First 5000 Miles With Honda's Africa Twin

Cycle World

After riding more than 5,000 miles on the Honda Africa Twin, Blake Conner shares his first long-term impressions of Honda’s popular ADV motorcycle. From Colorado’s high mountain passes to backcountry trails and long highway stretches, the Africa Twin has proven itself as a versatile adventure bike platform. In this first report, Blake breaks down what works, what could be improved, and how the bike handles real-world adventure riding. This is just the beginning — with more miles and planned upgrades ahead, stay tuned for the next update in this long-term Honda Africa Twin review series.   Check out the story at https://www.cycleworld.com/bikes/honda-africa-twin-long-term-test/   Become a Channel Partner: https://octanemedia.co/home/become-an-advertiser/   Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6CLI74xvMBFLDOC1tQaCOQ  Read more from Cycle World: https://www.cycleworld.com/  Buy Cycle World Merch: https://teespring.com/stores/cycleworld

Transcript

00:00This is our 2024 Honda Africa Twin long-term test bike and since we got it last August we've put

00:07about 5,500 miles on it and since it's based here in Colorado we weren't able to ride too much

00:13during the winter just the occasional day here and there but this spring we've been out really

00:17riding and kind of confirming some of the choices that we've made with some of the accessories that

00:23we've put on and so we wanted to tell you more about this bike and who it's for and if you should

00:29buy a Honda Africa Twin. So let's talk about some of the features because that's where this bike really

00:34stands out compared to some of the competition this bike actually has a bunch of the features

00:39that some of the more expensive European bikes have so for instance this bike has fully adjustable

00:45suspension front and rear it's Showa it's got a remote preload adjuster we've got the standard

00:50transmission instead of the DCT as we mentioned before but it's where the electronics come in

00:56that this bike really kind of sets the standard for this price range and this bike comes with six

01:03ride modes it's got four preset ride modes and two user modes that are totally customizable you can go

01:08in and change your wheelie control your engine brake control your traction control and your abs you can

01:14turn abs off to the rear and the custom modes and you can adjust some of those parameters for the type

01:19of riding that you're doing and we've played around with those a lot and really kind of found our sweet

01:25spots set our user modes up for particular riding that we like to do here in Colorado and you know

01:31the interface is a little bit tricky to learn I would suggest anybody buying this bike sit down

01:37read the owner's manual really figure out how to use the rider interface but once you get comfortable

01:41with it you can go in and make all the changes that you would ever want to make some other really

01:46nice features on the Africa Twin this bike comes standard with cruise control and it's not a fancy radar

01:51cruise control but it works really well riding across country as you know you really want to have

01:57cruise control otherwise it's just super tiring and this system works really well it's easy to activate

02:02easy to deactivate and you know that's a real nice feature right there another thing that this bike comes

02:10with which is kind of tied to touring and riding long distances is it's apple carplay and android auto

02:16compatible and so there's one caveat there you have to tether a wireless bluetooth communication device

02:25to the bike and plug your phone in physically to get apple carplay in my case with an apple phone

02:32and once we got that kind of set up and have got our phone paired and our cardo paired then we've had

02:39really good luck with it you just turn on the bike it asks you if you want to have that connect

02:45automatically which we chose and then you've got apple carplay and you can use all sorts of apps

02:50in there you can use google maps for navigation you can use revver for navigation you can use onyx

02:56for navigation all sorts of options in there so for those who are wanting to have some turn by turn

03:02navigation or other features or to see where they are off the road then you have the ability to go in

03:08and do that but also with the carplay as many of you know you've got phone connectivity so you can take

03:14and receive calls you can see your text messages you can go through your entire music library and

03:19do all that so that's a super nice feature let's talk about a couple of the ergonomic features which

03:25are nice on this bike so it has a two position adjustable seat which we really like the windscreen

03:31is adjustable it's not very good to adjust on the fly you've kind of got to pinch it with two fingers

03:36and go up and down and it's not super simplistic in that way but it works really well and you can kind

03:42of get it into a happy spot there are optional windscreens from honda there are optional seats

03:47from honda and so you can kind of get those customized to what you want to do as far as

03:53your height and your comfort level it's funny because we have been really playing with the seat a lot

04:00so when we're riding off-road i lower the seat down to its lowest position and that works really well

04:07and then when i'm on the highway for long distances i put it in its high position just to give a little

04:12bit more leg room so it's nice to have that ability to adjust those things right from the factory so

04:18let's do a quick walk around the bike and just show you some of the accessories that we've added to this

04:23bike so far and we've got a whole pile of other accessories that we're getting ready to add to this bike

04:28but so far we kind of just set it up for general touring and not off-road so much so we kind of focused on

04:34that but one of the first key things that we wanted to do was get luggage and the sw mo tech sis bag

04:41system has been really really impressive installation was really good the instructions were really good

04:50and we were able to get it all put together pretty easily but the bag performance themselves has been

04:56exceptional i would say that these are the best soft bags that i've used in a very long time

05:01the the thing is that makes them so good is it's got a rigid back plate that you can see on the back

05:07here it's an aluminum back plate and that keeps the bags from sagging and keeps them in holding their

05:15shape really easily but then it's got a waterproof liner that works really well and we've had these

05:22things loaded up in rain storms snow storms and our contents have stayed dry they have nice little

05:29compartments inside so when you open up the the bags here you'll see that there's a roll top top right

05:37here so you just undo that and then you can get into the inside inside there's a three divider compartment

05:45which is really nice which is kind of hard to show here but so far we've been really impressed with

05:50the bags they've been durable they've done their job keeping things dry but they also have a really nice

05:56release system so to take them off there's just one little button right here and it's got a cam lock

06:02system and you can literally just take that off very easily so when we've pulled up at a hotel in the

06:07pouring rain and wanted to get our bags inside really quickly that's been a total nice feature to have

06:13to just have one button and you take them off and and you're done and headed into the hotel so one of

06:18the other things that we added was we put on double takes latest adventure mirror and this has been

06:23completely redesigned on this new mirror they're no longer using an old partner's shaft right here

06:30so this is a heavy duty aluminum thing with a new ball mount a new ball here and then really tough

06:36durable mirrors but the thing that we really like about these mirrors is they're infinitely adjustable

06:41it's got a really big lock mechanism right here which makes them easy to adjust on the fly you can

06:46just slightly lose it loosen it adjust it and get it where you want it but then if you're riding off-road and

06:52you don't want to get them bashed up you can fold them completely out of the way so so far we've been

06:56really impressed with those they work really well and are so much better and higher quality than the

07:01chintzy ones that come stock on the honda so so far we've done about 5 500 miles on this bike and

07:07at about 2 000 miles we took the stock tires off and put on dunlop's trail max raid tires and we didn't

07:14really know what to expect because they've kind of got a hybrid tread pattern the center knobs are a little

07:20bit filled in a little bit more and yet it's got knobbies on the side and so far these have been

07:27absolutely better than anticipated so far off-road they've been really solid and impressed us giving

07:35us good braking traction good acceleration traction from the rear but it's on-road performance that has

07:41really shocked us compared to the stock tires that came on this bike these trail max raids have so much

07:47more grip that that we can't even believe it like on road you can ride this thing like a sport bike with

07:54these tires the the compound of the rubber and the profile of the tire really lend themselves to sporty

08:01riding and i swear i can ride this faster than my gsxr 1000 sport bike on tight corners so it's really fun

08:08to ride but then so far they've given us all the traction that we've needed for kind of fire road riding

08:14and you know simple off-road we haven't done any deep sand or anything like that and we've got a

08:20set of metzler carew fours that we're going to throw on for that type of riding and see how those do

08:25in heavier duty off-road riding and especially in the soft stuff and mud but so far the trail max raids

08:31have transformed this bike dramatically it's really been a big change and we've got a second set of them so

08:38after we try the caroze we'll throw these back on and and have them for our more asphalt asphalt and gravel

08:44road type situations but really really happy with these tires so here we go here's some of our favorite

08:52hairpins that are as close as you can get to something in europe like the paso de stelvio or

08:59paso de gal or something like that in europe and the the africa twin just eats this stuff up it's it's a really fun

09:07and amazing how this bike can just tackle this stuff as well as it can tackle the highway tackle

09:15dirt roads can kind of do it all but i was super surprised at the ability of this bike to handle

09:21this sort of stuff the tip in is is super smooth it just leans in without any effort really the big bars

09:29obviously help that out a lot but then the stability mid corner and the amount of feedback that the front end

09:36gives you develops so much trust that after a while you realize you can ride this thing like a big super

09:41moto bike and you know all adventure bikes are kind of like that they kind of have that inherent quality

09:48but the africa twin is no exception it's it's such a versatile bike and makes this stuff a total blast

09:56these are all uphill first gear hairpins with sealer on them but doesn't even matter on this bike it just

10:04tackles them no problem oh look at this there's a dirty one gotta be careful on these dirty ones

10:09gravel all over the place

10:20so one thing that we love about the africa twin is what a great sport touring motorcycle it really is

10:26i mean this bike really defies the logic of you know you take a look at it and you're like there's

10:33no way that that thing's going to be super sporty it looks like a giant dirt bike but adventure touring

10:39and adventure sport touring i guess are one in the same when it comes to certain motorcycles and

10:45what i love about the africa twin is it's so enjoyable to ride on a tight twisty road it just eats up corners

10:54with ease and so much of that has to do with the tires and like we've mentioned many times before

11:01the dunlap the dunlap trail max rate tires that we put on here have totally transformed this bike

11:07into such a nice handling motorcycle it has better mid-corner feel than it ever did and the grip from

11:14the dunlap is really good but the thing that's so easy to to wrap your head around is with the big handlebar

11:23you've got so much leverage you can just flick this thing in and out of corners and it's got really nice

11:30mid-corner grip and so it gives you tons of trust to just ride it like a sport bike almost and big sweepers

11:38are almost like a giant super moto bike like big sweepers like this it just loves it eat this stuff

11:44up for days and that's just a nice little side benefit of the africa twin excuse me we never

11:52expected that you know we've ridden adventure bikes for a long time but when you've lived with one for

11:59the better part of a year you know i i love taking this bike out just on sport bike rides just as much

12:05as i like going on a on a adventure road you know with dirt so this is where adventure bikes like the

12:12africa twin are so much fun so they act as a great sport touring bike and then you get out onto a gravel

12:22road and it's just absolutely happy there adventure bikes absolutely love gravel roads like this and the

12:30africa twin you know you get all the settings situated and i've got it in a custom user mode

12:36right now so i've actually got a lot more power than the gravel or off-road modes have especially

12:43because we're here at altitude in colorado so it gets a little bit knocked off but then i've got the

12:49tc completely off i've got the off-road abs on so that i can use the the rear brake to control it

12:58but i still have abs in the front and overall i find this setting to be really really good

13:05on gravel roads this road's pretty fun it's got some really tight hair pins

13:12um when they're soft they're really soft and then you're wishing you had some really knobby tires

13:19more hair pins uphill hair pins better than downhill hair pins for sure on a big adventure bike you can

13:26get this thing turned with the rear a little bit got enough power to do that so super fun

13:34the suspension i will have to say on road it's been awesome and on gravel roads like this i i pretty

13:42much have no complaints i i have it kind of set in the middle of its range and it's got nine inches of

13:50travel at the front 8.7 inches at the rear and unless you're on something super rocky i haven't really had

13:58any reason to complain about the suspension i've got it set pretty nice i adjust it when i've got the

14:05bags filled up or a passenger i add preload but for gravel roads i want it soft i want it to be forgiving

14:13and eat up these washboards and i'm totally stoked with it um we'll have to see when we do some more

14:20hardcore off-road when we get some better knobbies on it if that makes a big difference and it wants

14:25something a little bit more aggressive and then maybe we could think about that but for the type of

14:31dirt roads and some slightly rocky roads i've been doing i don't really have any problems with it i did find

14:38um that i like having the tc completely off at least you know on these type of dirt roads because

14:48when it's in the graveler off-road mode it really doesn't let the tires spin that much at all even if

14:53you have the tc turned way down it almost doesn't let the rear step out at all so i kind of that's why

15:00i kind of have this custom mode set up so that i can really control it with the throttle and if i want

15:05to spin up the rear i can spin up the rear and then you can control the the angle coming out of

15:10these corners and stuff get it a little bit sideways and um it's such a smooth predictable engine

15:19with the parallel twin that i don't really feel like um you're you're losing much by having the tc

15:25off like that safety net is definitely nice on some wet asphalt roads and some super um loose stuff but

15:34i think for for most riding that i like on the dirt just having it completely off and controlling

15:41it has been been really nice back it in a little bit there

15:50you can hear even i've got the tc off and it's still kind of um intervening a little bit but i don't

15:58know how that's possible this stuff's a little bit wet today so you gotta be a little bit careful but

16:04see now no tc whatsoever sometimes it fights you a little bit but

16:15but i love these uphill dirt hairpins they're super fun on an adventure bike and they're just

16:21pointing the thing out of there and getting the thing spinning up so if you're want looking for a

16:26open class adventure bike that can be a great tour but also just be a total blast on a on a dirt road

16:34man it's really hard to argue against the africa tona especially for 14 7.99 that's the thing that

16:40just impresses us the most about this bike is it's so much bike for the money and then if you if you like

16:46the idea of dct that's always an option you know and then the one thing that we would say is that if

16:51you're going to do more touring then you've got the the adventure sport model too which has more fuel

16:57capacity so you can have a little bit more range but we like this one because it's just about right i

17:02mean it's not a light bike but it's not as heavy as that bike so off-road it's a little bit um more

17:09nimble than the adventure sport is with a full tank of fuel all right let's see how the africa twin does

17:15on some rocky fire road we've got this in a custom user mode so we've got no tc on but we've got the

17:27off-road abs on and we've got full power on just in case we want it but this is not the africa twins

17:36absolute forte this type of uh rocky road but you know what it does fine

17:48i don't want to haul ass too much because i've got the tire pressure set at 25 front and rear

17:54i don't want to bend or rim but overall i think that this type of road not really a challenge at all

18:02for the africa twin totally eat this stuff up all day just little sharp embedded rocks got to be a

18:10little bit careful to not bash the thing up but overall this is no challenge for the africa twin

18:17it's perfectly happy doing this stuff people have asked if i've considered doing anything to the

18:23the suspension and so far you know i'm pretty pretty happy with it i haven't done um too much

18:31super tech stuff or anything where i'm really launching the thing and in most conditions

18:38that i've been riding off-road stuff like this and gravel roads the suspension's been just fine

18:44i kind of like it soft and forgiving and it's been doing a really good job but then

18:49i don't have to make big changes when i go on the road it's still nice and plush for road riding

18:55so overall i think it's really well balanced and uh don't really have too much complaints

19:00about the suspension on even this rocky stuff like this now i'm sure if you're riding some tough

19:07single track and you're bashing through rocks and um going off some water bars and launching the thing

19:14in the air then maybe want to think about changing the suspension settings a little bit but

19:22overall i'm pretty impressed that straight out of the box this thing is predictable

19:28it's got nine inches of travel front rear and i think it's totally sufficient all right so that's

19:34a wrap on our long-term update number one on our 2024 africa twin so far we've really focused on

19:41touring oriented items but the next thing we want to do is focus on some more dirt oriented

19:45items we've already started to add some of those pieces to this motorcycle we've already put on

19:50fast company's flex handlebar and their enduro foot pegs we've got crash bars from honda that we're

19:54going to put on soon and we've been we just put on the metzler karue 4 tires we're excited to try

19:59those out and then we added a center stand for maintenance and so far so good but we're going to

20:04really get out and ride some dirt and see how this thing works in a different environment and we'll give you

20:09an update soon so if you like what you see please comment like and subscribe and we'll see you on

20:15the next update thanks for watching

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