BHPian TheVaas recently shared this with other enthusiasts:”Ride the Lightning”That’s the feeling I get when I sit on the saddle and roar out of the parking lot. Well, ‘roar’ is a slight exaggeration – ‘low growls and snarls’ is more like it! The ATAS has a very distinct exhaust note – so it’s really hard to describe it. And since I’m on the stock setup – it’s actually pleasing to the ears and one kind of gets used to it as the days go by. Ok sorry back to the present, err, a few months back to the present – APRIL to MAY 2024! Scene of crime: Building parking lot! Most of my comparisons would be with my ex-ADV, the Triumph Tiger 800 – since that’s the bike I’ve been riding for the past four years. And with so much riding, one tends to think that the transition from one ADV to the other would be easy. HELL NO! The world of ADVs might look similar but their inhabitants are not! After each test ride, I’d come home and remind myself – “There’s a learning curve involved here. I will need to RE-LEARN a few things all over again and implement it on the newer steed!”. The most important thing to note is that, no matter how many reviews, videos, or opinion pieces you consume about your bike (or anything in general), you are starting from ground zero. It’s good to have theoretical knowledge and know-hows pat down – but it is the practical, real-world scenarios that will make or break your experience with your motorcycle. When I rode the ATAS the first time post delivery – my muscle memory was of my Tiger 800. A completely different machine and setup from this one. Early on, I realised the difference between the Twin and the Triple – when shifting gears. After a few days of riding – around the city, the following were my observations-ENGINEThe Honda-powered 1100cc engine is the most forgiving engine you can ever find! (Yeah I know I said my comparisons were with the Tiger 800, but you get the drift). It’s not a 0-100km in 3 seconds fast, but it will be if you want it to be. At the same time, if you want it to just glide over the bad roads/potholes/bumper-to-bumper traffic – it’ll do that as well. At no point would you feel that the engine will stall or give up on you. The power delivery is pretty linear and ‘progressive’. Yes – it doesn’t have the ‘get-set-go’ character of the triple, but it’ll definitely keep running the whole day – and you won’t feel fatigued. Honda Magic at play I guess. (Note: The ATAS has a taller 1st and 2nd gear (reiterated by Added_Flavor during our post purchase discussion) as compared to the Tiger. This took me some time to get used to – more on this and the quick-shifter later on in the ownership.)CLUTCHI’m not kidding when I say that one of the most sought-out features of the ATAS is the ‘manual clutch’. Honda’s DCT tech is touted to be fool-proof and I’m sure it is, since the 2024 GoldWing is now available only in DCT. I wasn’t adamant on the M or DCT aspect when I was looking for the ATAS in the market. The pre 2020 models were all DCT and there was (still is) one DCT 2020 model doing the rounds somewhere. Anyway, got the Manual and that’s some time and energy saved in “re-learning it all”. Most of the ADVs that I rode came with hydraulic clutch – which in simpler terms is ‘smooth like silk clutch movement’. The Tiger 800s were infamous for very hard clutch and every service meant a copious amount of WD40 or engine oil being sprayed/poured into the clutch cable assembly for smooth operation. I imagine that a Truck’s clutch would be smoother than the Tiger’s. In the case of my ATAS, the previous owner had issues with the clutch plates due to the hard operation. So he got the entire assembly changed and also installed the “ALT-RIDER Clutch Arm Extension”. I think Pro Spec in India makes a similar type of system for the Himalayans, Tigers etc. Yup. That’s all there is to it. A total game-changer. I may not be great at explaining this but will still give it a go. What this does is that it acts as an ‘extension’ of the clutch arm and balances (or takes on) the load between the lever and the plates. This balancing relieves the stress from our hands and what we get is a very smooth-almost feather-like clutch operation! If any ADV rider here has trouble with clutch operation – I’d highly recommend installing an apparatus like this. Trust me it is one of the best ‘accessory/modification’ one can hope for! And it is almost zero maintenance. Just keep checking the clutch free play setting during check-ups or service and you’re sorted for life! (pun intended)HEAT The heat management is negligible or non-existent in the ATAS as compared to the 800. I kept checking my thighs every two minutes and was surprised that they were at ‘room temperature’. The 800 heats up a lot and within no time. So this was a boon for me! The twin radiator setup has two fans and it directs the air ‘outwards’ away from the rider instead of ‘inwards’ towards the rider. LHS – Radiator fan RHS – Radiator fan Note the Coolant bar at 3. No matter the ride/weather etc., it never goes above 3! And this has been echoed by fellow ATAS riders as well. Honda magic?BRAKESThe braking on the Tiger was much better and tighter – since the front was Brembo and the rear was Nissin. ATAS has Nissin – front and rear, so one could feel the difference. I’d give it about 8/10 as compared to the 9.5/10 for the Tiger. Front – NISSIN Rear – NISSINENGINE BRAKINGI have made this a separate point because this was one thing that bothered me a lot. On the Tiger 800, Pawan had taught me to ‘engine brake’ early on in the riding days. I used to be a 60 Front, 40 Rear brake person. But once I got the hang of ‘engine braking’ – it made life much easier and also helped in stabilising the bike when riding downhill or coming to a stop at a junction etc. The ATAS has absolutely no EB. There is a setting in the riding modes called EB – with three modes – 3 being the least intrusive and 1 being the strongest. (Yeah everything is reverse in HONDA-verse) Note the EB at ‘2’. Different modes have different EB settings. I did a few uphill and downhill practice rides in my parking lot (it helps that there are 4 levels of parking in my building) and figured early on that the bike just smoothly rolls off if you close the ‘ride by wire’ throttle. Very unlike and unsettling for me. Added_Flavor was consulted again and he basically told me to erase all engine braking memories I have and to re-wire my brain to the way the ATAS engine responds to throttle inputs. He also mentioned, which is a very solid observation, that the ATAS compression ratio is 10:1 – Honda did this so as to make it more fuel-efficient and better functioning of the engine; thereby resulting in lower power figures than the competition. The Tiger and the BMWs have around 13/14/15:1 compression ratios, which is why the engine braking is strong. This is why I love TBhp – the amount of real-world experience and knowledge shared by the members here without any hesitation is just This theory was seconded by the Africa Twin Rider Forums as well. So well, my philosophy of re-learning was put to test here.SWITCH-CUBE”No, you cannot fly an Airbus 380 with it even though it looks like you can”. In true Honda style, the horn and turn signal indicator switches are interchanged as opposed to the norm. This took some time to register into my muscle memory! To make matters simple, Honda website actually has a simulator of the dashboard and the LHS-RHS switchcube that you can familiarise yourself with. Well if not the Airbus, I can still make-pretend I’m flying on with this ‘simulator’. Haha! LHS – Too many switches, but do notice the position of the horn and the turn signal switch. Honda-verse at play! A rather boring RHS view. That is the cruise control switch (gray) and the speed +/- toggle. The blank space above them is where the DCT controls of D/M/S usually reside. Note: The cruise control works like a charm. More on that later on in the ownership experience! Also, the buttons seem overwhelming at first glance – but soon one gets used to it. Continue reading TheVaas’ review for BHPian comments, insights and more information.
