Lyndon Poskett just gave the new Africa Twin a try:
First of all I'd like to make something clear, I'm not a motorcycle journalist and the only reason I am doing this is quite simply to fulfill the requests from many of my fans and followers who asked for it. So if you like it and think others would like to read it, please go ahead and share it. So, here it is, my first and unbiased / non-comparative impressions of the new Honda CRF1000L Africa Twin.
Jumping on the bike for the first time, my immediate thoughts were, wow, the motor and ride is so smooth, unsurprising really considering I'd just climbed off 130,000km on a big single! The next thing that sprang to mind was how soft the power was, at first this was mildly disappointing but then again I am use to high powered sports bikes and off-road race bikes with smaller highly strung engines. This bike was not designed to be either of those so as the day progressed, I began to realize what Honda wanted to, and had achieved (read on). The third thing I noticed was how much I liked the riding position, very comfortable sat for long periods on the highway and also very friendly to my tall frame (6'4") when standing up or attacking stuff off-road. With the first few corners and thoughts out of the way, it was time to give it the ponies, and pony up it did, comfortably whisking its way up to an indicated 190kmh and still pulling. Hmm, pretty impressive that for what initially seemed a little relaxed in the power department.
So, I had three bikes for 5 days, a red one, standard clutch and road tyres; a black one standard clutch with TKC80's fitted and a silver DCT (Dual Clutch Transmission) with road tyres. All three of them I took on the road and off-road and covered a combined mileage of around 900km in 5 days between a bunch of other activities including delivering training schools, presenting and chatting to lots of likeminded people at the Overland Adventure Rally in Ontario, Canada.
On the road the handling is sharp for a bike with 21"/18" wheels. Throw it about you may, and it won't complain. It's super stable, friendly and a joy to ride. As a commuter I suspect it will do exceptionally well, especially with the 60+mpg (<4l/100km) I got from it on an average road ride. But lets not stop on the road, a good 50% of my riding was on gravel roads or adventure trails.
The suspension is quite compliant, or soft you might say which really does help it to be comfortable on the road and for the majority of gravel roads and tracks it works well and provides positive feedback with no unexpected behaviors. Start pushing it though and you will find yourself winding the clickers up at a pretty sharp rate. I played with the settings a bit and you can dial it in pretty well for 80% of the things that I did which is probably 100% for the majority of oweners. However, if you are a serious racer or off-road rider like myself that likes to push their bikes hard, you will soon find yourself finding the limits of the stock setup, but lets face it, that's the same with any production bikes for that matter. Even my Factory Rally bike has had its suspension uprated to deal with everything I throw at it. So, in conclusion I think it will work well for the majority and that's for sure where Honda aimed it.
The weight of the bike has been a massive topic of discussion, everyone expected less right? Well, it might not physically be the weight you were looking for but boy does it carry it well. Honda clearly worked hard to get the CofG low and geometry right as it just does not feel like a 200kg+ motorcycle, even full of fuel, on or off-road.
Now, I'm not that used to riding aids (ABS/Traction Control), so as soon as I got off-road the bike began to do things I wasn't expecting so it was not long before I was playing around with the settings to explore the possibilities. First thing to note is the ease at which you can change the settings. The Traction settings are a finger flick away and the ABS easily accessible on the dash. For me I'd like to be able to change both of these on the fly but from memory only the traction could be adjusted while riding, I'm sure this is the same on all new bikes. Another slightly frustrating thing for me was how every time you turn the ignition off, it defaults to full safe mode (max traction and ABS). Putting these (probably regulatory) issues aside, the settings worked really well from 'off' to 100%. I tried it all. With the traction full on, your not going to worry about the rear wheel doing anything but optimal, even on a gravel road or off-road, but if you start reducing the levels, you find yourself comfortably sliding around corners and having fun letting the computers do the work, without worrying about her stepping out too far. For the most part though, I rode with traction off and played till my heart was content and this was where I realized how much I liked the soft power delivery of the engine.
The motor is electric in terms of power delivery, very linear and smooth and not aggressive like some of the bigger adventure bikes can be, this made it a joy to ride. The bark of the intake and the exhaust note is a pleasure to listen to and it for sure still has enough oomph to get you into trouble so you still have to treat it with respect. The gearbox ratio's are nice, relatively wide ratio 6 speed, a good spread for most situations experienced on an adventure bike and a comfortable cruising speed.
The ABS is also adjustable but the models I had in Canada would not allow you to turn the front completely off, just the rear. At first I was disappointed by this but when you ride the bike hard in the 'ABS off' setting I was pleased to have the mild front ABS still in place, I used it plenty of times and although I could have managed without, it worked well so I guess its acceptable ☺.
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, which he's selling for 48,000฿. Think I'll wait until my trip to England in April and pick up the parts from the Altrider's EU website.
