Today’s version

Ten years after the last V-twin Africa Twin rolled out in 2003, rumours began to circulate of a new bike. Early in 2013, Honda returned to racing in the Dakar Rally. A few months later it trademarked the Africa Twin name and, at the same time, patent office drawings suggested the new bike would be a 1000cc parallel twin with a dirt-friendly 21in front wheel. When a ‘prototype’ was finally debuted at the 2014 Milan show, it was indeed a 998cc parallel twin making 94bhp (up from the old 750cc Africa Twin’s 52bhp V-twin) and its 21in front and slim profile suggested more off-road bias than ‘touring’ adventure bikes like BMW’S R1200GS and Triumph’s Tiger Explorer. And so it proved; although the new Africa Twin is mechanically unrelated to the previous model, its philosophy is very much the same. And the new one has turned out just as popular.