The Africa Twin doesn’t just look like an adventure bike—it’s the real deal. Exhibit A: Check out its long-travel front suspension. The inverted Showa fork is fully adjustable with huge 45mm tubes and 9.1 inches of travel—the most front-end travel in the 1000cc off-road class.
The Africa Twin Adventure Sports ES and Adventure Sports ES DCT are equipped with SHOWA EERA® (Electronically Equipped Ride Adjustment) electronically controlled suspension. You can choose between five suspension damper settings: hard, medium, soft, and off-road, as well as a customizable “user” setting. It’s easy to switch between them, too, so you can choose one for the highway and another when the going gets rougher.
This second generation of Africa Twin features a frame that is almost four pounds lighter than our earlier bikes. And while it may be lighter, we fine-tuned it by making the steering head more resistant to twist.
The Africa Twin’s semi-double-cradle frame layout has been proven in countless Honda dirtbikes. In principle it’s similar to the design we use on our CRF450R Rally factory Dakar racebike—a machine that’s designed to perform in the challenging Dakar rally and similar events.
Changing your shock’s preload is a snap. Choose from one of four settings: solo, solo with luggage, two-up, and two-up with luggage. It’s all done electrically, so forget about wrenching on some hard-to-access shock collar.
Up front, the Africa Twin features twin four-piston brake calipers for powerful braking performance. The radial-mount design also helps make them stiffer, increasing brake feel and control.
With 43 degrees of steering lock both left and right, the Africa Twin provides excellent maneuverability on tight trails. This is one of the reasons the Africa Twin feels so much more nimble than many of the other bigger adventure bikes out there.
The Africa Twin’s swingarm is light and strong, because it uses technology developed on our CRF450R motocrosser.
The Africa Twin uses large-diameter hollow steel axles front and rear. They’re super strong, durable, but also light: a combination which describes just about everything associated with this bike.
The Africa Twin’s throttle-by-wire system lets us offer Honda Selectable Torque Control (HSTC). You can dial in exactly the kind of power delivery you want for the conditions at hand. Honda Selectable Torque Control features seven settings for a wide range of conditions, from pavement to fast, loose fire roads to challenging singletrack. You can also turn it off. New engine settings for 2022 make a great feature even better.
Front and rear wheel-speed sensors working with the Honda Selectable Torque Control (HSTC) let you dial in three levels of wheelie control. There's also an "off" position—you're the wheelie control here.
Both manual-transmission and DCT models offer six riding modes: Tour, Urban, Gravel, Off-Road, User 1 and User 2. The last two let you customize the system to your individual preference.
Not only is the Africa Twin’s rising-rate Pro-Link® rear suspension fully adjustable, it offers a 220mm stroke for 8.7 inches of rear-wheel travel. Even better, there’s a special remote preload adjuster—you just turn a convenient knob, and you can compensate for varying loads like a passenger or full panniers.
Real adventure bikes use spoked wheels because they better survive the dings and hits of off-road riding. All Africa Twin models feature a 21-inch front and an 18-inch rear for superior performance, especially when it comes to off-road riding.
Standard on our Adventure Sports ES models. Tubeless tires run cooler, and there’s a great selection of adventure-bike rubber available today. Get a flat? Flat tire repairs are a lot easier too.