Editor Ross has been driving Honda’s flagship Journey Bike; Right here’s what he thinks!
Stepping ever additional away from its Dakar Rally racing roots, Honda’s overhauled its Africa Twin Journey Sports activities to create a severely succesful big-mile tourer that may maintain its personal with the most effective of them…
For 2024, Honda’s finessed its Africa Twin Journey Sports activities so it’s much more suited to the street (whereas largely leaving the ‘customary’ Africa Twin alone – except for now providing digital suspension as an additional). The manufacturing facility type of downplayed it, however It’s a reasonably substantial shift.
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The massive information is that the brand new Journey Sport will get a 19-inch entrance wheel, and a wider 110/80 tyre (in distinction to the previous mannequin’s 21-inch wheel and 90/90 tyre mixture). However that’s not all, as they’ve shortened the suspension, dropped the seat peak additional, tweaked the engine for extra mid-range energy and torque, and fitted a wider fairing and display screen.
To seek out out what’s what, we flew out to Portugal for an excellent blast on each the £16,299 guide model and the £17,599 DCT (which included a quick, token stint alongside a hearth path). Right here’s how we acquired on.
It’s instantly evident that the driving place’s completely different than earlier than. That smaller entrance wheel and shorter, squatter suspension imply that it’s a lot decrease (835mm at its lowest customary seat setting and 855mm at its highest, with a further low seat possibility if you happen to want it – which’ll take it right down to an impressively manageable 800mm). The centre of gravity’s decrease down, too, and in consequence it feels simpler to handle. The bar, peg, seat house is a little bit tighter and pushes you marginally additional ahead over the bars, nevertheless it’s nonetheless super-comfortable for my 6ft 1″ body. There’s extra padding on the seat to make the lengthy stints it’s designed for much more tolerable. And Honda’s even executed some work to enhance its aerodynamic skills, lowering among the buffeting and front-end lightness discovered at excessive speeds with the previous mannequin.
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A little bit of city work, earlier than winding our method alongside an excellent, tight, twisty stretch of street up into the hills provided the right alternative to see simply how properly the brand new bike handles. It’s distinctive. Planted and poised, with much more feeling than the previous mannequin.
The Bridgestone Battlax Journey A41s definitely assist the trigger, offering good, dependable grip and permitting for swift, assured progress. The floor was nice and the roads bone dry, although I’ve ridden with these tyres quite a bit and may testify that they’re simply as able to holding their very own on dirty British roads within the lifeless of winter.
The digital suspension from Showa is prime, too. It really works simply in addition to it did on the earlier era ATAS (although it’s now accessible as an additional on the usual Africa Twin, too), working to stiffen up the suspension the sooner you journey. There’s an enormous quantity of fine-tuning accessible, with Gentle, Mid, Arduous, Off-Highway and Consumer settings to select from. And now you can alter the preload on the fly if you happen to’re including baggage or carrying a pillion. Good. I do query how a lot tweaking precise house owners of this bike will do, suspecting that they’ll discover a setting that works for them and keep on with it. It’s good to have although, for certain.
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The engine’s had some massive updates, too. Honda have managed to extend peak torque by 7% – which is similar improve as once they upped the capability from 1000cc to 1100cc. It kicks out the identical 100bhp, however there’s now 83lb-ft of torque to play with. It really feels a lot peppier than the earlier era, with a smoother however extra direct throttle response, too. To attain all that, they’ve fitted an extended piston for the next compression ratio;they’ve reshaped the crankshaft; reshaped the conrod; added a bigger air duct, ; tweaked the exhaust valve timings; and there’s a lighter, extra environment friendly muffler with a shorter, wider, and decrease tailpipe.
That each one combines to create a reasonably potent bundle. Different journey bikes may need extra ccs and extra outright energy, however the Honda is a lot punchy and has baggage of character. And in any case, how typically can you actually exploit 150bhp on the street?
The gearbox is sweet, the brakes are sharp, and the electronics are plentiful – and comparatively straightforward to navigate after a little bit of time getting acquainted. There’s extra great things, like cruise management and Android Auto and Apple Carplay compatibility.
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There’s the same old DCT (Twin Clutch Transmission) providing, too. It was very practically the one possibility, with the UK arm of Honda first asserting that they had been solely going to be importing the DCT model of the Journey Sports activities. Whereas the semi-auto outfitted bike accounts for 55% of gross sales, it was a little bit of a daring name – and there was a little bit of an uproar from manual-loving riders earlier than they modified their thoughts. The DCT is sweet although. Each time I get the possibility to make use of it, I’m extra impressed. And that is the most effective but. That’s most likely as a result of the Africa Twin makes use of real-time data to resolve when to alter (or not change) gear. For swifter driving, I do really feel extra assured utilizing the up/down paddles on the switchgear, however for every little thing else I’d haven’t any situation sticking it in Auto and letting it do its factor.
There are compromises to be made although. We had been let free on a brief 5km-long gravel monitor, and as enjoyable because it was, the most recent ATAS shouldn’t be actually an off-roader. It’ll do it, and you’ll whack it in Off-Highway or Gravel mode, swap off the ABS and HSTC (traction management) to get it arrange excellent, however the standing driving place feels far much less pure for my lanky body. Fortunately, if the filth is the place you wish to journey, you possibly can snag your self a ‘customary’ Africa Twin which retains its 21″ entrance.
The manufacturing facility’s determined to make a extra apparent distinction between the 2 fashions, and I reckon it’s all the higher for it. The adjustments make an already nice journey tourer even higher. Good work, Honda.
