Re: The Honda Africa twin 1000 , warts and all.
Posted: Fri Aug 12, 2016 3:40 pm
(((One of the chaps on my Alaska trip brought an Africa Twin and it was one of the first to be seen over here.
He did the Dalton and Dempster Highways, Dawson Dawn to Dust run then a small matter of 7000 miles back to California with us. A real test of the bike with roads from perfect tarmac to deep gravel to slimey mud. Weather from +40c to zero and heavy rain. Not like those press tests which are short or the expert view of a tosser sitting behind a keyboard who looked at it at the bike show.
I have to say as an all round bike it takes some beating and ran with the herd of GS's no problem whatsoever and was better in the gravel and dirt. Mikes bike is a DCT with a few nice farkles and Stahlkoffer panniers.
All in all, the bike cruised along easily on the big roads, handled well loaded on some great twisty tarmac and coped with the dirt better than the GS's. The only thing Mike wasn't keen on was the slow speed handling with the DCT as you can't feather the clutch, the hand brake is next to useless and the fuel consumption could be high when running with the GS's. I trundle along at around 65 over here and the GS is bang on it's best economy whereas the AT seemed to use probably 2/3 litres more for around 200 miles range. Bimbling round the smaller roads at lower speeds had the opposite effect and the AT sipped fuel.
Not sure of his mileage but he had a 6000 in Anchorage which was straighforward even though they had never seen one before. It must be around 13,000 now and has held up very well.
Given most people only go to Tesco's then bitch about things this would seem to be a proper test of the bike and it's help up really well. Mike certainly raved about it.
I think everyone on teh trip liked it but the real comparison is with an F800 or Tiger 800 as it's the same size. The 1200GS's are a different beast all together in my opinion. I was never a fan of the old AT and never really got why everyone raved about an overweight, underpowered pig of a bike but I have to say I was pretty impressed with this latest incarnation and think it's a great bike for long haul solo riding.)))
I was on 4 weeks of this trip which was run by unchained tours (Sgt Bilco from Ukgser ) whose comments I have quoted above and have tripped with the gent in question who owns and rides the said Africa twin on several occasions ( long haul) he has done a terra circa of the planet previously on a GS 800 ,,and has also done the TAT so he is in an excellent position to make objective judgement on this new Africa twin (thumbs) (thumbs)
He did the Dalton and Dempster Highways, Dawson Dawn to Dust run then a small matter of 7000 miles back to California with us. A real test of the bike with roads from perfect tarmac to deep gravel to slimey mud. Weather from +40c to zero and heavy rain. Not like those press tests which are short or the expert view of a tosser sitting behind a keyboard who looked at it at the bike show.
I have to say as an all round bike it takes some beating and ran with the herd of GS's no problem whatsoever and was better in the gravel and dirt. Mikes bike is a DCT with a few nice farkles and Stahlkoffer panniers.
All in all, the bike cruised along easily on the big roads, handled well loaded on some great twisty tarmac and coped with the dirt better than the GS's. The only thing Mike wasn't keen on was the slow speed handling with the DCT as you can't feather the clutch, the hand brake is next to useless and the fuel consumption could be high when running with the GS's. I trundle along at around 65 over here and the GS is bang on it's best economy whereas the AT seemed to use probably 2/3 litres more for around 200 miles range. Bimbling round the smaller roads at lower speeds had the opposite effect and the AT sipped fuel.
Not sure of his mileage but he had a 6000 in Anchorage which was straighforward even though they had never seen one before. It must be around 13,000 now and has held up very well.
Given most people only go to Tesco's then bitch about things this would seem to be a proper test of the bike and it's help up really well. Mike certainly raved about it.
I think everyone on teh trip liked it but the real comparison is with an F800 or Tiger 800 as it's the same size. The 1200GS's are a different beast all together in my opinion. I was never a fan of the old AT and never really got why everyone raved about an overweight, underpowered pig of a bike but I have to say I was pretty impressed with this latest incarnation and think it's a great bike for long haul solo riding.)))
I was on 4 weeks of this trip which was run by unchained tours (Sgt Bilco from Ukgser ) whose comments I have quoted above and have tripped with the gent in question who owns and rides the said Africa twin on several occasions ( long haul) he has done a terra circa of the planet previously on a GS 800 ,,and has also done the TAT so he is in an excellent position to make objective judgement on this new Africa twin (thumbs) (thumbs)
