Trade or upgrade?
RIDE reader Derek Sol has covered 15,000 miles in just over a year on his 2019 Africa Twin. Will the more tech-heavy 2020 model tempt him to trade it in?
Honda Africa Twin
DEREK SOL, 67 RIDE reader Derek has had a bike licence since his 16th birthday. Two years ago he bought a CB500X and after his wife Gill joined him on the back, he upgraded to an Africa Twin to spend his retirement touring the UK and Europe.
AFTER YEARS OF competing against BMW’S mighty GS range with a combination of simplicity and good value, Honda’s took a bit of a gamble with the 2020 Africa Twin, piling on the tech, adding more power and also bumping up the price.
As well as more capacity and grunt, it dramatically enhanced the Twin’s tech, adding a six-axis IMU to give its electronic assists angle-sensitivity as well as cruise control and a TFT touchscreen dash. The problem is all this doesn’t come cheap and the price went up from £11,999 to £13,049.
At the same time, Honda changed the focus of the Africa Twin and its premium-class big brother, the Africa Twin Adventure Sports. Previously the ATAS was the more off-road-biased version, while the cheaper standard bike was for regular road riding. Which made sense.
But for 2020, Honda made the ATAS the road one and the cheaper version, that everyone’s supposed to buy, the off-roader. Which makes no sense. Which is what RIDE reader Derek instantly picked up on...
The ride
“That screen is terrible; I was getting battered all over the place on the dual carriageway. What was Honda thinking?” is his first reaction to the 2020 model. “Although I’ve fitted a taller screen to mine, it’s not that much higher than stock and even the original one was a million times better than that one.”
Derek is a rider who covers a lot of miles and that’s why he was interested in the updates Honda made to the Twin for 2020. As his wife Gill is generally on the back, the extra power and torque would be beneficial to him while the small details,
‘Honda took a gamble with the 2020 Twin’
such as the narrower waist and taller bars, would also help him when it came to low-speed manoeuvring two-up. So what does he make of the new motor?
“The new model feels less bulky at the front than mine, which might be down to the taller bars and new clocks, but the motor is a disappointment. The throttle is really on/off and far jerkier at low speed than mine for not much performance benefits. The majority of my riding is two-up and that means I have to think about being smooth, something I can’t do on this bike, especially at low speed.”
As the Africa Twin has four power modes as well as three levels of engine braking, we set one of the two ‘User’ rider modes to alter its feel in an attempt to improve the ride quality for Derek.
“That’s better,” he says after another ride, “but it is still nowhere near as smooth as mine. However, I am impressed by the suspension. There is a lot more composure compared to mine, the damping is better and where mine can get a bit pogoey, this is cushioned. That’s my major gripe with the older bike; it needs a firmer rear spring for two-up riding, as the preload adjuster doesn’t go far enough.” Honda doesn’t offer its semi-active Showa EERA on the base model Twin, only the Sports; would this system tempt Derek?
“I’d be interested to try it but it’s the extra cost; would it be worth the price increase [currently £1400 on Sports] over £100 for a firmer rear spring?”
The technology
“The new dash is lovely, a huge improvement over my model’s LCD display. Not only is it far clearer, it doesn’t suffer from glare like the LCD one, which tends to show a reflection of you when you are going along, making it hard to read,” says Derek. “The connectivity side and its Carplay isn’t of interest to me; I prefer to use a dedicated sat nav and I have a Sena system which I’m happy with. The problem is you can’t not have it and the associated switchgear is terrible — and I’m used to Honda’s quirky switchgear design! I really struggled to find the indicator switch, which is lost in the controls, though its self-cancelling feature is far better than the one on mine, which cancels itself way
‘The new model feels a bit less bulky up front’
too readily. I can see the benefits of cruise control and it seems an easy-to-use system but I don’t miss not having it on a bike.”
Interestingly, the enhanced safety of the 2020 model isn’t of much interest either.
“I don’t use all my bike’s modes; I have a setting I like and I leave it there and while I wouldn’t ride without ABS or traction control, the angle-sensitivity isn’t a selling point to me as I’ve never had an issue without it. Do I need a more advanced system? I’m sure it would help but it’s not something that has ever crossed my mind.”
What’s missing?
“I wish Honda had given the base model tubeless tyres because that’s a worry when I take it touring, as you can’t plug a hole in a tubed tyre,” concludes Derek. “And an adjustable screen would be handy but that’s about it. I don’t think they needed to give it more power or advanced electronics and in doing so, have ruined the motor’s nature and cluttered the switchgear.”