The Honda Africa Twin gets a sibling for the 2018 model year, as the Honda Africa Twin Adventure Sports debuted today at Honda’s pre-EICMA launch event.
As expected the Africa Twin Adventure Sports is a more off-road focused version of the Honda Africa Twin, and comes with a robust set of features that make it easier to go globetrotting on the plucky adventure-tourer from Honda.
Like on the now revised 2018 Honda Africa Twin, the Adventure Sports version comes with improvements over the original Africa Twin design.
This includes new foot rests, a new instrument panel, ride-by-wire throttle control with three throttle maps, seven levels of Honda’s traction control system, a new exhaust design, and a lithium-ion battery.
Internally there are some changes as well, like a modified airbox, which improves the mid-range response, as does a lighter balancer shaft.
Looking at the differences between the two machines though, at the heart of the Honda Africa Twin Adventure Sports though is a new larger fuel tank, to the tune of 24 liters (6.3 gallons), as well as taller suspension (10.6″ of ground clearance).
Both of these changes are key in making this new Africa Twin travel far, and travel fast, across uncertain terrain.
As you might have noticed, the Honda Africa Twin Adventure Sports doesn’t stray too far from the concept of the same name that we saw at last year’s EICMA show, which is probably a good thing, considering how well-received that prototype was with the Italian crowd and online media.
Accordingly, the details of the Africa Twin Adventure Sports includes a bevy of crash protection pieces, like a full crash cage around the adventure-tourer’s body, as well as a robust skid plate. The bodywork has also been changed.
The seat is now flatter. the windscreen is taller; and heated grips are fitted as standard.
An optional item, the dual-clutch transmission (DCT) has also been improved for the Africa Twin lineup. Conversely, the parallel-twin engine makes 94hp, and 73 lbs•ft of torque. The Honda Africa Twin Adventure Sports tips the scales at 536 lbs at the curb.
For Honda, the Africa Twin Adventure Sports adds to the lineup what many manufacturers are doing with the ADV offerings, so the model debut makes a lot of apples-to-apples sense, when compared to the other OEMs.
Given the Africa Twin’s strong price point against the competition, we’re pretty sure that Big Red just put the BMW R1200GS Adventure and KTM 1290 Adventure R on notice, and that’s a good thing for motorcycle enthusiasts.
As Honda’s founder Soichiro Honda was fond of saying, competition improves the breed.
The 2018 Honda CRF1000L Africa Twin Adventure Sports will be available in one 30th anniversary Tricolore paint scheme to celebrate the XRV650’s launch in 1988. There’s no word yet on US availability, but we would be surprised if the largest ADV market didn’t see this machine make an entrance.
Source: Honda
As always, Asphalt & Rubber will be covering all the new bikes debuting at EICMA this year. Be sure to follow our coverage for the most recent news and photos.
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