The Adventure Motorcycle Built For Riders Who Plan To Keep It Forever
Finding an adventure motorcycle that doesn’t feel obsolete the moment you ride it off the lot is harder than it sounds. Manufacturers refresh their lineups constantly, chasing horsepower figures and feature lists that grow longer every model year. Most riders end up on a treadmill — upgrading every few years just to stay current. The Honda Africa Twin Adventure Sports is built for the rider who wants to step off that treadmill entirely: a full-size ADV with genuine long-term appeal, priced where it actually makes sense.
Adventure Bikes Are At The Cutting Edge Of Tech
Touring motorcycles are guilty of this these days because they are not as constrained by cost targets as other types of motorcycles are. Another segment that follows this is the adventure bike segment, for many of the same reasons. They are expected to be overengineered, and therefore there is a lot more flexibility for the manufacturer to price them at a premium. This opens the door for more technology to be included in the product, and the cycle continues.
Bare-Bones Mountain Goat Or Overcomplicated Powerhouse?
Yamaha decided to take on the competition by making an adventure bike that could, quite literally, take on the Dakar Rally with minimal modifications. The Ténéré 700 even looks like a rally-raid motorcycle with its tall, narrow stance and quad-projector headlamp design. It is a very simple motorcycle that has only recently acquired electronics like a by-wire throttle and an optional two-way quickshifter. The ABS has always been present and has always had the ability to be switched off at both axles, showing how serious an off-roader this is. But it’s too serious for you if you don’t really hit the dirt that often.
At the other end of the spectrum is the Ducati Multistrada V4 Rally — a premium motorcycle that costs more than most touring motorcycles. The price is justified by a genuinely premium kit: forward-facing radar for adaptive cruise control, rearward-facing radar for blind-spot detection, a by-wire throttle, a six-axis IMU, and an engine with a counter-rotating crankshaft and rear cylinder bank deactivation are all standard. It has even gained newfound reliability through its choice of valve springs. But what most riders need is something that sits between the Ténéré and the Multistrada. We have just the thing.
The Honda Africa Twin Adventure Sports Is Built For Riders Who Plan To Keep It Forever
Enter the Honda Africa Twin — specifically, the Africa Twin Adventure Sports, which is designed to be both a tarmac tourer and an off-road explorer, aided by its smaller front wheel and expanded electronics package. Honda does not play the horsepower game; the Africa Twin makes a modest 100 horsepower from its full-size engine. Yet it offers a feature set that covers all the bases without overcomplicating things. Couple that with Honda’s well-documented penchant for overengineering its products, and it makes a convincing case for being the adventure motorcycle built for riders who plan to keep it forever.
The Price Makes It Look Like A Midsize Motorcycle – In A Good Way
The Africa Twin range starts at a little over $15,000 in the U.S. market. The base variant of the Africa Twin Adventure Sports with the manual gearbox is priced at $17,799, and adding the dual-clutch automatic gearbox nudges it only slightly higher to $18,599. That is strong value for the segment, especially when measured against the premium competition.
The Honda Africa Twin Adventure Sports: Built To Last, Not To Replace
It does have a few other names in the full-size segment that are priced similarly, but none that carry the brand weight of a large, globally respected manufacturer. And knowing that this is a Honda, spare parts will be priced reasonably and will be readily available. Most adventure motorcycles force you to choose: pay a premium for top-shelf features or settle for basic capability. The Honda Africa Twin Adventure Sports breaks that false choice entirely, delivering electronic suspension, dual-clutch transmission, and long-haul touring range at a mid-range price point.
Why the Africa Twin’s ‘Boring’ 100HP Actually Outlasts 150-HP Rivals
This is a very familiar engine that has proven itself over many years. To run through the specs quickly: it is a 270-degree parallel-twin with liquid cooling, PGM-FI fuel injection, and four valves per cylinder. Honda uses its patented Unicam SOHC head to keep the engine compact. It displaces 1,084 cc, features a short-stroke design, and carries a compression ratio of 10.5:1. Output stands at 100 horsepower at 7,500 RPM and 77 lb-ft of torque at 6,000 RPM — all of it accessible and usable rather than peaky.
Automatic Gearbox One Of The Main Selling Points
The Africa Twin Adventure Sports is available with a six-speed manual gearbox equipped with an assist-and-slipper clutch and a standard two-way quickshifter. However, the more compelling option is the dual-clutch transmission. This is a true automatic gearbox, unlike the automated manuals offered by the competition. It has six speeds and two clutches, and over the years it has gained features that make it an excellent match for the Africa Twin’s character.
For example, you can leave it in the regular drive mode, and it will adapt gear shifts to your riding style. If you want a more aggressive shift sequence, you can switch to one of three “S” modes with increasingly assertive behavior. Alternatively, you can choose to shift manually via the paddles on the left handlebar. Finally, there is also something called the “G Switch.” When toggled, it either allows the engine to slip the clutch more for technical low-speed off-road work, or engages the transmission swiftly so you can spin the rear wheel under power.
Showa Electronic Suspension Smoothens The Ride
The Africa Twin uses an old-school semi-double cradle frame, which is unique among the competition. This type of frame adds extra weight but makes the motorcycle very capable off-road. It has a steel rear subframe and an aluminum swingarm. One of the main selling points of the Adventure Sports is the electronic suspension — a Showa EERA system with 45 mm inverted forks and a Pro-Link single shock with a gas-charged damper. Both ends are fully adjustable electronically. There is 7.3 inches of travel at the front and 7.9 inches at the rear.
The Adventure Sports features a distinctive wheel combination: a 19-inch front and an 18-inch rear. These are cross-spoke wheels fitted with radial tubeless tires. The brakes are standard fare, with twin 310 mm wave discs at the front paired with radial four-piston fixed calipers, and a 256 mm wave disc at the rear with a single-piston caliper.
Tips The Scale At Over 530 LBs
Like the engine’s power output, the dimensions of the Africa Twin Adventure Sports don’t tell the full story on paper. It is 88.1 inches long, 37.8 inches wide, and has a 61.8-inch wheelbase. Yet it feels far more compact and narrow than those numbers suggest — which is a very good thing, given that the seat height is a fairly lofty 33.7 inches.
The ground clearance is more than adequate for an adventure-touring motorcycle at 8.7 inches, and the same can be said for the 6.6-gallon fuel tank. Coupled with the engine’s strong fuel efficiency, the Africa Twin Adventure Sports delivers one of the longest tank ranges of any motorcycle in its class. The large tank does contribute to a curb weight of 535 pounds, though.
Electronic Suspension And DCT: Premium Features At Mid-Range Price
The Africa Twin has a large 6.5-inch touchscreen TFT equipped with wireless Android Auto and Apple CarPlay, and retains a small LCD below it that shows parameters such as gear shift mode, speed, and warning lamps. This display gives you access to a full electronics suite, including a seven-level traction control system, six total riding modes (two of which are customizable), cornering ABS, wheelie control, and cruise control — all standard.
Elsewhere, Honda has included cornering headlamps, an adjustable windscreen, and, in the U.S. market, the electronic suspension. There are a couple of areas where Honda could have done more with the Africa Twin Adventure Sports, given that it is the brand’s flagship adventure-touring product. A standard engine guard and center stand would have added meaningful practicality without significantly impacting the value proposition.
All The Competition Is Way More Expensive
While there are some very impressive products in the premium adventure-touring category, only three offer the option of an automatic gearbox. The Africa Twin is obviously one of them. The other two are the BMW R 1300 GS and the KTM 1390 Super Adventure S Evo.
Both the KTM and the BMW offer an automated manual system that augments a conventional gearbox, rather than a fully separate automatic transmission like the Africa Twin Adventure Sports provides. That option also drives the price of those machines up considerably. The GS will set you back nearly $26,000, while the Super Adventure approaches $30,000. That makes the Africa Twin a massively desirable value purchase for any rider who considers an automatic gearbox essential in an adventure-touring motorcycle.
Source: Honda PowerSports
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