Tag

dirt

Browsing

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.

To continue reading this story, you need to have an A&R Pro subscriber account. If you have an A&R Pro account, you can login here.

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.

Another EICMA show is on the horizon in Italy, so that means no sleep for the wicked and our Bothan spies, as they scour the corners of Milan for information about next year’s bikes – ahead of their official release.

Already it seems that Bimota is going to be the talk of the show, as the boutique Italian brand is making a foray into the off-road world, first with a limited-series Kawasaki-powered enduro.

Dubbed the Bimota BX450, this enduro model is an intriguing offering. The power plant comes from the 2023 Kawasaki KX450X “cross-country” dirt bike, and we can see that much of the chassis comes from the green machine as well.

That makes sense considering Kawasaki’s sizable investment in Bimota, and the obvious ability to tune an already stout package. Bimota takes the trail bike and adds a proper headlight, tail light, and larger fuel tank to the offering.

Looking beyond the surface, we understand that Bimota has also added a robust electronics package to the green machine, offering an adjustable traction control setup and selectable throttle maps.

A fatter 140/80 profile 18″ rear tire is another change, and it is mated to 80/100 profile 21″ front tire – both featuring Metzeler 6 Days Extreme rubber.

For more details, we will have to wait for Bimota’s official unveiling at the 2022 EICMA Show, but if our report of a possible ADV model is true, then it is an exciting day to see the Bimota brand getting its feet dirty.

Source: Bothan Spies – More photos and analysis available below to our A&R Pro readers.

Supermotos have a special place in our Asphalt & Rubber loving hearts, so we celebrate every new model release we can, and today sees us looking at the 2023 Husqvarna FS 450 – the pointy end of production supermotos.

The Swedish brand claims that the 2023 is “all new” for the coming model year, though a careful look at the previous year’s machine shows that things are a close evolution of before.

That being said, the 2023 Husqvarna FS 450 does feature a new hydro-formed frame, as well as a new 450cc single-cylinder engine, and promises to be a class-leader on performance.

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.

It was four years ago when we first saw Yamaha’s electric trials motorcycle, and the Yamaha TY-E was certainly an interesting entry into the space. That statement only becomes truer with version 2.0.

A such, the Yamaha TY-E 2.0 just officially debuted at the 49th Tokyo Motorcycle Show, and our initial wave of information shows a refined bike in Yamaha’s lineup.

American Honda is bringing an electric dirt bike to market for kids, but it is not quite what you think. The CRF-E2 is actually designed and built by Greenger Powersports, which is in turn licensing the “CRF” designation from American Honda.

Despite the bike not coming from the Japanese factory, the CRF-E2 (note the lack of a “Honda” name in that title) will be sold through Honda’s dealerships in the United States.

With 3.4hp (2.5 kW) of peak power, a two-hour ride time, and a 2.5-hour charge time with the optional quick charger, the CRF-E2 is aimed at young new riders as an entry point into dirt riding. The MSRP is set at $2,950 in the USA.

Finishing in 4th place, it turns out that Yamaha’s end to the 2022 Dakar Rally was disappointing in more than one way, as the Japanese brand has made it clear that this year’s edition of the iconic off-road race will be its last as a factory two-wheeled effort.

Announcing that it will cease its Dakar Rally and other rally-raid motorcycle racing programs in the FIM Cross-Country Rallies World Championship, Yamaha is effectively ending a 40-year involvement of racing motorcycles in the Dakar Rally.

Mugen is set to go racing with its electric dirt bike in the new FIM E-Xplorer World Cup series.

Racing under the M-TEC name in the new series, Mugen is perhaps an electric racing outfit that we had almost forgotten about, as the Japanese tuning house hasn’t been on the track with its Shinden electric superbike since 2019, when the Isle of Man TT canceled its electric race.

While the various iterations of the Mugen Shinden electric superbike have captured the headlines with their non-stop race wins at the TT, it was the company’s intriguing dirt bike concept that stunned on its debut.