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Wherefore art thou, Honda Africa Twin? For years now we have been lamenting Honda's inclusion of a true middleweight ADV offering in its lineup, to go up against bikes like the BMW F850GS, and newcomers like the Aprilia Tuareg 660 and Yamaha Ténéré 700. Today, that wish has been answered.

On paper, the Honda Transalp fits the bill, though I reserve some judgment until I see US pricing and availability.

My only serious gripe with the spec sheet is the bare-bones suspension pieces, but a cut-throat price tag could help me swallow that pill (along with some nice drop-in cartridges in the aftermarket).

Instead, most of my thoughts on the Transalp actually concern the Africa Twin.

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After much expectation and waiting, the Honda Transalp returns to Big Red’s lineup. Officially dubbed the 2023 Honda XL750 Transalp, the bike shares its 755cc parallel-twin engine with the new Honda CB750 Hornet.

This means power comes in at 90hp (67.5 kW), with torque at 56 lbs•ft (75 Nm). That should be plenty to appease those shopping in the middleweight ADV segment, and the 458 lbs (208 kg) wet weight means that the Honda Transalp competes nicely against even the latest crop of machines in this category.

In addition to leaking us a plethora of photos and details about the Bimota BX450 enduro model (the first dirt bike from the Italian brand), our Bothan spies tell us to expect another debut at EICMA from this iconic motorcycle brand.

As such, we are getting indications that the third pillar to Bimota’s on-road lineup will be more of an adventure-sport machine, and use the supercharged inline-four engine found on the Bimota Tesi H2.

With semi-active suspension, a variable ride height, and probably more horsepower than you can shake a stick at, the Bimota Tera has the ingredients to be the King Kong of the ADV space.

The Ducati Multistrada V4 family got a little bigger today, with the Italian brand offering the Ducati Multistrada V4 Rally for the 2023 model year.

The bike is aimed at the niche carved out by bikes like the BMW R1250GS Adventure, where long-distance travel (over questionable terrain) is the name of the game. 

To aid in that goal, Ducati has added several key features that set the Multistrada V4 Rally apart from the rest of the Bologna brand’s lineup.

The Ducati DesertX is an important model for the Italian brand, as it marks the first modern 21″ dual-sport from the brand, and Borgo Panigale’s entry into the middleweight ADV space.

The DesertX has come a long way since its 2019 concept debut, where it first came from the Scrambler subrand and with an air-cooled DesmoDue engine.

Now water-cooled (using the 937cc Testastretta 11° engine) and under the main Ducati marque, the Ducati DesertX is finally getting into the hands of the motorcycling press, which means we have no shortage of high-resolution photos to share with you.

The debut of the Harley-Davidson Pan America 1250 was the headline event from 2021 - with the Bar & Shield brand offering its first motorcycle that truly deviated from the company's cruiser lineup.

An integral part of Harley-Davidson's "Hardwire" plan to restructure the company for the future, the Pan America 1250 is a conquest bike for the American bike-maker, with an eye on scooping up some sales from rival European brands.

Was it a success? That depends on whom you ask. American publications certainly seemed to think so, with the Pan America 1250 taking top honors in several of their shootouts last year. Meanwhile, the European press was less-enthused.

We will let you decide if home-team bias, on both sides of the pond, are at play there. For our money, we'd put the Ducati Multistrada V4 S in our garage before the Harley-Davidson Pan America 1250, but reasonable minds can easily disagree on this thought.

Shootouts don't balance the account's books however, and for the bean-counters, the true measure of a motorcycle's success is on the showroom floor.

To that end, Harley-Davidson sold just over 2,500 units of its Pan America lineup in the USA last year, according to our Bothan spies.

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The Yamaha Ténéré 700 Raid prototype was one of the (few) darling releases from the 2021 EICMA show in Milan, and the up-spec middleweight adventure bike brought more questions than it did answers.

Was Yamaha teasing a new higher price ADV machine for its future lineup? Was it trying to drum up business for its GYTR aftermarket parts catalog? Maybe a combination of the two? It’s hard to say.

So, it is curious that today we see that the Yamaha Ténéré 700 Raid machine getting spotted in European patent documents, by our colleagues at Cycle World. And once again, that creates more questions than it does answers.

Fans of small-displacement ADV bikes will rejoice to hear that the KTM 390 Adventure is getting some updates for the 2022 model year.

Looking skin-deep, we can see that the 2022 KTM 390 Adventure get a bodywork revision for the new model year, which includes some new graphics and color choices.

However, it is the changes beyond the outer layer that are perhaps the most intriguing, as the Austrian brand has brought some key upgrades and refinements to its base ADV offering.

The Italians left the best for last on their six-part motorcycle teaser campaign for the 2022 model year, as today we finally get to see all the details about the Ducati DesertX adventure bike.

In a way, we already knew the important bits about the DesertX, having seen the concept bike at the 2019 EIMCA show.

The idea has involved since that Milan unveiling, however, with the air-cooled motor it showed with in Milan now being replaced by Ducati’s venerable water-cooled 937cc Testastretta 11° engine.