So I finally took the plunge… last weekend I picked up my Honda CRF1000D, a victory red Africa Twin. Initial impressions of the bike are very good and the DCT gearbox is exceptionally smooth, it is certianly intuitive and perhaps even better than I thought it might be. So far I have only been off road in the Epynt Ranges but the gravel and forest tracks locally proved how good the G Mode DCT box can be – and with the traction control light flashing away, warning and then controlling the rear wheel slip, I scrubbed in the standard Dunlop Trailmax road tyres. I took some stick from bikers old and new telling me it was not a real bike, but I’ve been riding since the age of 16 and I am now aged 52, so even with my poor maths that’s 36 years on two wheels… I don’t have anything else to prove. I am still keeping a manual bike but quite honestly if the technology is this is good then one might wonder if the clutch lever is going to become redundant – I suspect not, or at least not quite yet.