Winter? What winter?
ATAS is taking it in its stride, so far...
NO MATTER WHAT your view on its origins, you only have to look outside at the end of December to twig climate change is actually a thing and winter isn’t as cold as it used to be (by the time you’re reading this in January, we could be buried under an avalanche but it’s a bet I’ll take). I’ve just got back from a short trip on the Africa Twin, and it might as well have been spring; standing around for the photos, it was almost T-shirt weather.
Which bodes well for the Honda — not that it’s a rot-box but my cleaning regimen is often less than meticulous. The bike has stood up well so far; last winter it saw a fair slice of action. It spent the first few weeks of its RIDE tenure in the hands of editor Matt, whose new-found penchant for riding off-road suggested the Honda would be filthy and corroded before I got a chance. Imagine my surprise, and gratitude, when he returned it with a spotless flourish. It still looked pretty new. Then I had a go, with a couple of days slipping and sliding in the Peak District in icy weather, and then 1000 miles of snow and rain in Scotland.
Back home, I prised the salty-cack crust off with a jet wash and lots of hot, soapy water (plus a hand from Sdoc S100 gel spray, and a BMW motorcycle spray cleaner, available from BMW dealers, which I ended up with somehow but which seemed to possess magical qualities). More rinsing, a dry-off with a towel, and once again the Honda looked pretty good.
Fast forward through 5000 miles of summer, and the Honda is facing another winter; this time, it’ll get a coat of XCP rust blocker after I’ve cleaned the last of the grime off it.
A quick inspection shows no corrosion. The wheels’ wire spokes were once an Africa Twin weak spot — Honda said the original spoke ends weren’t properly dipped in anti-corrosion coating at the factory and generally, they were replaced under warranty, usually with identical spokes that corroded just as quickly.
These didn’t look great on our test bike, either: they started to fur where the spoke ends met the rim, so Matt cleaned and treated them with ACF50. Since then, they don’t look too bad.
And neither does the rest of the bike. The alloy sump-plate and panniers are stained and are bit spotted, looking distinctly secondhand. But overall, I’m impressed so far. It’ll be interesting to see what it looks like in a few months’ time though — if it gets too bad, I’ll just give it back to Matt and blame him.