QUICK SPIN: Honda CRF1100L Africa Twin

Editor Ross has been riding Honda’s flagship Adventure Motorcycle; Here’s what he thinks!

Stepping ever further away from its Dakar Rally racing roots, Honda’s overhauled its Africa Twin Adventure Sports to create a seriously capable big-mile tourer that can hold its own with the best of them…

For 2024, Honda’s finessed its Africa Twin Adventure Sports so it’s far more suited to the road (while largely leaving the ‘standard’ Africa Twin alone – aside from now offering electronic suspension as an extra). The factory sort of downplayed it, but It’s a pretty substantial shift.

The big news is that the new Adventure Sport gets a 19-inch front wheel, and a wider 110/80 tyre (in contrast to the old model’s 21-inch wheel and 90/90 tyre combination). But that’s not all, as they’ve shortened the suspension, dropped the seat height further, tweaked the engine for more mid-range power and torque, and fitted a wider fairing and screen.

To find out what’s what, we flew out to Portugal for a glorious blast on both the £16,299 manual version and the £17,599 DCT (which included a brief, token stint along a fire trail). Here’s how we got on.

It’s immediately evident that the riding position’s different than before. That smaller front wheel and shorter, squatter suspension mean that it’s much lower (835mm at its lowest standard seat setting and 855mm at its highest, with an additional low seat option if you need it – which’ll take it down to an impressively manageable 800mm). The centre of gravity’s lower down, too, and as a result it feels easier to manage. The bar, peg, seat space is a little tighter and pushes you marginally further forward over the bars, but it’s still super-comfortable for my 6ft 1″ frame. There’s additional padding on the seat to make the long stints it’s designed for even more tolerable. And Honda’s even done some work to improve its aerodynamic abilities, reducing some of the buffeting and front-end lightness found at high speeds with the old model.

A bit of town work, before winding our way along a brilliant, tight, twisty stretch of road up into the hills offered the perfect opportunity to see just how well the new bike handles. It’s exceptional. Planted and poised, with far more feeling than the old model.

The Bridgestone Battlax Adventure A41s certainly help the cause, providing good, reliable grip and allowing for swift, assured progress. The surface was great and the roads bone dry, though I’ve ridden with these tyres a lot and can testify that they’re just as capable of holding their own on grimy British roads in the dead of winter.

The electronic suspension from Showa is top, too. It works just as well as it did on the previous generation ATAS (though it’s now available as an extra on the standard Africa Twin, too), working to stiffen up the suspension the faster you ride. There’s a huge amount of fine-tuning available, with Soft, Mid, Hard, Off-Road and User settings to choose from. And you can now adjust the preload on the fly if you’re adding luggage or carrying a pillion. Nice. I do question how much tweaking actual owners of this bike will do, suspecting that they’ll find a setting that works for them and stick to it. It’s nice to have though, for sure.

The engine’s had some big updates, too. Honda have managed to increase peak torque by 7% – which is the same increase as when they upped the capacity from 1000cc to 1100cc. It kicks out the same 100bhp, but there’s now 83lb-ft of torque to play with. It actually feels much peppier than the previous generation, with a smoother but more direct throttle response, too. To achieve all that, they’ve fitted a longer piston for a higher compression ratio;they’ve reshaped the crankshaft; reshaped the conrod; added a larger air duct, ; tweaked the exhaust valve timings; and there’s a lighter, more efficient muffler with a shorter, wider, and lower tailpipe.

That all combines to create a pretty potent package. Other adventure bikes might have more ccs and more outright power, but the Honda is plenty punchy and has bags of character. And after all, how often can you really exploit 150bhp on the road?

The gearbox is good, the brakes are sharp, and the electronics are plentiful – and relatively easy to navigate after a bit of time getting acquainted. There’s more good stuff, like cruise control and Android Auto and Apple Carplay compatibility.

There’s the usual DCT (Dual Clutch Transmission) offering, too. It was very nearly the only option, with the UK arm of Honda first announcing that they were only going to be importing the DCT version of the Adventure Sports. While the semi-auto equipped bike accounts for 55% of sales, it was a bit of a bold call – and there was a bit of an uproar from manual-loving riders before they changed their mind. The DCT is good though. Every time I get the chance to use it, I’m more impressed. And this is the best yet. That’s probably because the Africa Twin makes use of real-time information to decide when to change (or not change) gear. For swifter riding, I do feel more confident using the up/down paddles on the switchgear, but for everything else I’d have no issue sticking it in Auto and letting it do its thing.

There are compromises to be made though. We were let loose on a short 5km-long gravel track, and as fun as it was, the latest ATAS is not really an off-roader. It’ll do it, and you can whack it in Off-Road or Gravel mode, switch off the ABS and HSTC (traction control) to get it set up just right, but the standing riding position feels far less natural for my lanky frame. Thankfully, if the dirt is where you want to ride, you can snag yourself a ‘standard’ Africa Twin which retains its 21″ front.

The factory’s decided to make a more obvious distinction between the two models, and I reckon it’s all the better for it. The changes make an already great adventure tourer even better. Nice work, Honda.