Africa twin

[johnnyboxer]

Don't need to with years of experience & keen perception....oh and she looks right.

I'm surprised you could see it-from where you head is......

:laugh:

:whistle:

[Spout]

But in reality the majority are never going to see a dirt road let alone a knarley muddy single track.

But how many pure road riders will buy a bike with 21/18 wheels and tubed tyres?

I think that nearly all ATs will hit the dirt on a regular basis.

And those that buy them purely for road use will soon be selling them on, creating bargains for those prepared to wait.

[NewToThisGary]

showing my ignorance here but i cant understand why there is so much love for this 240kg bike

I'm sure as a road going adventure styled touring bike its great with the DCT and forest trails/big bike land it would be great but as a serious off roader it can't live up to the huge marketing hype.

I ride an auto car and love it, on a street bike auto makes a lot of sense but the clutch is my friend off road. Love the styling though it is a beautiful motorcycle and i wish those that buy one many happy adventures.

[Scott_rider]

I think a lot of the interest in the Africa Twin is nostalgia for the iconic name. A rider, at the time, could buy a bike out of the showroom that looked like a Paris Dakar winner. Of course, in reality it was just a big reliable trailie. Since then times have moved on and I agree that 240kg is alot of weight for serious off-roading and there are better pure-road based adventure bikes out there, I would have thought? However, I do like the look of it (thumbs)

[AndyB]

To be honest, apart from DCT and styling I don't see anything here that's different to an 800GS. For example, the big BMW is a boxer twin, KTM have V twins, Triumph has the tripple. Typical Japanese clone.

So in the end it's a no from me

She ain't no clone she's unique & drawn from years of experience with a better dirt riding & reliabillity pedigree. (thumbs)

Are you sure, have you ridden one?

Time will tell, but the proof is in the eating and guessing wildly is just pure speculation :whistle:

Don't need to with years of experience & keen perception....oh and she looks right.
I'd buy one without even swinging my legg over it.
I was refering to Honda's historic pedigree & I think that just about outclasses the rest (thumbs)

Fortunately DCT has been around a while now or it's Hondas historic pedigree that would prevent me from buying one.

[Mike54]

Everything else aside, I can't understand the rose tinted glasses approach some have to this bike, and to Honda. It's 2015, shortly to be 2016. Any kind of offroad big bike "pedigree" they had ended when they stopped making the last AT, and on that subject, let's take off the pink specs for that too for a moment? Voltage regulators which failed like clockwork and buggered up CDI units and batteries was one of the bigger issues.

Ironically, (and it is genuine irony, I was categorically not looking for this specifically) a quick google of "Africa Twin failed voltage" pulls up a post on the very first page - a post from the forums own Africa Jim in August 2006 which mentions just that issue:

"The R/R does heat up, hence the cooling fins in the design? This has been a common failure on Hondas for some time now, seventies Superdreams being the first of them and the @T's got the same kit. My VFR 800i did the same not too long ago so the issue is still there!"

http://www.xrv.org.uk/forums/africa-twi ... lator.html

So come on guys, as nice a looking machine as the new AT is, none of you have ridden it, none of you yet own one to comment on its reliability, and Hondas previous reliability of the AT was not exactly "legendary", so let's leave the glasses at home and look at this bike with fully open eyes - it may be awesome, it may not be. Time will tell, let's not coo over it though just yet (thumbs)

[picos mestizo]

Early electronic regulators failed on nearly all bikes, they were nearly all 3rd party supplied so hardly the machine manufacturers total blame.
They were constructed of components which were not of automotive quality as were the CDI units.
In general Honda have a superlative record of reliabillity, in fact I'd go so far as to say Japanese bikes in general are exceptionally reliable.
That could probably be proved factually so is not an opinion.

[AndyB]

In general Honda have a superlative record of reliabillity, in fact I'd go so far as to say Japanese bikes in general are exceptionally reliable.
That could probably be proved factually so is not an opinion.

Superlative? They've been good in recent years but before that they manufactured and sold a large number of absolute dogs. They weren't alone in doing this but from 1978 through to 1985 they had some failures best described as catastrophic.

[Scott_rider]

...the early VF engines (predecessor to the VFR) were very troublesome.

[bowber]

The AT also suffered the same fuel pump failure the KTM 950 adventure does, mainly because it's the same fuel pump.
Output shafts wearing is also another problem, probably due to the type of sprocket fixing not being conducive to high mileages on a lumpy V twin.

Steve