HONDA CRF1000L AFRICA TWIN
FIRST RIDE
P82
the 'Twin's steel chassis and rubber-mount-
ed handlebars, while never losing a tick of
stability. I quickly developed a lot of trust
and confidence in the AT's suspension and
chassis, and that confidence carried over
onto the dirt.
The Africa Twin is not a light motor-
cycle. Honda's specs list the manual
model at 511 pounds and the DCT model
at 534 pounds, so I was expecting an
interesting ride over the ruts and some
nasty bottoming on the G-outs when
the pavement turned to dirt, but the
suspension really surprised me again
by how well it soaked it all up. It actu-
ally took pretty good smacks at speed
before I could get either the fork or the
shock to bottom, and when either one
of them did, it wasn't a nasty "clank,"
but more of a tolerable "thud." In other
The Africa Twin
is also offered in
silver beside the
now more familiar
red, white and black
color scheme. You
also have the choice
between manual
transmission
and DCT.
