2020 HONDA CRF1100L AFRICA TWIN & ADVENTURE SPORTS ES
R I D E R E V I E W
P72
The only way to be properly
confident with the DCT off road
was to put it in the manual set-
ting and change the gears via
the paddle shifters on the left
handlebar, at which point you
may as well have the conven-
tional manual gearbox on your
base model.
The Adventure Sports off
road with the conventional
gearbox, on the other hand,
allowed a more predictive char-
acter, despite the extra girth
afforded by the bigger tank and
ergonomics.
Where the Adventure Sports
had a slightly vague feeling
was in the electronic suspen-
sion. This is one of the better
systems out there, but when
riding off road, the electronic
suspension just doesn't have
the tangible feel afforded by
the conventional suspension
on the base model. It's a case
of you know it's working, but
you really have to trust it.
On the street, the semi-
active Showa system is excel-
lent and gives a velvety smooth
ride. With the adjustable
modes, you're almost guaran-
teed to find a setting that suits
on the street but get real gnarly
off road and you'll start to feel
the limits of the system.
One point of the electron-
ics I find perplexing was the
wheelie control. For starters,
I think it's pointless on an ADV
bike but its operation was
strange, again, off road. Once
TC was switched off for some
uphill action, I'd get about a
On the DCT model, getting
a bit of air can trick the
system into shifting gears,
which isn't ideal.
quarter of the way up before
the bike would simply come
to a halt—like the TC was on
full noise. As it turns out, the
wheelie control was cutting the
power, even though no wheelie
was going on, it was just the
rear wheel spinning. Turn the
wheelie control all the way off,
and everything was sweet, but
it was just another system that
in my view didn't need to be
there causing unnecessary
problems.
Considering both machines
come with the same 1084cc
motor, power is never an issue.
