Thegood, the bad and the befuddling

Honda’s current Africa Twin is laced with touches of genius, such as the self-aware transmission. However, John Westlake also has good reason for utter befuddlement…

SCREEN

Whether you like this seems dependent on your height. For me (6ft) it is perfect on the lowest setting, keeping my lid in an oasis of still air, with just enough downdraft to blow raindrops off my visor. But a 6ft 2in mate hated it because of buffeting and the higher settings made it worse.

CORNERING LIGHTS

Having experienced the cornering lights on Kawasaki’s Z1000SX and Ducati’s Multistrada, I wasn’t expecting much. But the Honda’s really work, hosing the inside of corners with white LED goodness. It’s a basic system – those lower extra lights only come on as you lean.

CORROSION

We got the bike with 400 miles on the clock and there was already lots of corrosion on plenty of fasteners. Maybe it was run-in under the sea. Shame, because the finish on the engine cases, frame, plastics and wheels is great and will probably scrub up beautifully for decades.

INDICATOR SWITCH

Honda are amazing. They produce a DCT gearbox that’s so clever it should be on University Challenge and then make an indicator switch you can’t fricking find. It’s in a thicket of other switches and after 250 miles I still fumble. As for finding the right button in the dark, forget it.

TFT DISPLAY

Honda provide two displays – a big touch-sensitive one, and a smaller LCD one for essential info. You link your phone using Bluetooth and use a satnav app on the top screen while seeing speed, fuel etc below. But it only works with iphones. ‘Meh,’ say all we Android users.

DUAL CLUTCH TRANSMISSION (DCT)

Honda’s DCT is so clever I think it’s achieved sentience. Sometimes, for example, it is mischievous – in Tour mode I manually downshift prior to an overtake, but if I wait too long, it sneakily changes back up without me noticing. It is unfeasibly good, yet my jury remains out on DCT.

CHAIN OILING

It’s a touring-ish bike with no centrestand as standard. Cue grumbles. There are no locations for paddock stand bobbins either and you can’t hoik it over on its sidestand because it’s too tall. I ask for Honda’s official method: oil a length of chain, walk forward, oil another length, walk, oil…