We’re big fans of Honda new Africa Twin, which is why we jumped at the chance to keep one when we had a pair (manual and DCT) in for our adventure comparison test in Colorado. While most of the staff prefers and wanted to keep the manual transmission bike, I was able to bully/beg/con them into our holding onto the DCT model to see what it was like to live with for the year. Fortune favors the pushy.
If you’re doing the math, this does mean that we’ve had the bike around a while and have neglected to tell you. And for that, I’m really sorry (that’s a lie, we’ve been busy doing other awesome stuff and writing about it and it’ll all be okay).
For his first adventure of our adventure bike bike to the Colorado Shootout, it took most of the time with the gears to carry the pictures of our bike tours. Jeff Allen Staff Photographers have a lot of experience with dirt than the rest of us who spent a lot of travel but I’m sure some miles.
After that, I took it to the Sierras for an extended weekend in the dirt on a trip with all riders on dual sports. The Africa Twin held it’s own for the planned route, and was perfect for the mostly fire-road and smooth trail route, at least until I forgot to air back up for the ride home and got a front flat doing freeway speeds on the ride home. I’d written about the Africa Twin several times by this trip, but this was the first time I got to spend an extended amount of time on it, and was when I finally felt at home on and in love with the bike.
We’ve stayed pretty mellow so far on the modifications to the bike. So far, we’ve added a Touratech tall windscreen and crash bars, luggage, and some Doubletake adventure mirrors. We’ve also added a Yoshimura slip on exhaust, but we’re going to have to wait until we get a fresh set of rubber to get it on the dyno.
| SPECIFICATIONS | |
|---|---|
| TOTAL MILES | 3,081 |
| NEXT MINOR SERVICE | 5,000 miles |
| NEXT MAJOR SERVICE | 16,000 miles |
| MAINTENANCE COSTS | $0 |
| REPAIR COSTS | $0 |
| AVERAGE FUEL MILEAGE | 40 mpg |
| PRICE AS TESTED (2016) | $13,699 |
