[CrAzY dRiVeR]

Had a closer look at the Honda CRF 1000L Africa Twin which was launched in India recently with an ex-showroom pricetag of 12.9L. Since we got a decent test ride of the bike, thanks to Silicon Honda, the dealer for Bangalore, who was not stingy with the amount of kilometers allotted to each person for the test ride – coupled with the fact that I had to do a good amount of waiting for everyone to finish their turn with the bikes – thought that I might as well compile a short report for the event. The ride was primarily organized by the Honda dealer for the Versys owners of Bangalore group (VBR), though some others with similar capacity bikes were able to join in as well. BHPian 'rbp' was also present for the test ride event, and thanks to him for helping with very detailed observations.

What I like -

+ Well engineered. Feels light and nimble for such a big litre class adventure motorcycle.
+ DCT offers scooter-like convenience. Manual mode is very responsive when required.
+ Revv happy and butter smooth motor with good torque across the range.
+ Good suspension and feels rock solid over the bad stuff. Good interstate tourer.
+ Good build quality, well priced and backed by Honda support network.

What I don't -

- Red, Gold, Silver, Black and White! Loud colour scheme screams for attention.
- DCT will take a LOT of practise, specially for the manual mode.
- Confusing switchgear. You will need to unlearn and learn the ergonomics.
- 87bhp slightly detuned for India. Not all that powerful for a litre class machine. Torque though is impressive.
- Boring for shorter rides. Feels very relaxed and lacks drama even at the redline in lower gears.

[CrAzY dRiVeR]

Looks & Design -

Motorcycles with adventure pretensions are not going to be everyone’s cup of tea. That said – the Honda CRF1000L Africa Twin is quite an eye catching motorcycle and does scream for attention. A bit too much IMO – for although the design is very good and the bike feels well built, it is the colour scheme that ends up being too loud! Even the seats shout for attention with their multi colour design scheme and the colour scheme is bound to polarize opinions. Hope they listen to the feedback and introduce some sober colours in India soon as well. Colour schemes aside, the Africa Twin is a very unique looking motorcycle that will surely have its takers for the design.

Starting with the front end design. Africa Twin has a very tall and imposing front end, which sure does announce the fact that it is a big adventure motorcycle.



Headlamps are all LED units and the sleek design gives it a rebel nature as against the tall and imposing design of the bike. I quite like it that the bike does feel like an alien face from some angles due to these pair of eyes. Honda also claims that these LED units help in saving 90% of energy as compared to normal halogen headlamps.

Being an adventure tourer - the Africa Twin offers good wind protection. But - the windscreen is not adjustable as seen on some on the other bikes in the segment, and some below it as well. Wind protection provided by the stock screen was very good for my height though! (5'11'')

Taller riders might need to opt for aftermarket options like this Puig -

The front 3/4th view of the bike is very unique. The boomerang shape of the fairing, coupled with the sheer height manages a good amount of road presence. However, the colours also present their full glory from this angle - with all of five or six individual colours identifiable.

The CRF1000L will always be better known as the Africa Twin, a badge that is close to the heart for Honda and known for its Dakar prowess. Previous generations have seen 650cc and 750cc engined bikes, wheras the current generation of the Africa Twin has grown into a full blown litre class adventure tourer.

Adjustable seat height of between 820mm - 840mm.

A lot more balanced from the rear 3/4th as compared to most other adventure tourers. Clearly there is more mass towards the front, but the big exhaust and pillion grabrail along with the saddlebag-stays towards the rear does manage to compensate for it. Another reason could be the 18.8L fuel tank that is a bit small by adventure bike standards - but lends the bike a rather lean look towards the front end.

Ending at the rear with sleek LED tail lamps and indicator units. The big silencer unit ends at the rear with a stylish double barrel though only the top one is functional. Could it have anything with the detuning of the bike for India? As the same is not noticed in the international bike pictures.

Mirrors are a size too small for the bike -

The size compared to few of the more common examples - the ubiquitous Royal Enfield Classic & my Versys 650. * Please note that this bike has an aftermarket Puig windscreen at the front.

Many owners upgrading from the RE Bullet have considered the Versys 650 as an upgrade option. Likewise, the Honda Africa Twin will be considered as one of the next level upgrade options by many Versys 650 owners. Honda Bangalore seems to have understood this very well indeed!

[CrAzY dRiVeR]

As mentioned earlier - the bike gets all LED lighting. The headlamps consists of an 18W LED unit for the low beam and a 17W LED unit for the high beam, the tail lamps and indicator bulbs are all LED units as well. Good start for those looking at a lot of long distance night rides.

Safety systems on offer include HSTC (Honda Selectable Torque Control), dual channel ABS with an option to switch off the rear channel when needed. Coupled with a lot of engine map combinations made possible by the DCT - the Africa Twin is not a very intimidating motorcycle to ride, despite its size, weight and litre class engine.

Instrument console is not the most readable, nor the most beautiful unit in the business. But the fully digital unit presents a lot of information to the rider. The top part of the console displays the speed, rpm and fuel capacity and is placed rather high when the rider is sitting on the bike - so that these vital information can be checked on the console without much distraction. The central portion of the console displays the time, gear selection, drive mode (D, S1, S2, S3, Manual), outside air temperate, engine temperature guage, fuel consumptions and tripmeters along with the odometer. Visibility however is rather poor however, and I had to look twice to see the readings clearly once on the move.

Pic courtesy: Nishanth N (VBR)

During off-road situations, ABS for the rear channel can be switched off easily using this button on the dashboard. The "G" button is also for off-road situations where very delicate throttle inputs (similar to half clutch inputs in a manual transmission) are required. The electronics are all adjusted to provide better traction to aid with tricky off-road situations.

Switchgear is anything BUT conventional! This is one factor about the bike that you will need to unlearn and learn over time, as all the controls you have been used to - over time - are all shifted to other places. Take the right side for example! The engine kill switch is in the right place, but the transmission selector occupies the place normally used for the headlamp switches. You'll find that the place for the starter button has been taken up by the manual override switch for the transmission. But all of these do not sound all that bad - but wait till you see the other side.

If and when you try to honk during an emergency - you can find the horn on the left side, but towards the center where it is not easy to reach! The conventional place for the horn towards the bottom of the leftside switchgear has been taken up by the paddle shifters (if it can be called so!). The pass light for the high beam? Mostly likely you'll end up using the other paddle shifter to upshift a gear. And I literally had to pullover to the side to figure out how to put on the indicators - as it suddenly felt all too confusing with a host of buttons! Nothing that can't be learned, but surely will be an inconvenience initially.

Showa forks for the front with preload and DF adjustment -



Inverted telescopic fork with 230mm travel as claimed by Honda.




Monoshock with gas-charged damper and remote preload adjuster and 220 mm rear wheel travel as claimed by Honda.



Commuter'ish riding stance is perfect for long distance touring. Good pillion seat as well!

Adjustable seat height of between 820mm - 840mm. You need to be tall, but the bike felt easier to sit and handle as compared to even smaller bikes like my Versys 650. I'm 5'11'' and even though I need to use my full height - I'm able to flat foot on the bike, which itself is a big thing in such adventure tourers.

One reason for that could be the seat which goes narrow towards the middle, helping you put your feet down without much effort -

[CrAzY dRiVeR]

Engine -

Coming to the heart of the bike - the 999.11cc, 2 cylinder, parallel twin engine on the Africa Twin produces a peak power output of 87bhp @7500rpm, and a peak torque output of 91.9Nm @6000rpm.

Now these are not ground breaking figures for a litre class engine and on paper - is less than most of the bikes around the price range. But then, with an extremely relaxed compression ratio of 10:1 - power was probably not the first priority for Honda. Surely this engine has been developed for being used reliably for decades and should be well at home even with the poor quality fuel conditions in our country. Might not be surprising then, that the bike felt not all too different in terms of power as compared to the 650s like the Versys and the Ninja, an opinion voiced by both of us.

Even more surprising aspect is that the Africa Twin was detuned for India, as compared to the European variant. The European specifications clearly show 70KW (94bhp) of power being produced at 7500rpm, whereas the Indian website mentions 65KW (87bhp) of power. 7 bhp less in the Indian bike, but surprised because the European models were running low compression only to start with!

During my ride - I was checking how the transmission would behave towards the redline, and hit the rev-limiter in 2nd gear! As many would know - hitting the rev-limiter in the 2nd gear of a litre class motorcycle is sure to send the world crazily spinning backwards - and is certainly going to scare the hell of out folks less experienced with such machines (like myself), but I hardly got a jolt on the Honda.

Does that mean that there is no difference between this and a 650? Hell, no! The torque is the major differentiator here! 100kmph in 6th gear comes up around 3000 rpm! Yes, you read that right! I had to recheck the instrumentation a couple of times to see if I was reading it right. There is no hint of the engine running at this point and coupled with the good wind protection - 100kmph on the Africa Twin feels like 20 - 30 kmph on a more rider focussed naked bike.

This is one machine that would be able to cover countries in one trip without breaking a sweat. The torque also makes its effect felt while slowing down, the higher gears holding on to speeds much lower than you would expect! Typical of Honda motors - this engine remains butter smooth throughout the range as well - very revv happy and even hitting the very conservative 9500 rpm redline without giving much of a protest to let the rider know!

Coming to the most interesting aspect of the bike - the DCT transmission.

1-N-2-3-4-5-6 marked. But where is the gear lever?


Why is the clutch lever placed so far ahead of the handlebar? Oh wait, it's an AT. So why is there a clutch lever itself in the first place?

Ok, so that's no clutch lever - but the parking brake. Similar to the ones found on scooters! You pull the brake level and lock it in place using the smaller lever. Simple. Except that I saw even the Honda technician who started the bike, reach out for it - in the good old memory of a clutch lever - before coming back to his senses and laughing it off! Even BHP'ian 'rbp' accidentally grabbed the parking brakes while trying to downshift before a corner and quickly realized his mistake before things went bad.

Slide the engine kill switch to ignition mode and press the same button again to crank the engine to life. Once the engine is started, the transmission is in N (Neutral) mode. Use the D-S/N selector to move the transmission to one of the drive modes, or back again to neutral if required again. A single flick of the switch will move it to D mode, and consequent usage will select S1, S2 and S3 modes - which are more sportier and will hold on to the gears for longer. For those who are curious - there is no creep function for the DCT box, and hence you can easily switch it to D mode without pulling the brakes and it wont move forward unless the accelerator input is provided.

D mode will be good for city usage and will upshift at the earlier opportunity. Since the event was a highway test ride, D mode was used only for academic purposes - and I could see the upshifts happening even less than 2500rpm at times. The transmission was sitting happily in the sixth gear at speeds close to 55 kmph. Well, not something you would want to do in a litre class highway machine!

Switch to any of the three S modes and the response improves - with S3 being the best of the lot. S3 mode will hold the gears right close to the redline before upshifting. Progress is fast in this mode, and you really don't miss a manual transmission. In terms of acceleration - I felt that the DCT was doing a better job than what I could manage with a manual!

If more precise control is required - there's a manual mode. Press the A/M button on the rightside switchgear to switch the transmission to manual mode, and use the + and - buttons on the left side switchgear to change gears manually. Paddleshift in car speak! Now this means business as in the manual mode - the transmission will hold the gears right till the revv limiter before upshifting. The shifts occur with decent pace, true to the dual clutch nature of the transmission - even when downshifts are called for! To prevent stalling - downshifts will also happen automatically if the rpms drop too low for a particular gear.

On the negative side - All these controls and switches are unique to the Honda and will certainly take time getting used to. I also felt that the transmission is holding on the gears too long when braking - at one particular point where I was preparing to take a U-turn on an empty 2 lane highway, but then freaked out when I saw the transmission still in 3rd gear even though I had slowed down to crawling speeds. This could also be because the engine has enough torque to pull the bike from such speeds - but bikers used to revv - matching while slowing down - are going to need to learn the behaviour of the transmission a bit more.

The ride did not present extreme cornering situations either, where I have the same concerns in mind - as bikers are used to braking and selecting the right gear before entering a corner, whereas in the case of an automatic transmission - the shifts happen as reactions instead. Honda could think of introducing the manual transmission variant in India as well - as most of the prospective customers are weekend warriors who don't use the bike in the city as well as off-road situations too often - where a DCT would shine much better than a manual. Also, that could result in an even more competitive price tag for the Africa Twin and send the competition packing.

Honda SA Mr Ayush explaining the features of the DCT before my ride. A very knowledgable chap and I was overall very much impressed by their customer friendly approach as compared to rivals like Kawasaki. Much better than my showroom experience at Honda a year back.

BHP'ian 'rbp' gets the same briefing as well. Every member had their fair share of questions about the unique DCT gearbox system.

[CrAzY dRiVeR]

Ride, Handling & Braking

Africa Twin comes shod with Dunlop's Trailmax 90/90 R21 front and 150/70 R18 rear tyres. Moreover, these are tube type tyres on spoke wheels - and this along with the thin tyres clearly show the off-road focussed nature of this Honda. Few of the owners who are more into long distance touring rather than offroading have already started upgrading to tubeless tyres along with a change from the wirespoke wheels (costing about 1.5L in total).

Suspension duties are handled by Showa inverted telescopic forks for the front with preload and DF adjustment, and a single pro-link shock which comes with a remote preload adjuster for the rear. Front suspension has 230mm of travel and the rear has 220mm of travel as claimed by Honda. 250mm Ground clearance is a huge and all these figures should make it a very capable machine offroad!

Naturally, you wouldn't have high expectations for the ride and handling package of this machine. But the Africa Twin proves good enough for the highways, though we didn't get to through it at a decent corner to really judge the grip. With 90 & 150 section tyres and that 21' front end in particular that is more off-road focussed than on it - I doubt this would be a machine to carve corners - but is surely decent through it. The best part is that the machine feels light and nimble once on the move, and you don't feel that its a 245kg machine afterall! Even when standstill! We would have surely bet if only based on the touch and feel - that the CRF1000L might be a lighter machine than the likes of the Versys 650!

The ride is good even with the base setup provided by Honda. Not only does it feel extremely stable for triple digit cruising on expressways, but it also dismisses most of the bad road conditions with authority and feels ever so naturally tuned for the Indian highways as well. There is an inherent softness to the ride though, which pokes its head over undulations at highway speeds. However, once the tarmac ends (as is quite so natural in rural India), the bike should feel even better!

Brakes are good as well and felt on par with the braking performance of the V650, with some members commenting that it was better than the Versys, whereas some felt otherwise. ABS is switchable for the rear and comes in very handy during off-road situation where it can easily be switched off with a button on the dashboard.

Dunlop TrailMax 150/70-18 tyres for the rear. Tyres looks decent enough for some off-road usage.


Dunlop TrailMax 90/90-21 tyres for the front.


310mm dual disk brake setup for the front, with Nissin 4 pot calipers. 256mm rear setup with a single caliper.

Levers are off-road friendly.

[Aditya]

Thread moved from the Assembly Line to Superbikes & Imports. Thanks for sharing!

[Red Liner]

Great review CD. I would put tube tyres as the biggest i dont like on the africa twin. For a bike this price with offroad character, they should have put in tubeless spoke wheels.

Btw, theres a new road oriented africa twin launching in EICMA. I think that bike will come quicker to India next year to replace this offroad variant.

[CrAzY dRiVeR]

Originally Posted by Red Liner

Great review CD. I would put tube tyres as the biggest i dont like on the africa twin. For a bike this price with offroad character, they should have put in tubeless spoke wheels.

Btw, theres a new road oriented africa twin launching in EICMA. I think that bike will come quicker to India next year to replace this offroad variant.

Agreed about the tube tyres. Even for me - that's a major negative because I'm not much into offroading. That too - with such a big and expensive machine.

But a valid counter argument was that it's a more expensive option for competition bikes like the Tiger XC series (over XR series) - and given the off-road based nature of the Africa Twin, I didn't think it should be listed out as a major negative.

A manual transmission road biased variant could really be a game changer if priced well below the current pricing for the DCT variant.

[mobike008]

Wonderful review Sujai! Now Team-BHP need not do a full review of the Africa Twin as you have covered everything

As you rightly said, Africa Twin is desirable for every Versys 650 owner and possibly the best upgrade. But, since this bike is heavy bias towards off-road and less towards sports touring, it may well become the Achilles heel of our decision making

Like most of us, it is one thing to see off-roading videos on YouTube and doing it in real life. I enjoy personally a little bit of it and 95% sports touring is what I like but, these machines can do some radical off-road touring which none of us are mentally or physically ready for it

I can still live with it. But, come on < 100 BHP engine for a liter class motorcycle is simply not acceptable and will the single bone that I will always carry with Honda

Another Versys rider was all praise for the DCT transmission and same excitement didn't come through in your review? It wasn't too impressive?

[VW2010]

Looks like a winner. The Auto transmission to do your daily work life route while shift to manual and cut across villages and roads where your regular 1litre will be a nightmare.I think this motorcycle is a winner considering similar offerings in other manufacturers are way over priced compared to the twin.

Thanks for your time to write this up and take some close up pictures.

The color scheme makes me think its a hero impulse with a slightly bigger engine

[CrAzY dRiVeR]

Originally Posted by mobike008

Wonderful review Sujai! Now Team-BHP need not do a full review of the Africa Twin as you have covered everything

Thank you Avi. Meanwhile, I was just replying to your post on my Versys thread on the same topic.

An official review will always be better due to the sheer amount of time spent with the vehicle understanding it. We definitely do need more reviews like the Dominar one.

Originally Posted by mobike008

As you rightly said, Africa Twin is desirable for every Versys 650 owner and possibly the best upgrade. But, since this bike is heavy bias towards off-road and less towards sports touring, it may well become the Achilles heel of our decision making

True. I see myself in that mirror too - and have explained my view here.

Originally Posted by mobike008

I can still live with it. But, come on < 100 BHP engine for a liter class motorcycle is simply not acceptable and will the single bone that I will always carry with Honda

Any idea why the engine was detuned for India? I was surprised the way it felt very similar to the 650s upon hard acceleration and the same feeling was echoed by BHP'ian rbp who rides a Ninja 650.

It was only back home while checking the specs that we noticed the India website quoting only 87bhp whereas the European websites quoting 94bhp. Also noticed during the ride that the exhaust was partially sealed for India. Not sure if the detuning had something to do with meeting the pollution / sound norms in India.

Not that 94bhp would have made a big difference - but more is always better considering it is still less for a litre class motorcycle.

Originally Posted by mobike008

Another Versys rider was all praise for the DCT transmission and same excitement didn't come through in your review? It wasn't too impressive?

DCT does its job well. Shifts are fast enough and I didn't notice much of a lag, specially when using the manual mode. Should be good for offroad situations as it is one less thing to worry about - where you can concentrate on the actual obstacles, rather than worrying about stalling the bike in the wrong gear. D mode should also be very convenient for the cities to just forget about the clutch and cut through traffic like an automatic scooter.

But I've seen very less owners using such bikes as a regular city commuter. So that will not be a very major advantage in the long run. Plus we all know the issues faced by VW and Ford owners with dual clutch transmissions. Honda should be much better - but I would still have my concerns on the reliability of a dual clutch transmission packaged small enough to fit into a motorcycle and being used in our hot, dusty and humid city conditions.

Out on the highways, the DCT can shift down a couple of gears when accelerating hard - but then its not a major advantage over the manual as its the engine that provides most of the fun factor. As a very relaxed highway mile muncher - DCT will do the job perfectly. Personally, I think they would sell more bikes if they introduce the manual transmission variant at around 11.9L or so!

[blackwasp]

Originally Posted by CrAzY dRiVeR

Had a closer look at the Honda CRF 1000L Africa Twin

Great review CD, I have some queries -

1. Would you (or other bikers) prefer creep mode like we have on the cars?
2. Is the bike classified as an automatic or non geared according to the RTO?
3. Can you elaborate a bit on the off-road friendly levers? - have no idea about them.
4. I used to think that wire-spoke rims offer superior comfort compared to alloy rims + they are easy to fix as well. Is that the reason Honda has given such a configuration on the Africa Twin? And incase of a bend, the tubed tyre will hold air unlike the tubeless one that will get deflated. Aesthetics aside, how would you compare the wire-spoke + tube combo vs alloys + tubeless on ride quality?

[anshumandun]

Did this test ride happen at Kamat on Hyderabad Highway? I was there a few weeks ago and saw the Africa Twin test ride happening that day. There was a long queue so I did not sign up for the test ride but had some friends who ride Triumphs who test rode it. The general observation was that Tiger guys liked it, Daytona guys found it not very exciting and then some jokingly called it a liter class Activa

If we both are talking about the same day, you might have noticed a gang of 30 Z800s there. I was a part of that. We had the highest ever gathering of Z800s that day.

[moralfibre]

Superb review CD. Very well documented to the detail. I had the privilege of sitting pillion on the test bike when we were getting my brother's CB1000-R serviced. The bike is surely long (not just tall) for anyone used to the zippyness of a naked street bike. It's as good as a long sedan to negotiate in traffic.

I did not ride it because it will take me some time to get used to all the controls and the quirkiness of each. Bombay traffic was surely not a place to try it. May be next time on an open road.

Originally Posted by CrAzY dRiVeR

Coming to the most interesting aspect of the bike - the DCT transmission.

[center]1-N-2-3-4-5-6 marked. But where is the gear lever?
Attachment 1691400

During service, a bloke had ridden down his brand new Africa Twin from Bombay. Appears that he has a manual version in Dubai that he uses. He got an electronic foot shifter (available as an accessory) fitted on the bike.

I assume that the electronic shifter won't be a 1-down 5-up for the box, but I guess the covers are common across manual and automatic versions.

[Rajiv0909]

Thanks for the detailed review, been a dream to own an Africa twin. Would anyone if there's any roadside support mechanism for Africa twin? Also, I heard that Honda has temporarily stopped taking bookings for this bike, is that true?