2022 Honda NT1100 Review | Adventure Bike Rider

it's a it's a sports tourer so honda calls it but you know this is adventure bike rider so let's take it down this green lane [Music] hello and welcome to this abr first ride review of the honda nt-1100 brought to you with support from lindstrands and harvards [Music] it's safe to say the honda nt-1100 isn't exactly the most exciting bike to look at but when abr's chief bike tester julian test rode it on the press launch in spain well he was smitten with the bike's performance and handling but that was on the mountain roads around barcelona what's it actually like to ride well let's go find out [Music] [Music] okay so we're off on the nt 1100 and i don't know if you can see around me but it's beautiful blue skies all around me um and weather is saying about 34 degrees so it is sweltering but enough about me and the weather and more about this beautiful bike that i'm riding so this here is the nt 1100 it was introduced by honda uh at the end of 2021 to a surprising reception i thought you know there was a lot of people who were very excited about this bike and whenever we posted about it on social media there was always you know a lot of enthusiasm for honda releasing a new touring bike and rightly so especially as this one was based on the africa twin uh you know they've taken the guts out of the africa twin so the engine the frame the subframe um and basically put it into a more touring friendly package and it was really telling when we went to motorcycle live uh in december 2021 when all the manufacturers were there bikes on display and out of all of them the one with by far the biggest queue around it was the this bike here the mt-1100 every time a wall passed it was swamped by people so despite my initial sort of skeptical uh apprehension of the bike it seemed as though honduras made a fight that people were really really looking forward to before they even anyone even had a chance to ride it and you know i would say initial skepticism from me because in the promo pictures it kind of looks like a big scooter a maxi scooter but then when i saw it in real life any feelings about scooterishness kept purely to one angle there's one unfortunate angle where this bike just looks like a big x-adv but from every other angle it looks pretty damn cool now the reason it looks like an x80v is because it was designed by the same fellow who did design the xadv so that's not too surprising and the xadv is one of honda's top selling bikes so you know listen to the data anyway this is the mt-1100 what have we got so i'm riding the dct version of this bike which stands for dual clutch transmission which most people will probably know by now is honda's automatic gearbox so the bike comes in two versions which is the manual version or the dc2 the manual version will set you back just 11 999 pounds for the dct one is 12 999 so it's an extra brand for this model and with that you get everything you need to be able to take this bike from the showroom and head out across the alps which is in my eyes is remarkable this bike represents a remarkable value for money so there are many things that come as standard on here which manufacturers would probably try and charge extra for i'm talking about this five-way adjustable windscreen it's got a dual uh tft and lcd display which i absolutely love and i'll go into that in a bit more detail later you've got cruise control as standard you've got a five-step heated heated hand bars as standard you've got a center stand as standard so you can talk you can adjust your chain move your chain when you're out on tour and most impressively you get a set of panniers with 65 liters of storage completely out standard and you know they're not the best panniers by any means but i think they are more than adequate for going away i'll let you in on a little secret this isn't my first ride of the mt-1100 i've spent probably about two thousand miles on this bike now i took it over to ireland for a long weekend uh so when i say that the bunny is the luggage is more than suitable for long distance touring i wouldn't say that either it's pretty long distance but when i say the luggage is good for taking away i'm sure it comes from the knowledge of having done it i would have the top box extra which comes uh as an add-on so the ft 1100 comes with three separate uh packages which you can add on all of which uh differing prices the base one adds just the top box then there's the middle one which is touring more comfortable seats and then there's the combination of the two i would say the top box is a definitely worthwhile add-on because it will also make pillion a pillion far more comfortable on the back the nt-1100 as i said before is built on the guts of the africa twin and when i say they gets i mean they've taken the engine and kept that wonderfully characteristic twin cylinder engine that has been found in the africa twin they've tweaked it slightly to make it a bit smoother and a bit more road going friendly i think is the term they used um and they've kept the same really nicely well balanced and well-designed frame and subframe that comes with the africa twin they have been modifications in places like it's got a new exhaust end cam um slower suspension less suspension travel and a far lower seat height so that probably that brings me to my first point about the mt 1100 is just how comfortable and manageable this bike feels when you're pushing them around car parks driveways traffic the sea height is 820 millimeters and while it may be uh 138 kilograms or 148 kilograms for the dct model i don't think it ever truly feels like a bike that that's that heavy the weight is all quite low down you can chew for i'm six foot two and i can cut two feet firmly on the floor i can even stand up with my feet on the floor um with the bike just resting underneath me and it it makes for a very very relaxed and non-threatening non-intimidating riding experience in terms of the ergonomics once you're on the bike the uh the first thing you'll notice is that the seat itself is very very well cushioned you know they do offer a comfort seat but i'm not sure you really need it i would spend multiple days in the saddle on this bike i would argue that this standard seat is cushioned enough for all day comfort and it's a very nice sort of scoop that your bum just sort of fits into and then working your way to the feet bum and sort of triangle the ergonomics are very very nice the leg bend is a bit more acute than we find on the africa twin but i've never found any problems with it you know in a three-day tour where i was riding most of the day every day never once did i feel the need to stretch out my legs the uh the handlebar position is nice though it's a little bit more sporty than on the africa tweet i think honda said they've sort of pivoted the seating position forward by about 10 degrees to give it a more engaging and more road biased stance in all reality you know while it does make you feel a bit more engaged with the bike i do prefer the upright seating position on the africa twin i think if i owned this bike one of the first things i would do would be put on some bar raisers but that's been very very picky it's not a necessity by any stretch of imagination often you'll see touring bikes long distance touring bikes fitted with smoother you know four cylinders three cylinder engines which just offer a perfectly smooth glorious ride the engine on the nt 1100 is uh hello biker the engine on the nt 1100 feels very engaging you feel every sort of bubble of of the engine through the footpegs and through the hanger and grips and when i first rode the bike i have some concerns that that might translate to discomfort or fatigue throughout the day when you're riding at motorway speeds the reality is yes you do feel vibrations when you're riding at motorway speeds particularly through the footpegs but do you know what then they weren't enough to put me up i never once got a numbness in my hands or feet because i think the vibration frequency isn't as high as it as it would be to need to be to cause those problems perhaps the main thing that uh i noticed about the twin engine when going at motorway speeds was just that there's an incessant drone caused by the sound of it which is lovely when you're puttering around town and pooping along with nice a-roads and country roads like this and you accelerate out of the corner and you hear it but when you stick at 70 and it's the only thing you can hear it does get a bit bit drone-like but you know good pair of earbuds and you'll be all right sometimes like this where the nt-1100 is an absolute delight so with the 17-inch front and back wheel and a slightly redesigned uh steering geometry the mt-1100 is a far more sporty bike than the africa twin you put it into the bends and it really really handles supremely well it's engaging it's fun you it makes you want to just have fun on your bike you know for a bike that could be uh touted as being quite boring i've never had as much fun as i've had on the nt 1100 i don't love it and that's because you get to use most of the engine maybe just stop at the oh no nice i want to say you get to use most of the engine you know it's a 101 brake horsepower two twin cylinder engine and it doesn't really it doesn't really blow anything out of the water from a speed performance point of view it's uh it doesn't feel underpowered but it's definitely lacking a nice bit of or a punch of acceleration but again you know i i'm not really the type of rider to like going particularly fast so i've been really enjoying making the most of this engine and when you hear people say that you can make the most of an engine it means that you can you know ride it throughout all the rev range without feeling like you're going to kill yourself you can really have fun on it look we're on this this lovely country right here going in and out of these sweeping bends and this is where this bike is at its most beautiful best so we'll break into this corner and as we pull away right that's that's with my wrist pinned back so yeah it's not particularly aggressive but it's more than aggressive enough to have an enjoyable ride so another area that the mt 1100 was going to be improved upon was the wind protect and the wind and weather protection afforded and that's given by this really nice wide tank here which doesn't feel overbearingly wide you know i've just come off the gs adventure uh and that thing is a monster i love big bikes uh so i don't mind it but for some people it's a bit overbearing i don't think anyone would find the nt-1100 a bit too overbearing it's very nice small and manageable but the weather protection afforded by this white tank is very very good you know my legs here don't hurt if you can see uh kept out of the oncoming wind and when riding this in the rain they were kept very nicely dry not totally dry but you know deflected in a lot of rain and this screen which is five-way adjustable is very good but there are a few ways where it's not very good one is in its lowest setting which it's in now is it does cause quite a lot of turbulence for the rider i mean i'm six foot two so i stand at that height if i was a bit lower it might be different but at six foot two the wind is being deflected basically onto my shoulders and into my face that is completely changed when you raise it to its highest setting which i'll do in a second but to be able to adjust the screen you need to stop the bike because you need two hands to do it which is a bit of a faff a bit of a hassle but you know needs must um i don't know i'll pull over here and do it because i'd like a bit of respite from the buffeting wings so you can do it in the saddle if you wish step over pull it up easy as that this required a bit of a bit of force there but now in its higher position it offers a very nice wind protection and you are behind this glorious nice cocoon you can you can wrap up and snuggle in here and you're out with most of the oncoming wind which is fantastic i love it elsewhere for weather protection you know one of my one of the things that my pet peeves is a bike that calls itself a touring bike but doesn't come with hand guards and the nt 1100 doesn't come with traditional handguards and i initially thought that's going to be annoying but what it does come with is these lovely wind deflectors here these do a superb job of keeping oncoming wind off your hands and your arms i'd love to i can't wait to try it in the winter to see if it keeps that you know the real chill off you but in every time i've been riding it so far i've had no problems at all and i think they're they're very well designed it's a bit of wizardry from honda to keep your hands warm you've got five step heated grips here um and they're easily adjust easily operated by pressing the function button on the right and then flicking through on the left now i know the nt 1100 isn't an adventure bike it's a it's a sports tourer so honda calls it but you know this is adventure bike rider so let's take it down this green lane this is a very very gentle green lane i would take any bike down here but the mt-1100 should go down here with absolutely no issues at all you know it's got well it's got a lot less suspension traveled in the africa twin it's still got more suspension travel than a lot of road going bikes so something nice and light and gentle like this you're gonna have no issues on the standing position is actually surprisingly good for a road going bike the africa twin i think has one of the most comfortable natural standing positions of any bike that i've ridden um and that is carried through onto this mt-1100 with the proviso that the handlebars are a little bit more further forward so you do lean you do pivot forward a bit more but you know if you if you are the very occasional green laner you like doing country lanes like this in the sunshine when it's not wet and snotty underneath this bike will do it it's not made to be an off-roader but you know many bikes aren't made to be off-roaders but they'll do nice gentle green lanes this is probably the extent of what i do on it though but it's nice to be able to do this with comfort and the suspension soaking up all the bumps so i mentioned the switch gear earlier i had to adjust the heated grip so when we get to the end of this lane i'll go into the switch gear on the left so let's just go down here do you know what i'm very happy taking this down here feels nice and lovely and well balanced the gct gives it a nice easy riding experience like i said for a lot of gentle green lanes you don't really need anything more that was a nice deer though that's a little mud jacked here the joys of green laning in the uk okay one area where you might not want to take the screen laning is the fact that it doesn't have much uh protection so if you do drop it joints right so we'll take a left out of here and we'll talk about the switch gear so as i mentioned the heated grips are operated by a switchgear switch on your right hand side which is your function button you press that and you cycle between uh heat grips headlights whether you have them automatic or not and sound when you've got your headset connected once you've done that it's a simple case of flicking up and down on the button on the left now the left hand switch here is where the bikes have drawn a lot of criticism and i said bikes because the afrika twin has the same switch gear as the nt-1100 now if you count up all these buttons on the left hand side in total you get i think it's 15 plus the two manuals dct up and down controls 15 buttons on a switch gear is a lot of buttons and it rightly got a lot of criticism from the press and owners when they first stepped on the bike because when you do first step on the bike it's confusing it's overwhelming you don't know which one to press but hear me out after maybe a week of riding this bike this switch gear will be second nature to you you won't be confused by it you won't have the shock inducing terror inducing moment when you're thumbing around trying to decide which one to press you know i remember someone cut me up and i was trying to furiously find the horn and all i was doing was pressing the indicator and the starboard and whatever but now it's easy it's very easy to use and it really makes sense when you consider what it's used for this whole switch year here is required if you want this beautiful dash here and this dash setup is one of the best i've come across on a bike because i i think apple carplay is perfect for touring [Music] should mention now the honda mt 1100 and the africa twin come with this dual beautiful tft screen and the bottom is a smaller lcd dash which shows minimal but important information like speed total mileage and what gear you're in when you plug your phone in if you've got an apple you get to apple play if you go to an android you go to up android carplay i think it's cool android auto sorry apple carplay is different and then you can interact with your phone through the switch gear on the left hand side you also need a headset to be able to to do this and so you can you can pair your headset i've got a cardio on right now and i've just compared that to the phone to the bike which is paired to the phone and together they all work wonderfully to give you this really nice seamless experience some would say why do you need carplay on a motorcycle and i will tell you now the navigation aspect of it is worth it alone i on this bike you will not have to faff around with external sat navs and power charges and or yeah i don't have to worry about using your phone as a sat nav and having it fall off having it integrated into the display of the bike and controllable through this left-hand switch gear is just so good from an ease of use perspective it is honestly try it use it get used to it and you won't want to go back this is how premium bikes should do navigation and uh phone integration you know i remember trying on i think it was the decatur mod started v4s trying to get the the navigation working you have to download two different apps for your phone and it's just it's just on here the apple carplay navigation is brilliant and you know if you like to listen to music you can even get spotify up you can you can make phone calls if you wish some might say it's distracting well i say it's only distracting if you're you know willing to get distracted by but look look at this we're at this junction now and i'm easily able to paddle the bike with two feet flat on the floor manageable is this bikes the manageability is the main setting boy on this bike for me it's just so accessible and fun to ride sorry the nt-1100 comes with five different rider mounts free presa and two customizable ones user one and user two each one comes with varying levels of engine braking traction control etc and they just changed the feel of the bike a little bit i've not really fiddled around with user one and user two i've been quite happy to keep mine in tour and if you if you recognize where we are it's because ragley hall at the adventure bike ride vessel is just on that road there so if you're coming coming next year that's where you'll be and i highly recommend you do come next year but i would say that wouldn't then so this next section of the ride we're going to get on to a nice little bit of a road where we can experience the honda mt 1100 motorway cruising speeds now if you're going off down the alps or you well any tour really you're gonna probably inevitably have to do some motorway miles so a bike that touts itself as a touring bike should be comfortable at speed it should offer nice weather protection should be have enough power to spirit you along without stressing out even if you've got luggage and opinion on now and ideally it has cruise control like the nt 1100 does so as we get off here i'll pin it back and you can see just so you know it does move a little bit it gives a nice growl when you do get going as we get up to motorway speeds if there's car in front of us so we're at 70 now the bike feels very well planted it feels solid it feels stable it's cutting through the air really nicely and like i said this screen is providing a lot of protection from the oncoming air here is just dead air it's lovely especially it's extended onto my arms as well if i wanted to i could stick you in cruise control now and it would carry on along really nicely it's adjustable on the left-hand side sorry on the right-hand side [Music] i've been commuting on the honda mt-1100 for [Music] a couple months actually to be honest and i've really enjoyed a few things about it first one being the fuel economy of the bike right now it's saying that my average miles per gallon has been 56.5 which i think is very acceptable for a 1.1 1000 uh please 1084 cc motorcycle that is a decent fuel economy and one that's not going to make you feel the pinch too much when fuel goes up to 200 litre or whatever it is now the next thing is just how it's like an africa twin but everything's condensed everything feels a tighter package and the lower height of it makes it far more maneuverable in and out of the garage around the driveway and then on your commute if you're going around traffic it makes it so easy to paddle around traffic and the nimbleness of the 17-inch tire front wheel sorry it lets you dip and dive in and out of traffic it's not built as a commuter but it just adds to the you know the perfect all-rounder tag that honda i think honda has given it themselves actually i think they said it's one of the it's their perfect all-rounder so i'm just going to show you how easy it is to use this tft dash when you're riding if you've got your phone linked up say let's see we're riding and i want to go to the nearest petrol station i can just navigate with my left finger my left thumb and find on their special stations press enter and it will navigate you there i mean because it's all linked up to the internet on your phone it will avoid traffic and stuff like that i've read a few reviews of the africa tweet online which i said the split she's pointless um and the bottom lcd display is waste time and it's not very good display etc but i think that's a load of rubbish really because you'll notice if i've got my google maps up or apple maps up on my carplay i can't see my speed or any other information for that matter so having that lcd there is totally necessary and the split is perfect the only thing i wish that they showed on my lcd display is your fuel level you know i'd be more far more concerned with my fuel level than my total miles because i've had a few instances where i've had apple carplay on and going down the motorway and i've entered my reserve fuel now the fuel light comes on here but it's not the brightest so it is quite easy to miss so that's something to pay attention to if you've got the apple carplay open you will need to pay attention for the fuel though when i first was given this dct honda my heart sank a little girl i really really really hated the thought of an automatic bike i thought changing gears brings me more into the ride it allows me to connect to the motorcycle i'm riding and it's just part of riding you know you want a negative corner you want to get out of there shift up again and fly up you can't do that on dct or can you one thing i've noticed about dcd and i'll be honest after a few moments of riding this i am a complete convert to dct i love it i i think it's excellent because you you change how you ride to suit the system and when you pick up the the finer details of dct and you change your riding to adjust to it you know how to make a bike change down in gear you know how to make a change up in gear you know how to ride at slow speed you know but one off and one criticism of tct often is that there's no clutch so you can't do slow speed maneuvers you simply just replace that clutch for the back brake and then slow speed maneuvers become just as easy with a dct bike i will say on the nt 1100 you know i spend most of my time in the sport setting because the drive setting is probably only good for really relaxed riding or when you're on a motorway you just sit back at 70 and do nothing else it changes up gear way too fast it you know for instance i'll be approaching a roundabout and i'll be in fifth gear i'll go around the roundabout and it'll shift down to four both keys are way too fast to be going down around around about 30 miles an hour sport mode that changes everything the gearing on sport mode is pretty much perfect it changes when you want it to you can make it change up and down by being a bit more aggressive with the throttle or easing off the throttle putting the brake on and if you find yourself they really wanted to ride manually you can use the flippers on the left hand side to go down here up a gear does feel a bit artificial as opposed to using a gear shift on your left but it's there if you need it also there's not forgetting the fact that dct opens up riding to a whole new world of people hello friend so look we go we're in dct now we've got some slow speed maneuvers coming up i'll see how long i can keep it going behind this car without ship slipping the clutch in see you can by using the back brake keep it steady now he'll hold control would be nice wouldn't it but it doesn't come with that does come with a nice hand brake if you've got a dct model don't write off with that one otherwise you'll break it i mentioned the suspension earlier um mainly how it's been it's got less suspension travel than on the africa twin but it has more than most road only motorcycles you do and i also mentioned that it'd be nice to have better suspension because you do feel again a bit out of shape when you're really putting every spaces in twisties it's not enough to scare me and i could just adjust my riding to it but you do feel it wobbling a little bit as you're going around burns yeah the obvious answer is to not push it so hard and this isn't a bike you want to push hard anyway i won't get too close to this hair you don't want hay bales falling on me there is acceleration it's not like i said it's not a punch of acceleration and you hear how long it's holding on to this gear because it's in sport mode and now it's slowly slowly recognizing that i don't need to save my ass by going around the truck anymore so it's coming to nice relaxed touring so yeah it's not a good punch it's not aggressive but it's manageable and that manageability again it comes back to it this isn't the sort of like way you're likely to you know lose your license on or let your confidence outweigh your ability because the bike you can use all the bike and you feel like a badass using all the bike okay if i could improve one area it would be the angle of the bike where it looks like an x-atv i don't want to ride a big x-adv i want to ride a cool badass touring bike and the nt-1100 is that cool big badass touring like i'm very much enjoying it and you need to take one of these out for a test ride honda says that the nt-1100 is everything you need in one motorcycle now there's an old saying that you could be a jack of all trades and a master of none but people often forget the second part of that saying which is sometimes it's better to be a jack of all trades than a master of one and the honda nt 1100 is a true jack of all trades whether i'm rolling the bike out of my garage on the weekly commute or spiriting down a and b roads on the weekend ride or going further afield on a longer distance tour the honda nt-1100 will take it all in its stride and the fact that you can get everything out of the engine just makes it all more enjoyable now it's this capability and manageability that makes the honda nt 1100 one of the most enjoyable bikes i've ridden in the past 10 years [Music] [Music] you

2022-09-02 13:49

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