For the last four model years, Honda’s CRF1000L Africa Twin has held an interesting position in the burgeoning adventure bike marketplace. Just enough bike to play in the high-buck, large displacement game yet, approachable enough to be an option for those looking for more of a middleweight mount – something along the lines of BMW’s F850GS, Triumph’s Tiger 800. Although, it’s not light and nimble enough to compete with the new breed of middle-weight players like KTM’s 790 Adventure R and the so-close-yet-so-far-from-the-U.S.-market Yamaha Ténéré 700.

Speculation regarding upcoming Africa Twin offerings has so far been trained on a probable bump in displacement, rendering a presumably modest increase in performance (and cost), most likely an effort to compensate for stringent emissions requirements on the horizon for the EU. Yes, pretty boring stuff, especially when we care even more that an upgraded Africa Twin comes with seemingly obvious e-goodies like cruise control and real-world adventure options like tubeless spoked rims than a few extra digits on the dyno.

But then over the weekend tongues around the globe set to wagging over a story that broke on the Japanese Motorcycle Magazine Autoby featuring renderings of an all-new 850cc Africa Twin. The smaller machine is proclaimed to be in the pipeline for release as a 2021 model and expected to stick to a parallel twin engine. Yes, yes, yes! Wouldn’t we all like to see an all-new edition — and especially a true ADV middleweight option — from Honda?

Because by now we all know displacement does not make the adventure. While some riders want more power, zero riders crave a heavier bike. What’s always more important than output is how we feel on the bike, especially as we explore new skills and venture further from the main roads. However, with bikes like KTM’s new 790 Adventure R entering the middleweight arena boasting comparable engine output and better off-road performance than the current Africa Twin, and for just about the same dough, Honda has its work cut out.

Autoby has a reputation for getting these Honda predictions right, so in the spirit of more choices are better, let’s all light a mental candle that this 850cc Africa Twin rendering materializes into a real bike in the next year or two. Better yet, that it’s in the same mold as the new-gen middleweights and comes to the market with the reliability we know Honda is capable of, and the affordable pricing that made the company one of the world’s most highly-regarded brands.

Author: Jamie Elvidge

Jamie has been a motorcycle journalist for more than 30 years, testing the entire range of bikes for the major print magazines and specializing in adventure-travel related stories. To date she’s written and supplied photography for articles describing what it’s like to ride in all 50 states and 43 foreign countries, receiving two Lowell Thomas Society of American Travel Writer’s Awards along the way. Her most-challenging adventure yet has been riding in the 2018 GS Trophy in Mongolia as Team AusAmerica’s embedded journalist.