VOL. 53 ISSUE 19 MAY 17, 2016 P83
words, it didn't hurt. Plus, the
bike has excellent ground clear-
ance; I don't think I ever dragged
the skid plate.
After a while, I felt like I could
ride the Africa Twin more like a
dirt bike than a street bike trying
to act like a dirt bike and began
upping my speed a bit, and any
anxiety I might've had about
riding the big AT on the dirt
pretty much died off. Still, the
CFR1000L is not a CRF450X
and demands a fair amount of
respect on the dirt; it's a big bike
in comparison, but the AT isn't in
any hurry to bite you back if you
get tired and sloppy. It's very for-
giving, even in the soft sand. The
front end, with its narrow-profile
front tire, will wiggle around a bit
when hard-pack turns to sand,
but I've ridden bikes a lot worse
in these conditions. Just sit back
and open the throttle, which is
easy to do on the Africa Twin.
The engine makes plenty of
smooth power. Even after having
spent the last few months on the
KTM 1290 Super Adventure with
its incredibly powerful engine,
the Honda in no way felt down
in the horsepower department
to me. It has great torque and
pulls hard over a wide and broad
powerband, and there is very
little evidence of vibration. There
is nothing intimidating at all
about the Africa Twin's engine,
and, better yet, it sounds bitchen
when you open it up. Parallel-
twin motors rarely inspire me,
but this one certainly does!
MANUAL LABOR
Of the two models—manual and
DCT—I preferred the manual,
which probably has a lot to do
with my off-road background.
However, I enjoyed the DCT
'Twin on the street. Talking
with other journalist, I got the
feeling that the more off-road-
experienced riders generally
preferred the manual over the
DCT and vice versa for the less-
experienced off-road riders. I
liked having the clutch at my
disposal whenever I needed a
quick burst of power to get me
out of trouble, especially over
technical terrain, such as rocky
climb. I saw one very experi-
ence journalist drop the DCT in
one such situation; had he had a
clutch lever, I'm not so sure that
would've happened, or, on the
other hand, if he had just a bit
more time on the DCT. Just an
observation.
Both the manual and DCT
Africa Twins feature selectable
torque control, which is pretty
much another name for trac-
tion control. You have varying
degrees of interventions (three
of them) that the rider can dial in.
For off-road, I preferred the third
setting with the least amount of
intervention, while on the pave-
ment I actually liked the first po-
sition with the most intervention,
when it immediately reacted to
the slightest detection of wheel
spin. Honda's torque control
system can be changed on the
fly and works through the bike's
ECU by measuring rear-wheel
slip via the ABS sensors; if
wheel slip is detected, the ECU
reduces fuel injection. Overall,
I thought torque control was a
great feature that worked ex-
tremely well. Whenever the bike
is turned off, torque control de-
faults to the highest intervention.
I, however, wish it would remain
at your last chosen setting. You
