Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/723849
2016 HONDA CRF1000L AFRICA TWIN RACER TEST P102 back a nameless rider on a 450 after about 25 miles. Using his dust as a motivator, he was initially a spec on the horizon, and gradually he was sucked back into the Africa Twin's grasp. Coming into a twisty section after a long bout of six-gear shenanigans, I caught him to the point where I could make the pass. But I got it wrong. Ordinar- ily on a 450 I'd not hit the deck. I could have used the small built-up dirt on the outside of the FIVE MINUTES WITH JOHNNY CAMPBELL To anyone with a dirt bike bone in their body, this guy needs no introduction. An 11-time Baja 1000 winner, Dakar competitor, HGA (Honda Japan) develop- ment rider and owner of JCR Honda, the man is a walking legend in the sport of off-road racing. We sat down with him to see just how the Africa Twin project came about. How did this Africa Twin project go from discussion to reality? What it came down to was there was some interest from Imai-san in Japan and Hide (Hanawa, American Honda Senior Engineer). I'd been want- ing to do a race project or an event project with the Africa Twin. This model of the Africa Twin has never been in North America. The previous one was never sold here. So in order to start building a story, a historic story with this model and the adventure sport market for Honda, I wanted to be the one that's setting the trend. I love the bike and I love adventure sport riding. The bike works so great off-road it was just time to lay something out. We also talked about do- ing the Baja 1000. Would you do that with this bike? The Baja 1000 is a bit bigger project than this. This is still a very large project. But in Baja there's a lot more unforeseen logistics and more intense logistics in certain sta- tions. The other thing is that in the Vegas To Reno this year the course is laid out east to west across the state. That means we have smoother roads, which caters to this type of bike. Some valleys are tricky with this type of bike, but I wanted something that was gnarly and was going to test the machine and test the riders and start showing what this bike's capable of doing. Will you develop some parts for the Africa Twin? I like the bike and I've been riding it quite a bit this year since it was avail- able. Exactly what we're doing is race develop- ment on it. Not that we're going to race this machine full-time, but we're just showing the capabilities of it here. So we'll develop some parts and pieces and stuff. Let's just say we'll tune it for certain types of conditions, maybe a little harder, rougher, off-road riding. There's going to be a lot of guys that are my generation that are coming off a dirt bike that want to go do this and we're accustomed to riding some pretty hardcore stuff. So in order to do that with the Africa Twin it's going to take a little bit of modifica- tions and stuff than what it was actually designed for. Campbell with wife Faye, who has been there for every single one of his racing triumphs.