Africa Twin price listed

My opinion is way out of date, as I haven't rode in Africa since 1972. BUT, if ever I've seen a bike that is not appropriate for the Africa I knew, this is it! The roads I knew in Botswana were mostly comprised of deep, soft sand that had been ploughed into long surface ridges by passing lorries (trucks). To safely negotiate these roads you needed really rough "knobby" tires that would grip the sides of the ridges and climb them. Gasoline was hard to find, so you needed lots of range, which is incompatible with nearly one whole litre of displacement, which is also a ridiculous amount of power on sandy roads. And traction control is not needed at all with much less power. Then there's the obviously top-heavy weight. Lots of Africa grows a nasty thorny vine that hides low to the ground and will puncture your tires. I could fix a tire on my Honda 175 in the bush with my bare hands, a tube patch, and a hand pump. I got lots of practice doing this, without removing the wheel. So they got the need for tubes right on this bike, but can you get at them without machinery? Heavier bikes generally have stiffer tire sidewalls, making squeezing them in by hand for a repair quite difficult. All that weight means that in too many places you can't use a side or center-stand to work on the bike, you have to lay it down, and then pick it back up!

Of course, as a "tough-guy image enhancer" it looks great! Just don't think it would be good for touring in Africa.
 
Technically what you are saying is probably correct but I don't think anyone seriously thinks the current motorcycles carrying the Africa Twin name means that you can ride it in Africa. The Africa Twin name came from the original NXR-750 that Honda won the Paris-Dakar rally with four times in the 80's. This commercial version just plays off those victories. Kind of like Triumph using the Bonneville and Daytona name for some of their motorcycles.
 
Well, maybe not. Wait and see if Honda sponsors one or more of these in the next Dakar. Probably would do just as well as the big Beemers and KTM's. It looks like it is targeted directly at the big KTM market.
 
Bringing the African Twin is one way to get more people in the show rooms, which is the game. For sure the NT did not bring many in, and I not sure the CTX are doing that. With the dual sport becoming the 'thing' Honda needed a player in that group. Goldwing market is set, the variations of the engine were to get riders thinking Honda for a bagger. The object is to get the younger segment into riding a variety of machines. I hope the AT is a draw, and bring a lot of young riders streaming into the dealer.
 
CTX sucks... CB500x on the other hand is a runaway hit - terrific value for money and can be transformed into anything from semi-serious off pavement to a lovely light touring bike.
It is just plain fun to ride and superb value.

Honda needed something to counter the liter adventure bikes....the Africa Twin weight is pretty decent and DCT on an off pavement is "interesting".

Better they had gone into the intermediate zone with less weight.

I'm glad they finally woke up and reintroduced the VFR800 after stupidly dropping one of the best sport tourers ever.
 
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