMW, and Ducati), usually requiring additional unoptimized app(s). Moving to broadly accepted and proven software is the right call. Plugging a mobile device via the USB port unlocks the standard fare of navigation and media tools we've become accustomed to on the four-wheeled side of things. Pairing a Bluetooth headset can expand on those features. Yours truly didn't do the latter because communication devices rarely grace my helmets.

That brings us to the Africa Twin-derived chassis, sporting Showa suspenders with 5.9 of travel at each end, which are good for spring preload adjustment only. Honda's engineering team created a stately machine that uses its lengthy 60.4 wheelbase as a stable base from which to work. Much like the machine itself, its sport and touring aspects are evenly balanced here. That doesn't mean it won't get it after it, as the NT1100 does enjoy leaning onto the Metzeler Roadtec 01 rubber while hustling through curved tarmac. Those same traits come through at lower speeds, with the wide lock-to-lock steering angle helping thread the needle in traffic or parking lots.

Where there is a hiccup in the comfort-prioritized suspension setup is with the lack of damping – it needs more of it at each end. It succeeds concerning cushiness and hides the worst of SoCal's sun-beaten pavement quite well. But, hitting uneven patches of road can upset a normally steady chassis package, allowing the claimed 547-pound wet weight to make itself known. The workaround is to read the terrain and use the brakes to help maintain the bike's geometry as you'd like, trailing the front, rear, or both, depending on the situation. Once you've employed those tactics, you can cut a more than respectable rug on routes like Palomar Mountain's South Grade Road. Yet, that strategy won't work for all riders, and more damping or adjustable damping would be better for everyone.

Sat in the NT's cozy perch and what jumps out is that it's not a massive touring behemoth. It's quite tidy, akin to the Yamaha Tracer 9 in size, accommodating 32.3-inch seat height and casual reach to all the controls. On that note, my boots have no issue reaching the deck, thanks to the Honda’s relatively slim waist. My 5-foot 10-inch frame melds quite nicely into a cockpit that provides ample wind protection, not only from the voluminous fairing but the highly adjustable windscreen. It can be positioned for full coverage or that of a naked bike. For a rider of my stature, it did produce heavy turbulence in the upmost position, while 3/4 height seemed just right: YMMV. All told, it's a riding position ready to rack up mileage.

Then there's the accessory luggage (37 liters left; 36 liters right), and they'll stash away a full-face road helmet on either side. With a base $11,899 MSRP, the NT1100 is the most affordable option in the class. However, once you've added the key and color-matched bags with the inner pannier bags for a cool $1,359, it becomes the second-best value in class at $13,258. The Yamaha does beat it out in terms of pricing and includes panniers, yet it's missing a quickshifter, let alone DCT.

You can learn a lot about a motorcycle in a few hundred diverse miles. The NT1100 demonstrates its value as an all-arounder by achieving respectable marks in quite a few environments. It's subtle about how it goes about its work, diligently performing well and then exceeding expectations to a point that made me smitten with it — quirks and all. That's not to say things couldn't be better: the suspension needs more hold-up, DCT still makes some interesting shifting choices, the brakes could be stronger, and making bags an accessory deserves a stern finger wag — though Honda is far from the only offender in that specific respect.

It is a measured motorcycle in all aspects, wherein practicality does tip the scales in its favor when balanced against outright performance. On the sport-touring spectrum, it certainly leans toward the touring side of things more than the sport; the reality is that might be what you're looking for. At its core, despite any misgivings, it represents a solid, well-rounded platform at a reasonable price in today's marketplace.

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