2018 Honda Africa Twin Adventure Sport First Look
Rennie Scaysbrook | November 6, 2017
A few key updates from Honda aimed at keeping the Africa Twin at the head of the pack.
Minus the rucksack and the hard cases, this is your new Honda Africa Twin Sport.
Honda’s Africa Twin will get a couple of key updates and a new moniker in the Africa Twin Sport label, for next year.
The Sport was originally debuted as a concept bike at the 2016 EICMA Show in Milan, so for the 2017 show, Honda went the whole hog and made the Sport into a fully-fledged production bike.
The Sport will get creature comforts like heated grips, an 80mm taller screen, 12V plug socket and a larger fairing for better long-distance comfort compared to the base-model Africa Twin. It’ll also get a fuel capacity increase from 4.97 gallons to 6.37 gallons. There will also be a flatter profile and a 1.2-inch-taller height than the standard model. The seat adjusts 0.8 inches for a height of either 35.4 inches or 36.2 inches (compared to 33.5 inches and 34.3 inches). Handlebar position is 1.3 inches higher and 0.2 inches rearward compared to the standard version.
Real ADV riders will be happy to know the standard Africa Twin’s woeful pegs have been replaced by proper, studier off-road items, and the passenger peg hangers have been redesigned to allow for more room when the rider is standing up.
Showa has fitted longer travel suspension, with 10.6 inches of ground clearance now available to the Africa Twin Sport rider, up from 9.8 inches.
On the engine front, the Sport gets a new Ride-By-Wire throttle with four individual riding modes to do away with the old throttle cable, a bigger airbox, 20mm longer intake funnel, a lighter balancer shaft and a redesigned exhaust, and some extra weight has been saved by adding a lithium-ion battery weighing just 5.1 lb.
The traction control maps have been increased from three to seven settings.
Honda is not releasing a finalized MSRP or U.S. availability but has said it will be “approximately $2000 higher” than the current Africa Twin, which would make it $15,299.
