Honda Africa Twin just the thing to conquer the continent

When it comes to heritage, few motorbikes can rival the storied past of the Honda CRF1100 Africa Twin.

Originally developed as a modern interpretation of the mighty 650cc and 750cc machines that won the Dakar Rally four times in the late 1980s, the Africa Twin is a road-focussed adventure touring bike. Its sits above the XL750 Transalp in the Honda stable and competes with the likes of the BMW R1300 GS and KTM 1290 Super Adventure.

Honda Africa Twin has plenty of power

We recently sampled the Honda CRF1100 Africa Twin in Adventure Sports guise which starts at R314 999. At an R44 000 premium over the standard Africa Twin, the Adventure Sports features a six-litre bigger 24.8-litre fuel tank, higher windscreen and the option of serious suspension enhancements.

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At the heart of this 238kg machine is a peach of a 1 084cc twin parallel petrol engine 75kW of power at 7 500rpm and 105Nm at 6 250rpm to the rear wheels via chain drive. It comes standard with a six-speed manual, but our tester featured the optional six-speed dual-clutch transmission.

As great as an automatic bike sounds, it takes a bit of getting used to. Especially when you reach for the clutch only too realised that lever is now a handbrake. Enter embarrassed emoji, followed by block of butter emoji to compliment the smoothness of the box.

Smooth suspension

Standard suspension consists of a 45mm cartridge-type inverted front fork and rear monoblock aluminium swing arm with Showa gas-charged damper, allowing for respective wheel travel of 130mm and 220mm. The Citizen Motoring‘s Honda Africa Twin was fitted with the optional Electronically Equipped Ride Adjustment from Showa which is electrically adjusted via the 6.5-inch TFT display. It offers Soft, Hard. Mid and Off-road settings.

The Africa Twin Adventure Sports rides on golden wire-spoked aluminium rims, 21-inch in the front and 18-inch at the rear.

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Stopping power is provided by dual 310mm floating hydraulic discs in front featuring four-piston callipers and 256mm disc with single-piston calliper at the rear. The standard ABS system can be electronically adjusted to road and off-road settings.

The seat features a slimmer section, making it 50mm than before to offer a minimum height of 825mm.

Long-range travel

The Honda Africa Twin CRF1100 Adventure Sports comes standard with daytime running lights, Bluetooth audio and Apple CarPlay, USB socket, auto turn signal cancel, cruise control, emergency stop signal and wheelie control.

While we spend most of our week cruising around the outskirts of Gauteng on tarred roads, it hardly broke a sweat during a quick venture over gravel. We enjoyed it so much that our fuel consumption of 6.2L/100km was a bit higher than the claimed 4.8L/100km, but it should still get you close to 400km in one go.

What we enjoyed most about this bike was its ease of handling albeit being a large adventure bike. Its excellent balance, smooth suspension, great handling, smooth box, torquey mill and big tank makes it ready to conquer the continent. Or if you are short on time, even just the road to the office.