The T7's dash is not. Bluntly,
when the T7 is ridden back-to-
back with advanced tech carry-
ing ADV machines, its absence
in the world of modern riding
electronics is noticeable.
It's not like we can put an
Africa Twin down a class into
the midsize segment. And we've
already put the T7 up against
every other midsize ADV bike,
including single-cylinder ma-
chines like the Husqvarna 701.
So, we're riding these two
bikes together, in isolation from
the rest, to find out how they
perform in their own class we're
calling The Outliers. This is an
unbiased look at the perfor-
mance of two machines that
have sometimes been left out
simply by their build specs
.
HONDA
AFRICA TWIN
BREAKDOWN
The Honda Africa Twin came
stomping back into the North
American market in 2016 with
force. Its full-size capability and
the simple, no-frills interface were
a fresh take on full-size ADV.
Powered by a 998cc parallel twin,
the CRF1000L was refreshing.
We picked it over KTM's 1190
Adventure R as our preferred bike
that year since it was easier to
ride all-around, didn't overheat the
pilot, was overall less intimidating,
and had great suspension. It also
had a simple electronics pack-
age that included one button to
turn the rear ABS off for off-road
and three levels of torque (trac-
tion) control adjustment on-the-fly.
Simple, awesome. That was the
Africa Twin.
Then, they seemed to start
chasing things a bit. 2018 saw an
update that included wiping the
slate of easy electronics off the
2023 ADV GUIDE P39
Compared to more expensive ADV motorcycles, the Yamaha is
considered "bare bones," but for many, that's the Tenere 700's appeal.
