HONDA XL750 TRANSALP
Dropped from the Honda range in 2013 following over a quarter-of-acentury of good times and solid sales, the new Transalp’s got quite the reputation to uphold. Finding favour with round-the-world explorers and daily commuters, who valued its easygoing nature and near bulletproof build, sales only started to falter with the introduction of the first generation of bigger, badder and more powerful adventure bikes.
But the game’s changing – and with the recent revival of the middleweight market, the Transalp is back with a vengeance; and with Honda’s eye for detail, the same motor as the new Hornet, and a super-competitive price point, it has all the right stuff to take it to the increasingly stiff competition.
I was lucky enough to snag an invite to the launch of the new Transalp in sunny Portugal last year and found myself properly impressed; comfy, characterful and great handling, despite that towering 21-inch front wheel. But belting along the sun-soaked smooth Tarmac in the hills above Faro isn’t quite the same as dodging potholes on the B-roads and back lanes of Lincolnshire and Norfolk when the rain’s lashing down. Would it stack up?
It’s certainly a nice place to be. Honda knows how to build a bike that works for riders of all shapes and sizes – and the Transalp has a near-perfect combination of seat, pegs and bars which makes it a pleasure to spend all day on the road. The seat’s a tall but still easy to manage 850mm high – and at 6’ 1” I could get my feet planted firmly with no trouble. Honda’s also worked hard to keep the weight down. It tips the scales at a respectable 208kg, which helps make it a doddle to manage at low speeds and when shunting it about by hand in the wet-leaf-lined car park. One of the highlights is the newly-designed 755cc parallel twin motor which has been ripped pretty much straight from the nearly-new Hornet. It might ‘only’ make 91bhp at 9500rpm and kick out 55.3ft-lb of torque at 7250rpm but that’s more than the other two bikes on test, and it proved plenty potent for making swift progress and dispatching efficient overtakes on my run down to Thetford.
Its 10,000rpm redline (and its ties to the Hornet) might lead you to believe it’s going to be happiest chasing the revs up in the top end – and although that’s partly true, there’s a good whack of midrange
torque and smooth, progressive power down the bottom, too. That could be partly because Honda’s remapped throttle and fuel injection settings soften its response to better suit the Transalp’s less aggressive ride. There are five engine maps to play with – including one-tap-of-a-button-away Sport, Standard, Rain and Gravel modes which are each preset with different levels of traction control, engine braking, throttle response and ABS intervention. You can also take things a step further, adjusting each individually to create your own User mode. Once you get used to the innumerable menus, it’s easy to get the Transalp set up just so.
The six-speed gearbox is slick, too, though we were treated to a brilliant aftermarket up/down quickshifter from the parts catalogue. It’s a shame it doesn’t come as standard (same goes for the bash plate, engine bars and handguards), but Honda’s had to make some very tough decisions to keep costs down. You will have to spend a bit of cash to kit it out to the same spec as the Suzuki.
But any questions about Honda’s scrimping and saving are soon forgotten when you get going. You’d probably expect a bit of vagueness from the 21-inch front wheel and a load of dive from the long travel suspension under heavy braking, but there was none of that – just beautifully composed handling that makes you forget you’re riding an adventure bike.
Stopping is looked after by a set of Nissin two-pot calipers up front and a single at the rear. While they might not be the best in terms of performance, at no point did I feel the need for more bite – particularly on the soaking roads of our route. Suspension is set up extremely well, with the Transalp not unduly upset by hard braking or aggressive acceleration. It really is excellent on the road. It’s not quite so good off-road, though. But then you can’t have it all. If the dirt’s your bag, there are other more appropriate adventure bikes for you out there.
There’s a lot to like about the newest iteration of the Transalp. It’s not as well equipped as the new V-Strom 850 DE, or as cheap as the Benelli TRK 702X, but does that really matter? For plenty of riders, the newest adventure bike from Honda is going to be just right thanks to its sub-£10,000 price tag, impeccable road manners, fantastic motor, lovely looks, and top-notch build quality.