Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
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2018 HONDA AFRICA T WIN ADVENTURE SPORTS FIRST TEST P112 off; it's still there. Boom. Simple. It's also simple to adjust if you change your mind. User Setting is great. ABS settings are one area where Honda left things alone in the electronics department. And, with competition in the premium ADV segment incorporating cornering ABS, off-road ABS and other electronic suspension functionality, this is a bit surpris- ing. Honda's ABS system allows you to turn off the rear wheel ABS, only. This is nice and easy via dash-mounted button, but we'd really like some options on the front wheel. Mostly for off- road settings where an on-road ABS initialized front wheel can be certainly less effective. Let us turn off front-wheel ABS and we'd be pretty happy with the options. All of these options are viewed on a new dash screen. It's a bigger LCD affair and is easier to see plus it lays down for better viewability when standing up. It's better than the previous. 2018 HONDA AFRICA TWIN ADVENTURE SPORTS GOES BIG The Sports model is larger than the L1. Its radar profile now puts it head-to-head, and seat-to-seat, with elitist European ADV bikes. The Adventure Sports' claimed 9.9 inches of fork and 9.5 inches of shock travel give it more suspension movement than KTM's 1090 and 1290 Adventure R's (8.6 inches front and rear), BMW's R 1200 GS Adventure, and Ducati's Multistrada 1200 En- duro Pro. In fact, this Africa Twin now has the longest (claimed) suspension travel in the premium ADV world. And its ground clear- ance is claimed at 10.6 inches, also leading the field. Most of the riding we've done on the L2 so far has mostly been in Arizona, where Honda intro- duced the bike to the media. So a true test of the suspension and skid-plate in off-road obstacles isn't in the cards yet. But on the road and over the gravel the valv- ing seems compliant and capable of holding the girth of the bike and rider under cornering Gs. Bigger also applies to fuel capacity. The Sports' 6.4-gallon tank is approximately 1.5 gallons larger than the other Africa Twins. This puts it right above the KTM 1090 and KTM 1290 Adventure models in fuel capacity—very capable world-travel range. The Ducati Multi Enduro Pro and BMW GS Adventure have gigan- tic 7.9-gallon tanks and will likely be alone at the top of fuel capac- ity forever. Fuel range is great. The Honda is efficient and our 150-miles (or so) of testing left us with ample reserves to get us over 200 miles with spirited riding taking advan- tage of wheel spin opportunities. In Drive mode, 300-mile range and further should be expected. We'll try to run out of gas on our next ride to confirm. With all this bigness for the Adventure Sports version comes a taller adjustable seat height of 35.4/36.2 inches (the collective ADV-buying public grumbles). For comparison, KTM's 1090 and 1290 Adventure R's have a 35.04-inch seat height. Original 2016-current Africa Twins have a relatively low 33.5/34.3-inch adjustable seat height. But wait! Honda has an ac- cessory low seat that brings the height down to a more reachable 34.2/35.0 adjustable range. This seat will sell well and could be argued as better standard equip- ment based on the numbers. Handlebar position goes up 1.3 inches but the grips slide back to the rider by about a quarter inch. This opens up the riding position a bit while not stretching arms and is a welcome addition. The only issue with the in- creased AT size we noticed was a slightly tippier feeling when rocking the bike off the side- stand and jumping on. But I WHEN YOU DECIDE WHEN THE BIKE CAN SHIFT, IT DOES SO ABSOLUTELY BRILLIANTLY. WE'RE TALKING SEAMLESS.