HONDA AFRICA TWIN
Mud-plugging with the heavily updated Africa Twin
In one form or another, the Africa Twin has been around for over 30 years, but could this new one, the CRF1100L, be the best one yet? We went to the Honda Adventure Centre to find out…
If there's an excuse to get dirty, I'm all over it, any day of the week; especially if it involves twins. Unfortunately, getting dirty with my favourite type of twins wasn't on the cards this time (it never actually is), but blasting round a forest on an all-new adventure motorbike definitely comes in at a close second. So when the chance to have a go on the new Africa Twin, down at the Honda Adventure Centre in Somerset came along, I grabbed it with both hands!
And when I say the ‘new' Africa Twin, I really do mean new. Pretty much everything about the CRF1100L is either brand new or heavily updated. The new ‘1100' engine is actually only 1,084cc, but that's still 86cc more than the 998cc CRF1000L that it replaces, and not only that, it has 7 per cent more power and 6 per cent more torque (101bhp and 105Nm respectively) claims Honda, which is not to be sniffed at.
The new models (of which there are actually six variants) come with an absolute ton of rider aids and electronics, including a new 6.5-inch touchscreen dash, which you can connect to your smartphone via Bluetooth and/or Apple CarPlay, with the option of Dual Clutch Transmission (DCT). The Adventure Sport version, which is the more touring, rather than off-road, focused option, also comes with the option of having cutting-edge Showa Electronically Equipped Ride Adjustment (EERA) – electronic suspension, in English.
In an attempt to make the most of my Africa Twin weekend, I managed to blag an Adventure Sports to ride down to the Adventure Centre (and back) on; and a 1000km round trip, plus a day chasing three-time World MX Champ Dave Thorpe round the woods proved to be the perfect way to get to grips with Honda's new, and improved, CRF1100L Africa Twin.
The bike that I managed to blag to head down south on was the touring focussed Adventure Sports, perfect, I thought, for a long journey. Now, the journey from my house in East Yorkshire to the Honda Adventure Centre, on the edge of Exmoor National Park, could be taken one of two ways – the fast way, or the fun way. After a lavatory-related crisis on the morning of my departure I found myself severely delayed and very tempted to point the Africa Twin a the nearest motorway and take the fast, rather than the fun option. As soon as I set off, however, my plan changed. Like the old bike, the new, bigger engined CRF is a bike that instantly makes you feel comfortable – from the smoothness of the engine to the comfort of the riding position, the whole package was very ‘Honda', and I liked it. In fact, I liked it so much that what could have been a four-hour ride turned out to be a six-hour ride, with me only resorting to motorways for the last 160 kilometres or so (when it started to rain).
Before I set off, I'd tried to figure out what the smorgasbord of buttons on the left-hand switch gear do, but to no avail. As I tried to explore the menus and settings, all that seemed to happen was the dash would change from one layout to the next, to the next – it wasn't until later on that I realised that each riding mode has its own display mode on the dash. That made things more confusing than they needed to be, if you ask me. For swapping rider modes I found it much easier to utilise the touchscreen functionality, although you can only do that when the bike is stationary, and whilst it does work with gloves on, my sheathed hands didn't have anything like the dexterity needed to complete such a fiddly operation – you'd be just as well whipping them off.
And whilst we're talking about the dash, it didn't take me long to get fed up of waiting for it to fire up – it's nearly 15 seconds from turning the bike on, to seeing anything worth seeing on the dash; my five-year-old laptop sparks into life quicker than that (granted, it's had a few factory resets to beat the viruses in its time – you can't trust the porn sites these days, can you?).
You can fire the engine up and ride away whilst the screen is doing its thing, but if you don't ‘press ok' when the bike tells you to ride safely (or words to that effect), you don't get any information at all.
I wasn't sure how noticeable the 7 per cent more power (that Honda claimed the new model has) would be, particularly having not done a million miles on the old bike, but it made itself known straight away. The 6 per cent more
torque was less noticeable, probably only because I remember the old bike having a really good mid-range, but the extra power, particularly at the very top-end, really gave the new bike something extra: a peaky-ness and a playfulness that I wouldn't necessarily associate with a big adventure bike, but one that you'll never hear me complaining about.
The more I got used to the bike's engine, the more fun I started having on the thing, and the more I started pushing it and asking more from the rest of the package. The route I opted for took me through the centre of the Peak District through some twisty little streets and fast-flowing A roads, and the big 'Twin didn't half impress me. On a bike as capable and as well balanced as the Africa Twin, you start to forget about its sheer size and weight; my pace got faster and faster until I started getting a little bit carried away – once or twice I had to have a little word with myself inside my helmet. On the road, it will do almost anything you ask of it, but you do have to remember you are on a 238kg (or 248kg if you've gone for the DCT version) adventure bike.
With an hour or so to go the heavens opened so I headed for a motorway to complete my journey. At motorway speed, the hand guards and the windscreen are great, but it wasn't long before the screen got caked in road dirt and I found myself craning my neck to look over it. The heated grips are plenty warm too, so much so that full blast was a little too toasty for my sensitive paws. Out of the five available levels, I found number three to be the most comfortable. Speaking of comfort, whilst the bike had been comfortable for the majority of my ride, it was during the motorway section that I realised that the seat was, in fact, a little bit hard –but it didn't cause any real discomfort to write home about.
By the time I got down to the adventure centre, I was wetter than an otter's pocket and ready for a beer – luckily there was a hotel room with my name on it and my Kriega rucksack did a smashing job of keeping my spare pants and socks dry, so after a warm shower, a cold beer and a few rounds of snooker I got my head down ready for a day of getting dirty.
Base camp for the Honda Adventure Centre was a 20-minute ride from the hotel so I headed across on the Adventure Sports I'd ridden down on ready to jump on to one of Honda's more off-road ready bikes, there. The Africa Twins that Honda have prepped for the Adventure Centre are identical to the ones you'll find in a showroom, except they've had their mirrors and footpeg rubbers removed – and some of them have one or two scratches on, but it really is only one or two.
After some words of wisdom from multiple World MX Champ Dave Thorpe, we were all allocated a bike to head down to the play area on. I was given an Adventure Sports, like the one I rode down on, but this time with DCT.
I've ridden bikes with DCT before and not really got on with it, so I'll admit I wasn't thrilled about the prospect of having no clutch lever or gear selector, or about having a computer decide when it thinks I'm ready for a gear change. But I soldiered on, and decided to give it another chance. The first part of the ride was a mixture of tarmac and hard-pack gravel roads, and the system itself is actually really good, in that gear changes are completely seamless and don't upset the bike in the slightest, and although it's a bit weird (ok, very weird) not having a clutch lever or a gear selector, you get used to it eventually. The DCT has different modes, so you can tell it how