2026 Honda NT1100 Ride Review

Honda’s NT1100 looks a bit dull on first sight – and the spec sheet probably won’t raise the heart rate either. But our man Alan Dowds had a great time on one recently. Here’s how Honda’s big tourer rocks – without too much rolling…

Not many folk can live a full-on rock and roll lifestyle all the time. You might think of legends like Lemmy Kilmister of Motörhead here, or perhaps Shane MacGowan of The Pogues. A bit closer to home, we had two-wheeled hell-raisers like Evel Knievel and Barry Sheene. They had incredible lives – though not without hard times – and never, ever took the mundane choices.

Normal folk like you and me? We might go a bit wild now and again – indeed, even just riding a motorbike at all is never mundane. But we generally go a wee bit steadier. A bit like Honda motorcycles in fact.

The biggest Japanese bike maker has seldom been particularly rock and roll, it’s fair to say. But it’s never been dull either: this is the firm that launched the modern superbike back in 1969 with the CB750 and redefined it in 1992 with the first CBR900RR FireBlade.

It also built arguably the best GP bikes ever: the RC166 250cc six-cylinder, the NSR500 V-four two-stroke and the RC211V V-five MotoGP machine. Even today, its latest Fireblade is an utter weapon, with 215bhp of TT-winning power and performance.

But the big H has also always had a very sensible side. Its tech levels tend to be a little behind the bleeding edge, it’s not always got the strongest spec sheet in a certain sector, and its styling can tend to the frumpy at times. But even when its bikes are down on power, up in mass, and behind in sexiness, they almost always sit near the top of the sales charts – and in real-world tests, they often best the competition too.

I experienced this a decade or so back when I had to do a mega-mileage series of road trips around the UK and France for RiDE magazine. The idea was to write touring features based around some big race meetings: the BSB round at Knockhill in Scotland, then the WSBK at Magny-Cours, plus the 24-Hour Bol d’Or endurance race at Paul Ricard on the Cote d’Azur in the south of France.

I had to ride to all these spots from London, and the good folk at RiDE had organised me a bike: the 2015 Honda Crossrunner. My face fell at the idea of this soft 100bhp/240kg adventure tourer with its ancient VFR800 engine – but a month later I was genuinely in love with it.

The ‘secret sauce’ that goes into most Hondas shone through: this was a great bike, that worked brilliantly in all areas, despite its low rating on the spec sheets and unfashionable old powerplant.

And now I’m getting the exact same vibes as I did on the Crossrunner. I’m sat on a big, comfy Honda, with dull styling that I’d previously scoffed at, running down the uninspiring tech spec in my mind – and wondering how the bike itself can be so capable…

My time with the NT1100 was unplanned. A complex series of random events meant I found myself in charge of a Honda press bike for almost two weeks, and it seemed rude not to put a few miles in on the beastie.

It was April, so the weather was on the changeable sides at times, and I had a few jobs around the traffic-packed south-east of England, where taking the car would have been disastrous. Enter the big beige Honda, with its hard panniers, big fairing, sensible equipment levels and comfy seat.

And what a job it did. As soon as you get on it, the saggy, portly character disappears, and it morphs into an actually quite dynamic piece of kit. The twin-cylinder engine isn’t at all strong on paper, but on everyday asphalt, it’s spot-on.

There’s plenty of bottom-end urge, it fuels perfectly, and there’s even a nice rort from the exhaust and intake roar. The front brakes are powerful for a non-superbike (though I miss the ‘Hill Hold’ function common on many bikes now), and the electronic semi-active Showa suspension setup is plush yet accurate, helping make the handling overall a real pleasure.

The big twin turns nicely into and out of a bend, helped by the quality Metzeler rubber, and the steering is pleasingly accurate, with a really stable feel from the front end. It’s no laser-sharp sportster of course: but it’s a really satisfying ride, especially if you’re pushing on a little.

Once you’re on a big dual carriageway or motorway, things get even better. It’s a really comfy riding position, with a big, well-padded seat, low pegs and high bars. You can get a load of kit into the big old hard panniers with ease, and the optional top box will give you another solid chunk of luggage space.

The fairing gives loads of cover from wind and weather, with the easily-adjusted manual windscreen a cinch to slip up and down with one hand. Engage the cruise control, and you have plenty of time to explore the massive colour LCD dashboard. It takes a bit of work to decode the user interface mind: there are A LOT of buttons on the bars, and it’s not always super-intuitive.

One big problem I had was finding the horn button in a bind: when you need to alert a sleepy truck driver who’s heading your way, you don’t want to be hunting for the appropriate controls. I was caught out a couple of times: I guess you’d learn the muscle memory if you had the NT as your own bike for a while mind.

The various menus, settings, displays and readouts are also a little confusing at first – a bit of studying the owner’s manual will pay off on this bike I’d suggest.

The other thing to work out is the transmission. This bike is a DCT-equipped model, meaning a fully computer-controlled dual clutch transmission, with manual override and sport modes.

There’s also a conventional manual gearbox option for the NT, which is lighter by around 10kg, but doesn’t sell as well apparently. I’ve tried DCT bikes before, and been a bit ‘meh’ on it, but automatic bikes have probably become a bit more mainstream now, and I’m a little more open to it than before. I’m also older, lazier and not as cool, which may also be factors.

Be all that as it may, the fact is that the NT1100’s latest DCT setup is very decent. The algorithms are all the latest ones, and Honda’s also added a data feed from the IMU cornering unit, so the transmission computer knows if you’re going round a bend, and can hold off on gearshifts until you’re on the straight and level again.

On the move, in standard Drive mode, it’s utterly anonymous, like an automatic car, changing up early to save fuel. Change to the sportier S mode and you have three levels of increasingly-sporty gearshifting, and the bike holds onto its revs for longer and shifts more aggressively.

Full control comes with the manual mode, when you can shift up and down yourself with the bar-mounted paddles, though the bike of course intervenes if you slow down too much, changing down gears and into neutral if you stop. And within all this, you can override the autobox with the paddles any time you like.

It’s still a bit clunky at slow speeds, and pulling away takes a little getting used to, but after a week or so, I was pretty happy with the DCT setup. Would I pay the extra cash and accept the additional mass for it? Probably not: a manual box with proper clutch and up/down quickshifter in 2026 is still a great option I reckon, but the downsides of the big Honda autobox are getting smaller all the time.

Over my ten days with the Honda NT1100, I didn’t have any really rock and roll moments. I had one day where I had to leave London early doors, get to East Sussex for one test, complete with spare riding kit, then ride to Brighton from the Eastbourne area for another event.

Then, I had to be back in London for late afternoon to get out for a gig that night. It was a real-world cross-country task on a hot spring day, which would have been miserable on a proper sportsbike. I had a load of minor chores, including dropping various offspring at school events, and I even took it out for a sunny Sunday blast to Box Hill – which I never really do.

In short, I treated the NT1100 as a total workhorse, and it responded like a thoroughbred. And in some ways, that’s actually very rock and roll indeed…

Honda NT1100 tech highlights

Engine

A 101bhp  1,084cc parallel twin might not be your first idea for a big touring bike, but this one works better than you’d think. It’s right out of the Africa Twin, so is the same SOHC design, with a retune in 2025 that claimed to add a heap more midrange and low-down grunt.

It’s well off the pace compared with the 999cc fours of this world of course: something like the Suzuki GSX-S1000 GT or Kawasaki Z1100SX is much faster. As an everyday workhorse though, it’s great; smooth, strong low-down and sips fuel. And it’s still a 1000cc+ bike, so can go pretty quick when you pull the proverbial pin.

Transmission

I’ve never been a big fan of the DCT dual-clutch automatic transmission, but this is the latest version and is much better than the last one I tried. Honda’s optimised the various algorithms, and has also given the DCT brain a line to the six-axis IMU so it adjusts its shifting according to the bike’s attitude. Put simply, it now avoids changing gear mid-corner, which could upset the handling a little.

Chassis

The big news on this model is a new semi-active electronic suspension package from Showa, as seen on the Africa Twin. The Showa EERA kit adds computer-controlled damping valves front and rear, and remote rear preload adjustment too. There are three pre-set suspension modes: Urban, Rain and Tour, plus a customisable User mode.

2026 Honda NT1100 DCT SPECS

Price: £14,299

Engine: SOHC 8v, parallel twin, l/c, 1,084cc

Bore x stroke: 92×81.5mm

Compression ratio: 10.5:1

Carburation: PGM-FI fuel injection

Electronic rider aids: IMU-assisted traction control, cornering ABS, wheelie control, rear lift control. Four rider modes controlling power, traction and suspension settings

Max power (claimed) 101bhp@7,500rpm

Max torque (claimed) 112Nm@5,500rpm

Transmission: DCT automatic dual clutch transmission, chain final drive

Frame: steel tube semi-double cradle type

Front suspension: 43mm Showa EERA USD front fork, semi-active damping conrol

Rear suspension: dual-sided aluminium swingarm, Showa EERA monoshock with semi-active damping control and preload adjustment

Brakes: dual 310mm discs, radial-mount four-piston Nissin calipers (front), 256mm disc, single-piston caliper (rear), cornering ABS

Wheels/tyres: cast aluminium/Metzeler Roadtec 01 SE, 120/70 17 front, 180/55 17 rear

Rake/trail: 26.5°/108mm

Wheelbase: 1,535mm

Seat height: 820mm

Kerb weight: 261kg (including panniers)

Fuel capacity: 20.4 litres

 

Equipment: Heated grips, centre stand, USB and ACC socket all standard equipment as well as 6.5-inch TFT screen with full smartphone connectivity, five-way manual-adjust windscreen, Apple Carplay/Android Auto, lithium battery,