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Honda has displayed its flagship adventure tourer, the 2016 CRF 1000L Africa Twin at the Auto Expo this year, announcing the new motorcycle will be brought into India as a CKD kit, to be assembled at the Honda manufacturing units here. This is key, to allow them to price the Africa Twin more competitively in our market.
The Africa Twin is about as famous as it gets in the adventure bike world, well known round the world for its easy to ride, yet capable off-road prowess. The CRF 1000L Africa Twin is being marketed in India with the tagline ‘Go Anywhere’, and have no doubts about it; the bike can easily manage to live up to this. Honda bringing in the Africa Twin clearly shows their serious intent towards the adventure bike segment in India. In terms of ergonomics, the lanky, lean and mean Africa Twin has generous, really high ground clearance and a low enough seat to make it easier for shorter riders to fit in with. Additionally, the Africa Twin has a narrow waist line, which makes it easier to stand up on and ride when off-road, as also to put your feet easily straight down on the ground when stationary. A well contoured tank lets the Africa Twin rider move around freely as expected off a bike that goes off-road. The windscreen and radiator shrouds are claimed to be effective in creating a pocket of air to protect the rider from wind buffet at high speed, apart from wet weather protection too.
The engine powering the 2016 CRF 1000L Africa Twin is a four-stroke, 998cc, parallel-twin unit, with power output of 93bhp. While that may not compare favourably with more powerful adventure bikes, for example Ducati’s 150 plus bhp Multistrada, it is more than enough for high speed touring on highways, and to power the big Honda bike through anything off-road. The suspension can be fully adjusted, for compression, spring preload and rebound damping front as well as rear. The front fork travels a prodigious 9 inches, and rear wheel 8.6 inches. It also comes with switchable ABS and traction control as stock equipment. The ABS is switchable only on the rear, which actually is beneficial when riding off-road, while the traction control comes with three modes, and also the option of being switched-off.
This Africa Twin also gets optional DCT, this Honda patented automatic motorcycle transmission system making the Africa Twin more accessible to newer riders. The computer-controlled DCT also comes with manual override triggers, that are button operated from the left switchgear. All in all, the CRF 1000L Africa Twin signals Honda is dead serious about making a big splash in the adventure bike segment.
Siddhant Ghalla
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