Honda Africa Twin test ride

Honda Africa Twin test ride

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graeme4130

Original Poster:

3,823 posts

180 months

Friday 22nd January 2016
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Hi All
Today, I got a few hours out on a demo Africa Twin (manual)
To give some idea of my expectation - I currently run a Triumph Tiger 800 as a Winter/touring bike, and have been considering swapping it up for the Triumph Explorer 1200.
I know the guy at the Honda dealer, and he suggested I take the Africa Twin out for a demo ride. Unfortunately, today has been wet and horrid, but perhaps that's an ideal time to try it.
The bike they leant me was a manual bike with the optional tall screen, cowl bars, spot lights, heated grips and centre stand.
My initial impressions of the bike, having recently borrowed an explorer, was that it felt to have less of a power defecit than the paper figures would suggest. The twin is quite torquey, and the noise is pretty decent.
It's a much more agile machine than the Explorer, and a little better than my Tiger.
The only real gripe I'd have is that it breaks traction very easily under power in the wet, and the traction control is quite intrusive (i.e. it cuts the spark completely), so one particular overtaking manoeuvre on a reasonably fast A road left me in third gear on the wrong side of the road with no power. However, this could be down to the newish tyres just not bedding in yet, and the roads were particularly greasy today
The twin pulls smoothly, and the consistency of power is on a similar curve to that of my Panigale (with obviously less power)
Whether I'd miss the extra power should I choose an Africa Twin over an explorer, I'm not sure
Personally, I think the Honda is a better looking bike than the triumph, but not perhaps in the colour scheme of the demo bike - I'd go for a red one
I didn't get a chance to try it off road today, but hopefully that'll be an opportunity in time


The positives I could find ;
Very stable at speed on a wet/windy dual carriageway, and the touring screen takes 99.9% of the wind off my head
Comparable comfort around town to a Triumph Explorer
Nice high seating and view position both seated and stood up
Dash is very clear and loads of configuration available in what you see - Rev Counter could do with being a bit larger though, as quite easy to hit the limiter without expecting it
Very nimble for a bike of its size in the tight twisty stuff
Hides its low power figure quite well as the mid range torque curve is decent

Negaitives
Not sure about the colour - I think the red looks a lot better
Footpegs need to be upgraded to metal ones, as they're very slippery when wet, and stood up, you could easily lose a foot from one (I didn't see metal pegs in the options list)
Rev Counter display needs to be a bit larger
No Cruise control option - Throttle spring is quite hard, so on a longer cruise, you find it starts to pull at your gloves if you're not keeping a claw grip
Front dives under road braking quite a lot, but then this happens with most bikes that are capable off road
No deals appear to be available yet, and pricing for accessories quite steep (plus, they don't include fitting, and you can easily rack up 10hrs dealer labour with just a few simple ones)
Order one now in red, and it won't arrive until mid to late march

Has anyone else tried one and can compare to a Triumph explorer ?






Preferred colour option
|http://thumbsnap.com/ocFcERly[/url]



Edited by graeme4130 on Friday 22 January 15:41

Clinton Baptiste

657 posts

181 months

Friday 22nd January 2016
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Nice one, they do look nice. I prefer the gold wheels though on the white one. Are you getting one then?

Mad Jock

1,272 posts

261 months

Friday 22nd January 2016
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I have a test ride booked for next month when I get back from overseas, but I threw my leg over one at the dealer today. Obviously no clue yet about the dynamic abilities, so that will have to wait. My initial gripe about it is the centre stand. The foot bar for pushing it down from the stowed position is fouled by the pillion foot-peg, the carrier rather than the peg alone. I had to really wiggle my foot about until I could get sufficient purchase on the bar to push it down properly. So, a bad design, and probably an afterthought. The original Africa Twin came without the centre stand fitted, and it was an expensive accessory at the time, and as this is also an accessory, I expect a similar eye watering price.

Initial impression of the suspension was that it was very soft, so diving under braking would be expected. It should also make it comfortable, but we'll see what the seat is like after a couple of hours.

I also noticed the rubberised pegs, but I assumed that you could pull the rubbers off to reveal a metal peg underneath. If not, then that is an appalling oversight, but Rizoma, Touratech and the like will have something to fit pretty quickly. I see that Touratech already have a sizeable list of accessories for the new bike. A quick look at the photos suggested a decent metal peg, but couldn't find it in their list.

clen666

925 posts

121 months

Friday 22nd January 2016
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Does that exhaust double up as a pannier?!

Other than that, I quite like the look of these. Think I prefer the white one (gold wheels biggrin)

graeme4130

Original Poster:

3,823 posts

180 months

Friday 22nd January 2016
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Clinton Baptiste said:
Nice one, they do look nice. I prefer the gold wheels though on the white one. Are you getting one then?
I'm not sure. I'm still undecided over this or the Triumph Explorer 1200

Gunk

3,302 posts

158 months

Friday 22nd January 2016
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I wouldn't swap a Tiger 800 for that, if all you are mainly doing is road stuff, the Tiger is a much better bike plus it looks so much better. I had a good look at the AT at the NEC and was hugely underwhelmed and I'm a big Honda fan, I can't quite see what all the hype is about.

graeme4130

Original Poster:

3,823 posts

180 months

Friday 22nd January 2016
quotequote all
Gunk said:
I wouldn't swap a Tiger 800 for that, if all you are mainly doing is road stuff, the Tiger is a much better bike plus it looks so much better. I had a good look at the AT at the NEC and was hugely underwhelmed and I'm a big Honda fan, I can't quite see what all the hype is about.
I'm not sure it's a better bike than the explorer, but having ridden my tiger to and from the test ride of the Africa twin, I can conclusively say it's largely better in pretty much every aspect
The problem with my tiger is the second hand market isn't strong, so as a 2013 bike with 25k miles, it's probably only worth £5k and the Africa twin in the spec I want is circa £12k

Gunk

3,302 posts

158 months

Saturday 23rd January 2016
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Once the early Tiger 800's are down to £3000 I'll ditch my BMW F800ST and buy one. Perfect second bike.

Mr2Mike

20,143 posts

254 months

Saturday 23rd January 2016
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clen666 said:
Does that exhaust double up as a pannier?!
Surprised no-one else has mentioned the exhaust, it's the size of a small bungalow. Apart from that particular carbuncle it's a nice looking bike for an adventure style thing.

Max5476

978 posts

113 months

Saturday 23rd January 2016
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graeme4130 said:
I'm not sure it's a better bike than the explorer, but having ridden my tiger to and from the test ride of the Africa twin, I can conclusively say it's largely better in pretty much every aspect
The problem with my tiger is the second hand market isn't strong, so as a 2013 bike with 25k miles, it's probably only worth £5k and the Africa twin in the spec I want is circa £12k
To be fair, the tiger 800 is a cheaper price to start with, and as with any bike, there will always be loads of examples with low miles to compete against. Hard to say how the Africa twin will perform in the used market. (I am biased having just bought an 800, but the Africa twin wasn't even a consideration due to its price point)

graeme4130

Original Poster:

3,823 posts

180 months

Saturday 23rd January 2016
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Max5476 said:
graeme4130 said:
I'm not sure it's a better bike than the explorer, but having ridden my tiger to and from the test ride of the Africa twin, I can conclusively say it's largely better in pretty much every aspect
The problem with my tiger is the second hand market isn't strong, so as a 2013 bike with 25k miles, it's probably only worth £5k and the Africa twin in the spec I want is circa £12k
To be fair, the tiger 800 is a cheaper price to start with, and as with any bike, there will always be loads of examples with low miles to compete against. Hard to say how the Africa twin will perform in the used market. (I am biased having just bought an 800, but the Africa twin wasn't even a consideration due to its price point)
Exactly that. The tiger 800 is a damn fine bike and was not massive money new. The Africa Twin is a damn fine bike too, but just has a few more bits than my tiger - Namely Abs, traction control and bit more stability/ability.
You're right about the second hand market too. There's lots of lower mileage bikes out there, but they're mainly £6k+

Max5476

978 posts

113 months

Saturday 23rd January 2016
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graeme4130 said:
Exactly that. The tiger 800 is a damn fine bike and was not massive money new. The Africa Twin is a damn fine bike too, but just has a few more bits than my tiger - Namely Abs, traction control and bit more stability/ability.
You're right about the second hand market too. There's lots of lower mileage bikes out there, but they're mainly £6k+
New tigers have ABS and traction as standard now, but I can understand not wanting to spend a load of money on a new bike to end up with almost exactly the same as you currently have, its nice to have a change. Saw an africatwin out today, first one i've seen on the road. I would be interested to ride an auto version of the africatwin, the reviews i've read seem very positive.

SteelerSE

1,885 posts

155 months

Saturday 23rd January 2016
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I haven't ridden one but in the flesh I was hugely impressed, I think it looks gorgeous.

OP - In my opinion you're not comparing apples with apples. If you're looking at an Explorer then try a Crosstourer. The engine is astonishing and the comfort is significantly better than the AT.

If you do want genuine off road performance then I don't think the Explorer is the right tool for the job.

graeme4130

Original Poster:

3,823 posts

180 months

Saturday 23rd January 2016
quotequote all
SteelerSE said:
I haven't ridden one but in the flesh I was hugely impressed, I think it looks gorgeous.

OP - In my opinion you're not comparing apples with apples. If you're looking at an Explorer then try a Crosstourer. The engine is astonishing and the comfort is significantly better than the AT.

If you do want genuine off road performance then I don't think the Explorer is the right tool for the job.
You're probably right there. I do very little off road stuff, but like to know I could if I wanted to
The main area of concern I'd have is whether I'd miss the power of the Exporer over the AT on the road. I've got a sports bike for going fast, but just occasionally, you want to open up your adventure bike, and the AT isn't much faster than my current tiger
The dealer's been really good, and the triumph dealer is a few doors down and part of the same group, so I'll do a back to back test next week to see the difference in a bit more real time
The Explorer is being replaced by the 'new explorer' in the next month or so, so deals on the existing explorers are good at the moment, plus, when you add in all the options you'd want on the AT, and the fact you then have to pay labour to have it fitted over and above the accessory pack (something like £600 @ £72/hr for all the decent options fitted on top of the £1.5k option figure itself) they start to become comparable in price

AT is a lovely looking thing though, and as much as I 'like' the look of the explorer, the AT is the bike you'd be looking back at once you've parked it up in the garage, especially next to my Panigale

SteelerSE

1,885 posts

155 months

Sunday 24th January 2016
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graeme4130 said:
AT is a lovely looking thing though, and as much as I 'like' the look of the explorer, the AT is the bike you'd be looking back at once you've parked it up in the garage, especially next to my Panigale
This.

Unless you're planning on doing a lot of touring miles get the AT. If you need a tourer the the Explorer or the Crosstourer would be great.

But the AT looks fantastic.

Mastodon2

13,818 posts

164 months

Sunday 24th January 2016
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That will be a really good looking bike once that huge exhaust has been done away with. I definitely prefer it in white with gold wheels, but red with black looks nice too.

graeme4130

Original Poster:

3,823 posts

180 months

Sunday 24th January 2016
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There's a Termignoni aftermarket exhaust available already, which is supposedly 5bhp up for around £635 for the end can, and circa £1k for a full system, but I expect some less pricier options will hit the market soon now the bikes are becoming available to the public


I've pretty much decided I'm going to order one now once I can sell my Tiger as the PX value offered was pretty laughable
I'll initially go for a Red bike, and spec Heated grips, 12v charger and the Foglamp/crash bars combo
I'll see which aftermarket Side panniers are about later as I'm not overkeen on the Honda ones as they don't seem that secure, and I fancy some that are a bit smaller

It bugs me though that the options don't include fitting, so if you factor the options I want in, it accounts for a listed time of 2.9 hours, which at £72/hr comes in at an extra £210

Although if I get the comfort pack, which is fogs, crash bars, heated grips (£300!!!) and socket, it comes in at £1015 rather than £1140 when listed separately

Edited by graeme4130 on Sunday 24th January 15:53


Edited by graeme4130 on Sunday 24th January 15:54

Tall_Paul

1,915 posts

226 months

Sunday 24th January 2016
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Sounds alright with the Termi full system too

https://youtu.be/KfLntMfRxCA

graeme4130

Original Poster:

3,823 posts

180 months

Sunday 24th January 2016
quotequote all
Tall_Paul said:
Sounds alright with the Termi full system too

https://youtu.be/KfLntMfRxCA
Difficult to tell through a Youtube clip, but to my ears, it doesn't sound too much better than the standard can, which already makes a pretty decent noise

WaferThinHam

1,680 posts

129 months

Sunday 24th January 2016
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graeme4130 said:
There's a Termignoni aftermarket exhaust available already, which is supposedly 5bhp up for around £635 for the end can, and circa £1k for a full system, but I expect some less pricier options will hit the market soon now the bikes are becoming available to the public


I've pretty much decided I'm going to order one now once I can sell my Tiger as the PX value offered was pretty laughable
I'll initially go for a Red bike, and spec Heated grips, 12v charger and the Foglamp/crash bars combo
I'll see which aftermarket Side panniers are about later as I'm not overkeen on the Honda ones as they don't seem that secure, and I fancy some that are a bit smaller

It bugs me though that the options don't include fitting, so if you factor the options I want in, it accounts for a listed time of 2.9 hours, which at £72/hr comes in at an extra £210

Although if I get the comfort pack, which is fogs, crash bars, heated grips (£300!!!) and socket, it comes in at £1015 rather than £1140 when listed separately

Edited by graeme4130 on Sunday 24th January 15:53


Edited by graeme4130 on Sunday 24th January 15:54
Remus have got an option out as well to chuck that huge thing in the bin. Had a look at one in a local dealer yesterday, they look good. DVT seems to be getting good reviews on it too.