Review, 2016 HONDA AFRICA TWIN – QUICK TAKE FIRST RIDE

2016 HONDA AFRICA TWIN – QUICK TAKE FIRST RIDE

Among my adventure touring friends, the most highly anticipated model to be released in a few years is the 2016 Honda Africa Twin. So when these hardcore riders learned I was going to the press introduction, my phone started to ring off the hook, people asking for the “real scoop,” as if there was some other version I would share!
I was very curious myself—the bike looks great on the spec sheet, striking a balance between practicality and fun on the street, and capability and adventure on the dirt. What I wondered was if the spirit of a Dakar-racing pedigree would be squeezed out and the attractive spec sheet (18/21-inch wheels, good ground clearance, nicely spec’d suspension) would be sanitized to a fault.
After a day on the bike, 80 percent pavement and 20 percent smooth dirt, I am happy to report the bike has its soul intact. It is competent, and it is also fun. The motor is linear and enjoyable, the suspension is well-balanced out of the box, and I can immediately imagine going places on this bike, feeling like I had an excellent companion.

There are still some questions to be answered—I haven’t ridden it in technical dirt yet, and to live up to the billing it will need to have some chops there. Furthermore, it represents a different philosophy to the adventure market than any existing model, with less motor than the other big twins but similar weight, and that raises the question of whether more is necessarily better. At one point, my answer would have been yes, but now that we have adventure bikes with more horsepower than won Daytona a few short years ago, is it possible we have hit a natural boundary and gone beyond? Maybe less is the new more?