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For the 2022 model year, the Honda Africa Twin 1100 family isn’t getting too many updates, save for one that might turn a few heads – Honda is updating the settings on its dual-clutch transmission.

According to Honda’s release, both the Africa Twin and Africa Twin Adventure Sport with the DCT will see “refined” settings on the ECU, which Big Red says will bring smoother handling in the first two gears when starting and at low speeds.

When Honda brought us the Rebel 300 and Rebel 500 four years ago, I called the small-displacement cruisers the most important motorcycles to debut for the 2018 model year. Now, Honda is adding a third model to the family: the 2021 Honda Rebel 1100

Debuting last November, the Rebel 1100 was Honda’s big new model for the 2021 model year , and the bike is basically the amalgamation of the Rebel cruiser line, with the familiar parallel-twin engine found in the Honda Africa Twin 1100 adventure bike.

This new metric cruiser is arriving in Honda dealers as we speak, but the American Honda team invited us to Murrieta, California to ride the Rebel 1100, to see if this interesting, if not odd, motorcycle was more than the sum of its parts.

Our ride saw us burn close to 200 miles, with a mix of tight canyon roads, rolling sweepers, and some urban commuting – the typical duty a bike like the Rebel 1100 would see in the real world.

Big Red will admit that the Honda Rebel 1100 is not a cruiser for everyone that rides in this segment, but the bike brings a unique appeal to a large market, and it does so with a certain flair that has been absent from this space. Let me explain.

Close your eyes, and imagine you have a Honda Africa Twin. Now, strip away everything about the bike that makes it one of the most potent adventure-touring models on the market, and start adding back the design elements found in the metric cruiser thing. Open your eyes.

What you just built in your head is the 2021 Honda Rebel 1100, and as you might be able to decipher from its name, the Rebel-styled full-sized cruiser features a parallel-twin engine that shares more than a few chromosomes with the 1,084cc motor found in the CRF1000L.

That might seem like a weird way to build a cruiser, but there is at least a little genius in Honda’s madness.

We just finished riding the 2018 Honda Gold Wing Tour in Austin, Texas – a day early I might add…because it’s snowing…in Texas. Still, clocking close to 200 miles on Honda’s sixth generation of this venerable touring machine has provided us with some interesting insights into the next Wing.

A bike designed for long-distance riding, we have gathered our thoughts on the new Honda Gold Wing Tour, in a short and sweet format, so you can sound informed at your next bike night or internet forum.

Overall, the all-new Honda Gold Wing Tour is a smart update to an iconic motorcycle, and it brings the Gold Wing name inline with the current state of technology.

As we found on the road, the new Gold Wing is an improvement over its predecessor, but that comes with a caveat or two. There might be some deal-breakers here for modern touring riders, as Honda shifts its focus to “younger” riders. Let me explain.

Hello from Texas Hill Country, just outside of Austin, Texas. In addition to soaking up some of that prairie life, I am out here to ride the 2018 Honda Gold Wing.

For this model year, the iconic touring bike gets an all-new design, making it the sixth generation of the Honda Gold Wing, which has a focus on being more compact, refined, and built for today’s modern touring rider.

As such, roughly 90 lbs of fat have been trimmed off the ol’ Wing, thanks largely to a more compact engine design and what Honda calls a “double wishbone” front end (you might call it a Hossack suspension design). 

In total, there are five variations of the new Gold Wing. The Honda Gold Wing Tour is the design you will most likely recognize, as it comes with integrated trunk and passenger chair, it in turn has three flavors: standard, DCT (dual-clutch transmission), and the airbag model returns to the lineup as well.

Replacing the Honda Gold Wing F6B is what Big Red simply calls the Honda Gold Wing. It has a more bagger look, with the trunk/passenger chair removed. It comes in two flavors, standard and DCT.

A hallmark technology for Honda now, this is the third generation of Honda’s dual-clutch transmission, which has considerable refinements over the previous generation, especially in its Gold Wing application, and features seven speeds for optimal cruising.

With snow and ice expected in Texas this week, our ride plans have changed a bit, but we still should be able to give the new Gold Wing a couple hundred miles of testing, riding through the hill country, outside of Austin.

For bonus fun, Honda has brought some of its 2017 models as well, so we should be able to give a good comparison between the two generations of this incredibly popular motorcycle (roughly 800,000 of them have been sold worldwide, and most of those were in the USA).

Per our new review format, we will be giving you a live assessment of the new Honda Gold Wing models right here in this article (down in the comments section), and there we will try to answer any questions you might have.

So, here is your chance to learn what it’s like to ride the Honda Gold Wing, before even my own proper reviews are posted. As always, if I don’t know an answer, I will try to get a response from the Honda personnel. So, pepper away.

You can follow our thoughts on the bike live via FacebookTwitter, and Instagram, and you can see what our colleagues are posting on social media by looking for the hashtag #2018Goldwing.

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. 

Enthusiasts of the Honda Gold Wing motorcycle have waited a long time for this day, and now it is finally here, as Honda has finally brought a new Gold Wing to market – the sixth generation of this iconic motorcycle.

The 2018 model comes in two flavors, a bagger version which Big Red is calling the Honda Gold Wing, and a touring version, which is aptly named the Honda Gold Wing Tour.

Both of the 2018 models are all-new motorcycle designs, with virtually no part of the machines being shared with the previous generation bike, and both built around a brand new six-cylinder engine.

Focused around a more compact design, the 2018 Honda Gold Wing is staggeringly lighter than before, with roughly 90 lbs of bulk removed from its mass.

American Honda has released pricing details on the 2016 Honda Africa Twin today, an eagerly awaited nugget of information for many adventure-touring riders who are interested in the CRF1000L.

We won’t waste your time with hyperbole, if you want a Honda Africa Twin, you’ll need $12,999. If the dual-clutch transmission model is your cup of ADV, then you’ll need some extra coin, as its MSRP is $13,699.

After leaking twice yesterday, Honda has officially dropped details and photos on its highly anticipated adventure-tourer, the 2016 Honda Africa Twin. A continuation of the legacy by the same name, the new Honda Africa Twin is an off-road focused machine that will go head-to-head with the big ADV bikes already on the market.

Built around a 998cc parallel-twin engine, which makes 94hp and 72 lbs•ft of torque, the Africa Twin tips the scales at the curb at 503 lbs (standard model, first photos after the jump) / 534 lbs (DCT/ABS models, shown above).

Spec-sheet off-road racers are likely not going to be happy with these numbers, though they measure well against the KTM 1190 Adventure R and BMW R1200GS Adventure.

What we think ADV riders will come around to is Honda’s off-road built dual-clutch transmission, which will have the benefit of making shifts while out of the saddle much easier, and giving clutch-free operation, much like a Rekluse clutch.