- 4 months ago
Born from a Paris-Dakar racer, Honda's Africa Twin was always the adventure motorcycle that riders in the USA wanted but couldn't get. Then in 2016 the CRF1000L Africa Twin his the scene, and the USA got what it wanted, or did it? In this episode of The Motorcyclist Podcast we talk about all things Africa Twin, and decide if its is an unsung hero of ADV.
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SportsTranscript
00:00Hey, welcome back to the Motorcycles Podcast. This is where we talk about motorcycles and
00:03what makes them great. Topics on the show constantly change, but the one thing that
00:07always remains is two-wheeled fun. In this episode, we are going to talk about Honda's
00:12Africa twin. But before I do that, we've got to make some introductions. We've got a new
00:17guest today. We've got Blake Connor, editor at large of Cycle World Magazine. Also does
00:25some stuff very rarely for motorcyclists. We've got photo director Jeff Allen, and you've
00:31got myself, executive editor Justin Dawes. And in the background, sometimes we've got
00:35my two chickens, Walter White and Gonzo. So today we're going to be talking about the
00:44Honda Africa twin. This is Honda's big adventure bike. It's one of the few ADVs that you can
00:50get is an automatic, which is quite interesting. And it's a pretty solid value in adventure
00:58motorcycles, starting at $14,799 for the manual transmission standard Africa twin. Blake, you've
01:11got a lot of experience with Africa twin, especially lately. You've been putting some miles on it.
01:16So we'll talk about that a little later. Jeff, you have some experience with Africa twin,
01:21including completely destroying one in Utah. Yeah, yeah. We may talk about that. And then I've
01:29spent a lot of time on it as well. So we all are very familiar with the Africa twin in its
01:35newer iterations. So let's get into some history. This is the part where we run down through what
01:42the bike is. Um, I got a little history lesson as usual, my, uh, my Ted talk. And then, uh, from
01:49there we'll go into talking about the bikes. If you guys got anything you want to add, just jump
01:53right in. So, uh, Africa twin, uh, started with, uh, Dakar race bike, just like the Taneray in the last
02:02episode. So it was the NXR 750 and it actually won Dakar four times in its, uh, in its, uh, racing
02:12career. From that came the 1988 Africa twin XRV 650. So this was basically a replica, uh, for European
02:24markets, um, that basically tried to match the race bike as much as possible in a production
02:32motorcycle. I mean, sure. It wasn't super, super trick, but it had some off roadie features on it.
02:40Um, it was a seven, uh, six 50. Go ahead, Jeff. I really think that is one of the best looking,
02:45uh, Africa twins. I liked the bug eye look. Yeah, I really like it too. I think it's probably one of
02:51the most, uh, desirable too, because it was only made for four years and it's definitely the most,
02:59um, we'll say racy of all the versions of the Africa twin. Um, so, uh, V twin, uh, six 50,
03:08um, had like the, the bug eyes, like Jeff was saying, wire mesh headlight guards, uh, the fairing
03:15clips on a world, like quick release stuff, which was really cool. So, um, it, uh,
03:21you know, it was, it was made to like take apart and work on and stuff, which,
03:26you know, is quite different than adventure bikes these days. Right. Yeah, for sure.
03:32So, um, my six hours just to clean the air filter. Yeah. Yeah, it does. There's still around
03:38though. I, I just saw one the other day on the road and I was kind of like, wow, I haven't seen
03:44one of those in ages and people love them. They're still riding them. Yeah. It's, uh, it's interesting
03:50because they were never sold in the United States. So any Africa twin you see here, that's pre
03:572016 is a gray market imported motorcycle. So someone really had to do the work to get that
04:02motorcycle. Yeah. Yeah. Which is, which is really cool. So, um, so that bike was, uh, built until,
04:09uh, 1990. So two years of that bike only, um, from there, then we get the XR V seven 50 T Africa twin.
04:19Um, um, seven 50 V twin, uh, definitely gained some weight, became more streetable, more of a,
04:28um, adventure motorcycle as we would expect in the modern sense. Um, and it went through, uh,
04:38a series of iterations, but always the same dual headlights. Um, the tank shape changed a little
04:43bit. Some of the, um, um, suspension components changed, um, colors, obviously. Um, and it would,
04:52it went until 2003. Once again, not a single one was, uh, sold through American Honda.
05:01There's a recurring theme from last week, you know, isn't it? It really is.
05:05Making here back in the day. Yeah, exactly. You know, it's almost the same exact, uh, story as the
05:12Tenere, um, through the, the eighties and the nineties and the early two thousands. It was just
05:18like, it, they, I don't know if they market research just said, we don't, it, it, they wouldn't
05:25sell here or, you know, who knows? Uh, but you know, I think that gives us older guys, a lot of PTSD
05:36in terms of, we never got the cool stuff. Right. And it also kind of predates the,
05:44the adventure craze, if you will, you know, it's like there was adventure bikes. We all know that,
05:49but it wasn't like a thing where everybody was saying, oh, they're adventure bikes, you know,
05:54that came later. So yeah, very true. Maybe us Americans were just a little late to the party.
05:59Yeah. Yeah. Very, very much so. I remember I was in high school, I think. And the guy had a,
06:06a trans out and I was, I was probably 15 maybe. And I was bussing tables so I could earn enough
06:12money to buy my dirt bikes and my jet skis. Um, and a guy rocked up in front of the restaurant on a,
06:20a trans up. And I was like, the heck is that thing? You know, it took a long time for me to
06:25understand, you know, how good that, that bike really was back in the day, you know?
06:30Yeah. We did sort of thumb our nose at big deer bikes back then, you know?
06:34We really did. Yeah. We were, everyone was about small bikes and off-road performance only or
06:39something. So anyways, uh, so, uh, for the next 13 years, nothing, uh, in terms of Africa twin,
06:48um, until 2016, then we get the first CRF 1000 L. Um, so this is the modern first, uh, issue of the
06:58modern Africa twin, uh, 998 CC parallel twin with 96 horsepower. So, um, not a ton of power. I mean,
07:10even in 2016 terms, uh, it came kind of out with middleweight ADV power in a big ADV, right?
07:23Horsepower wise. I mean, you know, it did have pork, uh, 80 something pound feet of torque. So it did
07:30have good torque, but, um, weight though had big bite weight. Um, and it, it actually, you know,
07:38we included it in some middleweight discussions because of just the power rather than putting it
07:46in the big bite class sometimes. So, um, it was made to compete with bikes like, um, the GS
07:52Multistrada, big tiger, um, KTM at that time would have been, uh, 1290 adventure, maybe 1190,
08:021190 adventure, 1190. Yeah. Yeah. 1190 and maybe even 1090 in 2016, it might've been no 1090
08:11wasn't until like 17. So 1190 adventure. Um, but the cool thing or the interesting thing that stood
08:18out that set it apart from all these other adventure bikes is that it was available with
08:23an automatic transmission, the DCT. So dual clutch transmission, you could, uh, shift it, um,
08:31from the pod on the bars, you could put it in just automatic mode, put it in sport mode, um,
08:38and not even have to shift the bike at all. Or you could play with the buttons.
08:42Did that original one have the option for the, uh, the foot lever shifter?
08:49Yes. Yeah, it did. They'd always had that option. It was like a dealer option, correct?
08:54Yeah. Yeah. It was an accessory.
08:55If you push the buttons, you could still actuate the, uh, uh, foot lever in the same way, just
09:00without a clutch lever.
09:02Yep, exactly. The funny part is, is there's a lever up there, but it's not a clutch lever.
09:07It's a, it's a parking brake, right? So it sits out quite, quite a far away so that you can't
09:13grab it like a clutch lever, but I've been known to try to grab it a few times and use it as a rear
09:18brake, but it's pretty, pretty fiddly.
09:20Yeah. When you, when you're on that, the DCT and you have, you know, a corner comes up kind of
09:24quickly or you have a moment, your instincts are to reach for the clutch and it's not there.
09:29And then your brain gets confused. You're like, no, I do now.
09:32Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Push the button. So, um, anyway, so it, it would be a quite a while until
09:39there was, uh, any other, um, automatic adventure bikes. Um, you know, notably the, the BMW R 1300 GS now
09:48also has a automatic setup. So, um, yeah. And you can also say that it's, that it's really Honda
09:55who set that, you know, that stage because nobody else was even considering it. And as long as we're
10:03going to talk about DCT, you know, Honda will tell you that people who were actually shopping for a
10:08motorcycle that you could get DCT on as an option, like 70% on some models are going for DCT.
10:15Yeah. So, um, they were ahead of the curve on that by, and they're still ahead of the
10:20curve on that. Yeah. Yeah. The, um, the gold wing, 70% of gold wings sold these days are
10:27DCT and a third of Africa twins are DCT and a third of the, um, the rebel 1100 are DCT. So,
10:38um, you know, it, it, it is not a minuscule portion of the line that is, um, running DCT it's,
10:48it's widely accepted. So we'll talk about if we like it or not here in a little bit. Um,
10:53so then in 2018, it got updated with ride by wire, got some ride modes, got trash control,
10:58um, with seven trash control levels, uh, which they called Honda selectable torque control,
11:05instead of calling it trash control, you know, need more acronyms these days. Um,
11:12it got a new face on it. Um, facelift, uh, no, sorry, that was 2020. They got a new facelift,
11:19but in 18 came the adventure sports model, which bigger tank, longer travel suspension. Um,
11:26just, uh, kind of a, in response to the GS adventure, right? I mean, kind of the very,
11:32very similar formula, um, bigger, more capable, um, bigger fuel tank, all that kind of stuff. So,
11:42uh, then in 2020, but nicely, it kept the 1821, you know? Yeah. Kept the 1821. So, uh, 2020,
11:52um, it got a bigger engine, uh, 1084 CC. So 1100 engine still parallel to one, uh, power went up to
12:02101 horsepower. So five more, five more ponies, uh, torque went up as well, um, to I think 86 foot
12:12pounds of torque. Um, so, um, got a new frame that was shared between all the models. Cause before the
12:18standard in the adventure sports actually had different frames, so now the frame was the same
12:26between all of them. Um, but the suspension and stuff differentiated the bikes along with the bigger
12:32fuel tank and the adventure sports got electronic suspension in 2020. Um, and then in 24, just
12:39recently, um, we got the latest version. Um, now it has an IMU. So it has lean sensitive trash control,
12:48lean sensitive ABS. It's got a new face. I think it's probably the best looking face it's had. Um,
12:56it kind of has, you know, you can almost see the old Africa twin, um, influence, you know,
13:05it's got some rounded spots on the lights and stuff. So I think it's, it's pretty cool looking.
13:09Um, it's got more torque again, tubeless wheels and the adventure sport has changed from being
13:16the long travel, um, more dirt worthy model to the touring model. So now it has 1917 wheels. So it's a
13:24little more street oriented, still, still DCT available on both bikes. Um, and starting price is
13:34$14,799. And for the adventure sport maxed out is 18,399, which is quite a bit less than
13:45it's competition. Yeah. If you've started maxing out options and all that on the competition,
13:50you would, you'd be looking at a much bigger bill. You could be bumping up against 30 grand
13:55really quick. So past 30 grand or 30, there's nothing else. There's nothing else in the class
14:01that starts below 20 really. So, I mean, even, you know, if you're talking the Harley, you're
14:09talking the triumph, which starts at like 22, you're talking, um, any of those, any of the
14:16BMWs, you can't get the base model BMW. They don't import it. So the second you put that
14:21into your shopping cart, it's instantly over 20. And then the KTM is probably, you know,
14:26kind of the most, um, grounded with, without a lot of features that you add and it's still
14:32over 20. So, but yeah, and the adventure sport, you know, it, it, the, I think the reason that
14:42they partially went to the, the, the 19 inch front and 17 inch rear is, you know, the bike's also
14:49really heavy. It's got another 45 pounds heavier than a, than a base model Africa twin with,
14:56especially, you know, then you go to the DCT and it's even a little bit more. So yeah, that all of a
15:01sudden makes a lot more sense as a touring bike than as a real adventure bike. So like,
15:07do you know the weight comparison between the new BMW and the, and the adventure sport?
15:13I don't off the top of my head. Um, I would say that they're very similar to be honest. Yeah. Um,
15:25but yeah, I didn't, didn't look up the weights in the tube. So maybe, uh, we can check that out.
15:32Or if someone knows they can comment down below, make bets on which one weighs more. Um, let's get
15:39into the first question I have for you guys that is, is this bike kind of the unsung hero of adventure
15:48bikes? Does it get ignored in this big bike, this big adventure bike space? And why, why, if it, if,
15:56if you think it does get ignored? Yeah. I'll go ahead, Jeff. I would say the, the, the, the return,
16:05the, the first Africa twin to come to the States and whatever we said that year was 2015, 2016,
16:122016. I was not a fan to be honest. I didn't, I didn't, I thought it was kind of slow. I didn't
16:20like the, the rider position, both standing and sitting, I thought sitting, you sat down in the
16:27bike, which was not great for off-road and then standing was very narrow. I was always pulling
16:32myself to the bars, you know? Well, the bars were like in your lap. So when you were standing up and
16:39you were going like off-road and you were going up any incline, you were doing this weird thing
16:44where you were pulling, you're doing, pulling your whole time. Yeah. You're pulling your hips
16:48towards the bars and then they were so far back. You didn't have leverage to like really keep your
16:54body kind of steady. Yeah. I was, I was not much of a fan at all, to be honest. Um, and then, um,
17:01when the, when the adventure sport came around, uh, I became more of a fan. I'm, I, uh, I actually do
17:08like that bike, the adventure sport. I liked the additional travel and that one had the release
17:13of when I had had a, uh, I think it had a flat one PC on it. And, uh, does that sound right?
17:21Did it have a flat one PC? I think so. Yeah. Yeah. Anyway. And I liked the additional fuel range
17:27because the, the original Africa twin didn't have great, uh, range. Right. But I mean, do you,
17:33do you think that it, that the public in general ignored it compared to GS is compared to multi
17:40strata is compared to tigers, you know, did people, I think a little, but you, you also have to remember
17:47that when that came out, you already had the KTM had already moved past the nine 90 and had moved
17:54up to the next level with the 10 90 and then the 11 90. And then the GS had just gotten a big update.
18:01And, you know, those bikes were, were just absolutely setting the standard for the open
18:07class. The triumphs were still trying to figure out if they were street bikes or adventure bikes
18:13and, and very heavy. But when the Africa twin came out, it, they were going straight in against,
18:20you know, the two bikes that you would have just considered the only players in the open class
18:25adventure bike market with the KTM and the BMW. So they had a lot to face off with right away.
18:30Yeah. I think, um, I think the power numbers actually, like just the spec seat shootout
18:37kind of hurt it, um, with 96 horsepower. I think a lot of people, when they were looking at the other
18:43bikes are going, I can have 125, I can have 160 horsepower. You know, why would I, why would I
18:49buy this bike? That's 30 horsepower down at least, if not 50 horsepower down on the competition,
18:5760 horsepower, you know, like, unfortunately, like a lot in the United States, a lot of bikes aren't
19:04sold on test rides, right. They're sold on straight up showroom presence and spec sheets and, you know,
19:12reviews that we do. So if you're comparing them on paper, it just didn't seem like it was a competitor
19:19when it came out. Yeah. And I would, I would add that. I think, you know, like a couple of the
19:25little details when that bike first came out that we weren't totally in love with, you know, it's,
19:31it's still has always kind of been a bargain and it's still kind of always, and it's a Honda and
19:39that means something that's always meant something, you know, it's, it's Honda has built this reputation
19:44of reliability and durability. And, you know, I think that people gravitate towards that. And so,
19:52you know, those people who were kind of ignoring it, I think we're missing out a little bit, you
19:57know, I think, I think over time, the Africa twin has proven to be, you know, there, the use market
20:04is really strong for them. And I think people are realizing that you don't need all the bells and
20:11whistles in the world to, to have an adventure bike. So I think it's been overlooked for sure.
20:17Yeah. All the, all the online chatter was about, uh, you know, Honda reliability and the affordability
20:24of that bike, which is, you know, both very, very true. So let's, um, Jeff kind of already touched on
20:33it. He, he seems to like it at this point. Um, yeah, I come around to it. Yeah. Come around to it. I
20:39would, I would say that I'm in the same, same kind of place as Jeff. Uh, I've really come
20:45around to it and I've really actually come around to the DCT, which we'll talk about here
20:49in a second. But, um, you know, I think the 2020 update is when I was like, okay, I dig this
20:56thing now, you know? Um, so, uh, I do, uh, Africa twin or the adventures? No, actually it
21:04was the regular. Um, I tested the regular with a DCT and I enjoyed the, I enjoyed the heck out of
21:11it. We went and rode, you know, some really fast, um, fire road stuff. Jeff, you shot the photos,
21:17um, over in Batista Canyon. And it was really fun to like thumb through the gears and kind of
21:24downshift and upshift and use engine braking by just pressing a button rather than, you know,
21:31relying on a slipper clutch or, uh, you know, or slipping the clutch as you downshifted. So it
21:37was kind of cool. It's kind of fun. So what about you, Blake? Yeah, I have to say I'm a, I'm a big
21:44fan of the current one. And, you know, over at cycle world, we've got a long-term test bike and
21:50it's, um, I've, I've put about 5,500, almost 6,000 miles on the thing. And now that I'm kind of
21:58getting it fine tuned to what I intend to do with it, I, I really like it like to the point of
22:05considering buying it. I mean, I, I actually really like it. And I, and I think there's a
22:11couple of things you, you know, I, I have to step back every once in a while and go, it's not a KTM
22:17890 adventure. You know, it's, it was never intended to be, it doesn't have the sickest suspension in the
22:23entire world that you can just rip through whoops on. It's not a GSA with all of the technology
22:29that's ever been thrown at any motorcycle on the market. It doesn't have those things, but when
22:34you, when you strip it back down and you look at the value of it and what it does have, I think it's
22:41an incredible motorcycle for 14, 799. And you've got fully adjustable show of suspension that works
22:48really good in most places. You've got an electronics package that once you figure out
22:54the interface, which we, we've always joked about, it can be a little bit of a steep learning curve to
23:00figure out how to get your car play to work and all that stuff. Once you get those barriers out of the
23:05way, it's got all that stuff, but it's super easy to adjust modes on the fly. It's got IMU based
23:13TC in ABS now. And man, at that price point, I have to say what a fantastic motorcycle, but personally
23:23I do like riding it. It's, it's got its limitations. You know, you take it, you take it off road and
23:30on two track and all of a sudden the weight really shows itself. But from, from, from my experience,
23:38this bike is all about tires, honestly, you put good tires on it and it transforms this bike from
23:47being, you know, okay on gravel roads and stuff to just being absolutely awesome. And then as an
23:55on-road bike, it rips. I mean, it's, it's fun. So I don't know. That's my take on it. I I've become a
24:02big fan and, um, and I'm always taking a step back and saying, you know, yeah, it's not the
24:09greatest at anything, but it's pretty darn good for a bike in that price range. It can really do a lot
24:15of stuff. I, I, I would agree with your point that tires, they make a huge difference on really
24:21any adventure bike, to be honest. But, um, you know, the, the, the interesting part about that
24:27bike is that, like you said, you have the standard model with the standard transmission, no DCTs,
24:35you got the bare bones one. Um, but you've started adding stuff and with that extra,
24:41you know, that low price point, you've got maybe a budget, either you can get into an adventure bike
24:48where you usually couldn't, or you've got a budget to be able to put some stuff on it, you know? And so,
24:53um, let's talk about some of the stuff that you've, you've put on it. You said you changed
24:58tires. You've done two sets of tires, right? You did. Yeah. So I did the Dunlop Dunlop trail max
25:04raids, which I was really, really impressed with. Like they exceeded my expectations by a lot because
25:12they don't look as knobby as a continental TKC 80 or the, um, Metzler Karoo four, which I put on
25:19recently. Um, those are much more open knobs. And I think that they'll, both of those tires would
25:25lend themselves to soft sand or gravel or stuff like that a little bit better than the Dunlops,
25:31but the Dunlops have proved to be really good in the dirt. They're not quite as good on the braking,
25:38um, with a slightly less open knobby, but then they're shockingly good on the asphalt and yet
25:45they're good enough on the dirt that you can do any fire road, any, um, you know, gravel road
25:51without feeling like you're losing performance. But so both of those things were, both of those
25:56tires were a huge upgrade over the standard Michelins that came on it, that were more of a
26:01road oriented adventure tire that didn't have much knob. So I would, I would say if you're really
26:07going to ride an Africa twin on gravel roads and do stuff, changing tires is a must. And so that was
26:15the kind of the number one thing. And then we added luggage, you know, there's not many adventure
26:21bikes. I think maybe the Suzuki V-Strom, you can get the 1050 with, uh, with bags, but there's not
26:29many bikes out there that come with bags. Everybody has them as accessories, but we put on the SW
26:35Motec, um, SIS bags, which is a soft bag with a rigid back plate. And so far those have been awesome
26:41and are, you know, not too much more expensive than accessory bags from any of the OEs. So that's
26:49nice. And then that's kind of what we did for, for luggage. They've got, they've got aluminum cases.
26:57And then I think they also have some, some soft cases, but, um, and you can get a top box. And so
27:04I put on their top box mount, but didn't get the top box just so I have somewhere else, somewhere else
27:09to strap stuff to. And then you can put stuff across the back and that's kind of worked out for,
27:14for most big road trips I've done on it. But that's kind of where I stopped initially. And then
27:20now I'm trying to make it better for off-road. So I put on the crew four tires. I just put on some
27:26fast company flex bars. I put on their enduro foot pegs, which have a little, so good. Yeah.
27:32They've got a little polymer in between the, the top plate and the base to kind of give you a little
27:37bit of cushion, but then they've got the, you know, the, the Allen screw, you know, teeth on
27:44the top that are honestly so grippy that you almost can't move your feet at all, which is kind of nice.
27:50Um, and then I put a center stand on it for maintenance and, um, wrestling with those
27:57springs is super fun if you've not done that at home. And then, uh, and then I've got crash bars
28:03that I've got to basically take the entire exhaust system off and do a bunch of stuff that I need to
28:08add. But, you know, I, I think adding all of those things up and you're still not at the price of a base
28:15model, um, KTM or BMW or Triumph or Harley. So that's where you have to look at this bike and
28:25kind of give it some credit and give Honda credit for making an affordable platform that you can kind
28:30of build into whatever you want. Yeah. So what else do you have planned for it on top of that?
28:38Like, I think exhaust off to do the crash bars. Are you just going to put an exhaust on it?
28:42Yeah. I I've, I've kind of been looking around to see what's available out there. It, I think it
28:47would sound super nice. You know, some of the parallel twins sound super nice with an exhaust.
28:51So if I've already got to rip the whole thing off, you know, see what's available out there and
28:56that might be cool and probably save another, you know, 10 pounds at least. So, you know, I think,
29:04I think having just ridden the Honda Trans Alp, which weighs 50 pounds less than an Africa twin or
29:10something like that, man, that 50 pounds just makes all the difference in the world. So if you
29:16can even take 15 off, it's noticeable. So, yeah, but yeah, I think, I think just kind of getting it
29:24dialed with some of those things, maybe playing around with some different windscreens for different
29:27situations. Um, there's, there's optional seats, but you know, that bike does come with the two
29:35position adjustable seat, which is kind of nice to play with. So I've kind of settled on, you know,
29:40if I'm riding off road or around town, I have it in the low position just to have good footing.
29:46And then when I'm on the highway for a long ride, I put it in the high position just to give yourself
29:50some extra leg room, but it has all that, you know, it kind of comes with all that. So that's
29:55why I'm a big proponent of this bike. You know, I think for the money, you kind of get a lot.
30:00Yeah. And you've done some long highway rides on it too. I mean,
30:02you rode all the way from California to Colorado, like twice at this point.
30:06Yeah. I've gone out and back two times and the second time was definitely a little bit easier,
30:13but you know, the, it's got adjustable windscreen, it's got cruise control, which is everything for
30:18that, you know, trip. I mean, speaking of Hondas, like that's the one thing that the new Transalp does
30:23not have. And it has ride by wire throttle. And I think Honda is missing the boat on the Transalp by
30:30not putting cruise control on it. And if you go into any of the YouTube videos about that bike,
30:35every single person is asking for cruise control and tubeless wheels, but you know, Africa twin has
30:42cruise control. It's not radar. It's nothing fancy, but it works really well. Get on the highway,
30:47set that thing. And, um, it makes life, you know, much easier for sure.
30:52Yeah. Cool. So let's talk about DCT then. I think that's the last thing we really got to talk about
30:59here is, um, the experience of using DCT and is it worth it? Is it usable? Um, I think it's going
31:08to be a split, uh, or a hung jury on this one. Um, so let's start with Blake. What do you think about
31:14DCT? I get it. I mean, I fully get it. And I think I can understand how it appeals to a lot of people.
31:22I think it really just depends on what you're doing with the bike. I mean, are you really going
31:26to go ride adventure? Are you going to go do a BDR? You know, are you going to really go ride
31:31something off-road? Are you going to take an adventure bike and ride it where you're, where,
31:37you know, it's intended to be ridden or where, you know, it's like buying a Jeep. Are you actually
31:42going to go rock crawling? That's the question. And if you're going to actually go and do
31:47a lot more off-road oriented stuff, maybe I wouldn't want DCT. Um, it's not that it doesn't
31:55work off-road, but for anybody that's spent time riding off-road, having that clutch control and,
32:01you know, utilizing those things, I think is, is well worth it. But for me, I get DCT. If you're
32:10going to ride that bike around mainly on the road and have it be a commuter, yeah, it's
32:14awesome. And then it's not going to hold you too back, you know, hold you back too much
32:19on dirt roads. But personally, you know, I'd, I'd save the money and, um, stick with the manual
32:26transmission, but I'm also old and used to that and afraid of new technology. So, yeah,
32:32I, I like the DCT in LA. Um, I wouldn't say if I was going to do super tough stuff, like
32:41I was going to go do a gnarlier section of the BDR where you were going to get into a
32:46lot of rocks and a lot of climbing and stuff, I'd absolutely want to clutch. Um, but I think
32:52in the real world, like you're saying, adventure bike riding 90% of everyone that has the, the
33:02want to do adventure bike riding, they're sticking to gravel roads, right? They're sticking to maybe
33:07some mild two track stuff. They're, they're not going to play Poltarez on their, their adventure
33:16bikes. Right. So I think, uh, DCT works for a lot of people in, in that regard. Um, you know,
33:22you can just put it in auto in sport mode and just forget it and just twist the throttle and it's fun
33:28or you can shift it. Um, but it does take some, um, a different, uh, technique to use it off-road
33:37because like you said, we're used to using the clutch, not only as, as a way to shift gears and
33:42remove the load from the transmission, but it's also a traction device, right? Rather than just
33:48making power, you know, you're really metering the power to the rear wheel with the clutch and
33:55it makes it more difficult when you don't have that. So you have to drag the rear brake to act
34:00like the clutch to, to change the power while you're on the throttle. Um, in some situations,
34:07it just can't work the same. So, um, I would say it's, I'm a fan of it. I think it's good.
34:15It took me a long time to come around to it. Um, it, you know, I think up until the last few years,
34:23I was like, no, I don't like DCT, but now I, I kind of get it and I've ridden them enough to where
34:28I'm like, Oh, they're useful here. They're useful here, but there are still some limitations to it.
34:32So, and then we turned gray, you liked the DCT. Yeah. As soon as the gray started coming in,
34:37the DCT started, you know, I started wearing white new balances and then, uh, yeah, I became
34:44a fan of DCT. So, and then we got Jeff who, um, pretty sure you're on the other end of the spectrum.
34:52Yeah. It's no secret around the office that I don't, I I'm not much of a fan of DCT, whether it's
34:58off-road and I have, and like you were saying, I have found the limit of the DCT off-road, you know,
35:04and got stuck. And, uh, but it's not just, and, and the thing is it, and it on pavement,
35:12I prefer manual as well. Like I, it's more about my personal preference. I just, that's what I like
35:18about motorcycling. I like operating the machine. I like, you know, I like downshifting and, you know,
35:25dragging the clutch and all that stuff. I, all of it is part of my day that I enjoy on,
35:30you know, on the seat of the motorcycle and it's not the DCT, the, the Honda DCT. I don't
35:37think it, it's not, it doesn't perform well. It's just a preference. It's just not my bag.
35:44Yeah. I'd much rather like when I think I've, I've said it around the office when I picture myself,
35:50you know, doing a trip on PCH in a sports car, that sports car is not an automatic,
35:56you know, like when I think about like just the coolest thing on a motorcycle,
36:01it doesn't have an automatic. But does your sports car have like a gated six speed or does
36:06it have paddle shifters? It would, it would have a gated six speed. All right. So you're a bit of a
36:11Luddite. Yeah. That's fine. That's fine. That's totally good. And I think that's the cool part about
36:17the Africa twin is that they give you both options. Yeah. Yeah. And I mean, to be fair,
36:22like think how much it's improved since that first model. I mean, I, I remember going out on the,
36:28that first model when it came over and doing a road test on it. And if you, you know, if you had
36:36the thing in DCT and you had it in, you didn't have it in the sport mode, the thing would upshift to
36:43sixth gear immediately. And then there was always this lag when you would crack open the throttle
36:49for it to make, figure out how fast you really want to go. And then they, and then you've got
36:54the sport mode option, which is okay. It worked okay, but it never really had the, you know,
37:00it's not a mind reader. It's just a, it's a computer trying to figure out what you're trying
37:05to tell it. And, and it, it's improved dramatically over the years for sure. The algorithms have
37:12gotten much tighter and much more logical, but that first application, you were kind of like,
37:18wow. It was slow to react and things like that. And my, my issue with it is not the performance of
37:24it. I think it performs the way Honda intends. It's just, it's just, you know, something I don't,
37:32I don't enjoy. Right on. Well with that, we're going to wrap this thing up. We've gone over time.
37:43So takeaways from this thing, Africa twins still might not get the love that the GS and some other
37:50big bore ADVs get, but it is a solid adventure motorcycle with some super interesting features
37:56like DCT. And the pricing is at the bottom of the range for those bikes. And that makes it
38:02an awesome deal and something that you should definitely look at. You know, especially if
38:08you're looking for Honda reliability, like you just can't go as hardly ever. Can you go wrong
38:12buying a Honda? Right. Yeah. So it's, if you're not concerned with big horsepower, if you're not
38:22concerned with all the extra bits of like adaptive cruise control and all this stuff, it's, it's a great
38:32motorcycle and it just might be the adventure bike for you. So go check it out. So with that, uh,
38:40thank you. Thanks for listening. Thanks for watching on YouTube. We really appreciate the
38:44support. Um, of course, please hit the like button, uh, subscribe, hit the notification bell so that you
38:52can get notifications every time we post one of these podcasts and let's hear your comments. What do you
38:57guys think about the Africa twin? What do you think about DCT? Who's right, Jeff or me? Put it in the
39:04comments and we'll see you on the next episode. See you next time.
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