My Pre-Owned Honda Africa Twin Adventure Sports | Adv Reloaded | Cruising forward in time

TheVaas · 10th March 2025, 00:51

October 2024: Prep before a ride or Ride before the prep?

(Note: A bit of personal commitments kept me away from posting real-time updates. But rest assured, the bike hasn’t been under the covers, but ridden from October ’24 till about two nights ago! So keeping in check with the time-travel pattern of this thread, let's head 'back to the future!’ Read on.)

The month of October was relatively ride-free - barring the odd occasional breakfast and/or late night rides to Marine Drive (Suburbs to Town and back). I had gone on a family trip to Vrindavan & Mathura (via Rajdhani Express) - being the only travel in this month. Not that travel is mandatory every month but that’s what everyone expects from an “ADV Bike” owner!

Had gone for a breakfast ride with 3 other twin owners to Jimmy Boy in town. The line-up includes 3 ATAS MT and one 2018 AT DCT. Sharing a few brilliant clicks by fellow ATAS Tribesman & team bhpian, SG_pegasus -

My Pre-Owned Honda Africa Twin Adventure Sports | Adv Reloaded | Cruising forward in time-img_20241013_092824_1.jpg

Boys, Motorcycles and animated discussions which lead to nowhere!

My Pre-Owned Honda Africa Twin Adventure Sports | Adv Reloaded | Cruising forward in time-img_20241013_100428_1.jpg

Paying our tribute to the majestic Taj Mahal Palace hotel. All 4 japs bowing in respect!

My Pre-Owned Honda Africa Twin Adventure Sports | Adv Reloaded | Cruising forward in time-img_20241013_100402_bokeh-1.jpg

Against the backdrop of the mighty Gateway of India.

Diwali was fast approaching (first week of November) and probably some trip manifestation was lurking around in the corner. And voila! One lazy October afternoon, Pawan sent me a whatsapp message, just as I was just about to settle in for my afternoon siesta! He wanted to check whether we were free during the first week of November -

Me : “What’s the plan?”

P: “I’m planning a quick two day trip to my ancestral village in Kutch. Thought if you two are free, we could do it together?”

Cue dream sequence music and a black and white visual flashback in my head - “In 2021, during our Tiger days - we had done a 14 day Kutch + Coastal Gujarat trip! And it was one of the best trips ever with the roads and sights of Kutch being the highlight. We had also visited his ancestral village of Vaanki and somehow it always felt that we would return soon! And to top this experience, maybe Dominic and GC on their 1250GS will join us - which means after our eventful 2020/21 North East ride, the gang would be back on the road again; this time with their new steeds. How exciting!”

Me (back in reality): “Done! We are in!”

The siesta warped into a fiesta in my head, but then the ACTUAL reality hit me (in quick succession) - The 48k kms service was pending and Replacement of the almost dead rear tyre (I had mentioned this in my previous post).

TYRES
The previous owner had changed his set to Pirelli Rally STR at approx 37k km mark. The current odo was 49,200km. So roughly a life of 12k kms - not bad considering we rode all the way to Zanskar and back with luggage and pillion; 60% tarmac and 30% off-road terrain. Upon inspection, the front still had some life in it (probably 2-3k kms more) but the rear would have lasted for 1000-1500km max.

My Pre-Owned Honda Africa Twin Adventure Sports | Adv Reloaded | Cruising forward in time-reartyredead.jpg

Rest in peace.

Since the Kutch trip would entail around 2000km (2-way) of pure tarmac (not factoring the under construction MH-AHD highway), I decided to not risk it with the existing tyres and opted to go for a more road friendly one - Metzeler Karoo Street (the 2022 models used to come stock with this one).

“Why not the Michelin Anakee Adventure”, you ask?

Well, the ATAS comes in 21” front and 18” rear tyre profile. And adding the bizarre tyre import restrictions into the mix, the prices for the Anakee touch almost 48k INR. That makes the KS slightly budget friendly at around 35k. Anyway, called up my tyre vendor only to find out that the Indian customs have been sitting on a container full of Pirellis, Michelins and Metz for a month now and no indication as to when they plan to release it. And he himself had sold out all stocks barring a few rear sets - early 2024 Pirelli STR and Metzeler Karoo. Discussed my ride plans with him and sent him a video of my tyre conditions - he advised me to go with the STR since my front was also the same. Honestly, even I didn’t want to experiment with different brand/pattern tyres in the front and rear, so decided to go with the STRs at a discounted rate of 16k INR (and gave him a token amount for the front tyres whenever they arrived!). The tyres were delivered the same day to the Honda SVC. So that solved the tyre dilemma, phew!

SERVICE (Odometer: 49,200kms)
As with any ADVs sold in Indian markets, the Honda service interval is also “10,000km or 1 year (whichever is earliest)”. The SVC usually recommends a checkup and/or service (if needed) at 6,000kms/6 months because of our Indian conditions. But I followed, what I used to with my Triumph Tiger - just to keep things simple and easier to remember.

Now, from the service history it was established that the previous owner usually followed the ‘6K/6M’ schedule, so the last service was done in Feb 2024 with the odo reading 41k km. This got me thinking - "Should I go ahead with the Kutch trip and return when the ODO was around 51k OR should I just service it now and enjoy the refined post service performance during the ride?!

“Big bikes and Dilemmas are directly proportional!” - old ADV saying!

Anyway, didn’t need to overthink this one a lot - Honda mandates that the spark plugs be changed at 48K kms interval (I had delayed this due to 'Mumbai Monsoon' season) and also post my Zanskar ride, I wanted to change the air filter and 'cone-set bearing' as well. So all this kind of worked in my favour before this trip.

Note: Despite being a twin cylinder, the Africa Twin has 4 spark plugs (2 for each cylinder). And it has two air filters (one on each side of the tank). From current owners, I have heard that the OEM air filters don't get so dirty that they need to be changed in every service. The Tiger's air filter was a dirt magnet in this case. Moving ahead, Throttle body cleaning and valve clearance checks are also usually done - but in my case, it wasn’t needed.

My Pre-Owned Honda Africa Twin Adventure Sports | Adv Reloaded | Cruising forward in time-atassvc.jpg

Final checks being done before delivery!

My Pre-Owned Honda Africa Twin Adventure Sports | Adv Reloaded | Cruising forward in time-reartyrenew.jpg

Spanking new rear tyre!

Service breakup (In INR / rounded off)

Engine oil + oil filter: 3.8k
Spark Plugs (4 nos.): 9.3k
Air filter: 3.5k
Cone-set + dust seals: 1.5k
Misc (incl. rear tyre replacement): 700
Labour: 5k

Total service cost came upto 24k (including parts and labour; clearly the spark plugs taking up most of the cost). The labour is also on the higher side for this particular service because apart from stripping off the panels to access the air filter, most of the time goes into accessing the spark plugs. Anyway, no complaints and a great job done by the Mumbai service team. Got the front tyre and brakes inspected as well. Nothing out of the ordinary there.

It's ironic that for the pre-Diwali cleaning, instead of the house, I gave priority to the bike to be cleaned/serviced first

Well, what did I say about Big bikes and their quirks!

And just as I was riding back home from the SVC, I get a message from Pawan - “Sir, I think we may need to re-think our upcoming trip! Will tell you the scene once you reach home!”

Oh well, another twist in the tale I thought to myself. And with that another dilemma faced me - should I just ‘Moto GP’ my way home and get to know what the scene is? OR should I just calm my impatient head, soak in the Mumbai traffic experience and let the Universe chart our future course?!

I chose option #2: Found inner peace in peak traffic and aged 300 years as well!

(To be continued…soon…I promise!)

10th March 2025, 00:51	#46
TheVaas BHPian Join Date: Dec 2019 Location: Mumbai Posts: 171 Thanked: 597 Times	Re: My Pre-Owned Honda Africa Twin Adventure Sports \| Adv Reloaded \| Cruising forward in time October 2024: Prep before a ride or Ride before the prep? (Note: A bit of personal commitments kept me away from posting real-time updates. But rest assured, the bike hasn’t been under the covers, but ridden from October ’24 till about two nights ago! So keeping in check with the time-travel pattern of this thread, let's head 'back to the future!’ Read on.) The month of October was relatively ride-free - barring the odd occasional breakfast and/or late night rides to Marine Drive (Suburbs to Town and back). I had gone on a family trip to Vrindavan & Mathura (via Rajdhani Express) - being the only travel in this month. Not that travel is mandatory every month but that’s what everyone expects from an “ADV Bike” owner! Had gone for a breakfast ride with 3 other twin owners to *Jimmy Boy* in town. The line-up includes 3 ATAS MT and one 2018 AT DCT. Sharing a few brilliant clicks by fellow ATAS Tribesman & team bhpian, SG_pegasus - Boys, Motorcycles and animated discussions which lead to nowhere! Paying our tribute to the majestic Taj Mahal Palace hotel. All 4 japs bowing in respect! Against the backdrop of the mighty Gateway of India. Diwali was fast approaching (first week of November) and probably some trip manifestation was lurking around in the corner. And voila! One lazy October afternoon, Pawan sent me a whatsapp message, just as I was just about to settle in for my afternoon siesta! He wanted to check whether we were free during the first week of November - *Me : “What’s the plan?”* *P: “I’m planning a quick two day trip to my ancestral village in Kutch. Thought if you two are free, we could do it together?”* Cue dream sequence music and a black and white visual flashback in my head - “In 2021, during our Tiger days - we had done a 14 day Kutch + Coastal Gujarat trip! And it was one of the best trips ever with the roads and sights of Kutch being the highlight. We had also visited his ancestral village of Vaanki and somehow it always felt that we would return soon! And to top this experience, maybe Dominic and GC on their 1250GS will join us - which means after our eventful 2020/21 North East ride, the gang would be back on the road again; this time with their new steeds. How exciting!” *Me (back in reality): “Done! We are in!”* The siesta warped into a fiesta in my head, but then the ACTUAL reality hit me (in quick succession) - The 48k kms service was pending and Replacement of the almost dead rear tyre (I had mentioned this in my previous post). TYRES The previous owner had changed his set to Pirelli Rally STR at approx 37k km mark. The current odo was 49,200km. So roughly a life of 12k kms - not bad considering we rode all the way to Zanskar and back with luggage and pillion; 60% tarmac and 30% off-road terrain. Upon inspection, the front still had some life in it (probably 2-3k kms more) but the rear would have lasted for 1000-1500km max. Rest in peace. Since the Kutch trip would entail around 2000km (2-way) of pure tarmac (not factoring the under construction MH-AHD highway), I decided to not risk it with the existing tyres and opted to go for a more road friendly one - Metzeler Karoo Street (the 2022 models used to come stock with this one). *“Why not the Michelin Anakee Adventure”, you ask?* Well, the ATAS comes in 21” front and 18” rear tyre profile. And adding the bizarre tyre import restrictions into the mix, the prices for the Anakee touch almost 48k INR. That makes the KS slightly budget friendly at around 35k. Anyway, called up my tyre vendor only to find out that the Indian customs have been sitting on a container full of Pirellis, Michelins and Metz for a month now and no indication as to when they plan to release it. And he himself had sold out all stocks barring a few rear sets - early 2024 Pirelli STR and Metzeler Karoo. Discussed my ride plans with him and sent him a video of my tyre conditions - he advised me to go with the STR since my front was also the same. Honestly, even I didn’t want to experiment with different brand/pattern tyres in the front and rear, so decided to go with the STRs at a discounted rate of 16k INR (and gave him a token amount for the front tyres whenever they arrived!). The tyres were delivered the same day to the Honda SVC. So that solved the tyre dilemma, phew! SERVICE (Odometer: 49,200kms) As with any ADVs sold in Indian markets, the Honda service interval is also “10,000km or 1 year (whichever is earliest)”. The SVC usually recommends a checkup and/or service (if needed) at 6,000kms/6 months because of our Indian conditions. But I followed, what I used to with my Triumph Tiger - just to keep things simple and easier to remember. Now, from the service history it was established that the previous owner usually followed the ‘6K/6M’ schedule, so the last service was done in Feb 2024 with the odo reading 41k km. This got me thinking - "Should I go ahead with the Kutch trip and return when the ODO was around 51k OR should I just service it now and enjoy the refined post service performance during the ride?! *“Big bikes and Dilemmas are directly proportional!” - old ADV saying!* Anyway, didn’t need to overthink this one a lot - Honda mandates that the spark plugs be changed at 48K kms interval (I had delayed this due to 'Mumbai Monsoon' season) and also post my Zanskar ride, I wanted to change the air filter and 'cone-set bearing' as well. So all this kind of worked in my favour before this trip. Note: Despite being a twin cylinder, the Africa Twin has 4 spark plugs (2 for each cylinder). And it has two air filters (one on each side of the tank). From current owners, I have heard that the OEM air filters don't get so dirty that they need to be changed in every service. The Tiger's air filter was a dirt magnet in this case. Moving ahead, Throttle body cleaning and valve clearance checks are also usually done - but in my case, it wasn’t needed. Final checks being done before delivery! Spanking new rear tyre! Service breakup (In INR / rounded off) Engine oil + oil filter: 3.8k Spark Plugs (4 nos.): 9.3k Air filter: 3.5k Cone-set + dust seals: 1.5k Misc (incl. rear tyre replacement): 700 Labour: 5k Total service cost came upto 24k (including parts and labour; clearly the spark plugs taking up most of the cost). The labour is also on the higher side for this particular service because apart from stripping off the panels to access the air filter, most of the time goes into accessing the spark plugs. Anyway, no complaints and a great job done by the Mumbai service team. Got the front tyre and brakes inspected as well. Nothing out of the ordinary there. It's ironic that for the pre-Diwali cleaning, instead of the house, I gave priority to the bike to be cleaned/serviced first Well, what did I say about Big bikes and their quirks! And just as I was riding back home from the SVC, I get a message from Pawan - “Sir, I think we may need to re-think our upcoming trip! Will tell you the scene once you reach home!” Oh well, another twist in the tale I thought to myself. And with that another dilemma faced me - should I just ‘Moto GP’ my way home and get to know what the scene is? OR should I just calm my impatient head, soak in the Mumbai traffic experience and let the Universe chart our future course?! I chose option #2: Found inner peace in peak traffic and aged 300 years as well! (To be continued…soon…I promise!)
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