THE WORLD’S GREATEST BIKES #16 HONDA AFRICA TWIN
How Honda hit back at their rivals to build the greatest Paris-Dakar replica of all…
With adventure bikes like BMW’s new R1300GS still dominating sales, it’s timely to remember that their spiritual predecessors were the ‘Paris-Dakar Rally replicas’ of the late 1980s, and perhaps the best of all was Honda’s original 1988 XRV650 Africa Twin.
That first model paved the way for a popular 750 which remained in production until 2003, inspired rivals such as Yamaha’s XTZ750 Super Ténéré and Cagiva’s Elefant and ultimately had its name revived for the new CRF1000 (now 1100) Africa Twin in 2016 which has so far sold more than 87,000 units.
Which is why it may be a surprise to learn the original 650 was something of an afterthought, built for only two years and never officially sold in the UK.
The seed was sown in late 1984. By then the Paris-Dakar Rally, first run in 1979, was a global phenomenon. The first two motorcycle events had been won by Yamaha’s XT500 single, leading to the first production ‘Paris-Dakar replica’, the XT600 Ténéré, in 1983. BMW won in 1981 with their R80G/S boxer twin, then again in 1983 and 1984 while Honda’s first official entry in 1981, a modified XR500R single, was blown away.
In response, in the autumn of 1984, Honda tasked HRC (Honda Racing Corporation) to create a bike ‘capable of winning in 1986’.
The result was the 1986 NXR750 with its 45° V-twin, ‘saddle-type’ fuel tank and pioneering, framemounted, twin-beam half-fairing which grabbed a ‘one-two’ first time out and went on to win for the next three years.
Following that first win plus a slightly muted response to their XL600V Transalp, Honda decided to produce a bike with a more aggressive approach and put Tomonori Mogi in charge. He later recalled how the project unfolded.
“The Transalp’s image was of a bike crossing the Alps on the way to the Med,” he said. “But dealers told us they wanted a machine that conveyed a more powerful image. That was at exactly the time that the NXR won the Paris-Dakar. What was clear was that we should be making a replica of the NXR.”
Mogi’s team started with the Transalp’s 583cc V-twin and boosted it to 647cc. After that, the plan was to replicate as many NXR elements as possible so Mogi borrowed the Dakar-winning bike from HRC for inspiration.
“On parking it at our work site we found that it exuded the true aura of the racer that had outrun everyone in the desert,” he said. “It gave a really muscular impression.
“I wanted to make it aggressive. This was going to be ridden off-road, right? So, the suspension stroke had to be long. So, we set the seat height at 890mm to give us the suspension stroke needed for off-road riding.”
Other ‘replica’ items weren’t so simple. Attempts to recreate the NXR’s ‘suede-textured’ seat forced Mogi’s team to search for a new supplier. The ‘saddle’ tank, meanwhile, required a fuel pump while its 25-litre size barely fitted Honda’s production facility.
The attention to detail, however, was impressive. Quick-release fasteners were insisted upon despite their expense; the mesh headlight guard was recreated; it had a full stainless-steel exhaust and ‘auxiliary type’ instrument panel and, when it finally went into production, it was built at HRC.
And the name? “Africa Twin was decided upon based on the comments of the European sales staff who said, ‘It must be a real Africa Twin if it has the V-twin engine that raced through Africa,’” Mogi recalled.
That first 650 Africa Twin was an immediate hit. Two years later it was succeeded by the 750 and the rest, as they say, is history.