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ADV VideosVideo: First Ride On The Africa Twin CRF1000L2 Adventure Sports

Video: First Ride On The Africa Twin CRF1000L2 Adventure Sports

We get our first ride on the new premium version of Honda's Africa Twin.

Published on 06.04.2018

As one of the most anticipated adventure bike models before its first appearance in 2016, Honda’s Africa Twin has proven itself to be a solid option in the big adventure bike category. For 2018, Honda has decided to make its first offshoot of the Africa Twin, the CRF1000L2 Adventure Sports. This version of the Africa Twin is positioned by Honda as the premiere option of the bike with longer-travel suspension, a larger tank, and many extras that aren’t on the standard version.

A few weeks ago, we got our first chance to test the new CRF1000L2 model at Honda’s press launch. Our test day consisted of about 60/40 street to dirt, and what dirt we did ride consisted of smooth, hard pack twisty dirt roads. There wasn’t much to fully challenge the longer-travel suspension but we did notice the bike felt a little firmer overall with less dive front and back. The dirt roads offered us plenty of chances to play with the seven different traction control modes to see how much each let the wheel spin.


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Honda Africa Twin CRF1000L2 Adventure Sports Adventure Motorcycle

We spent the whole day on the bike covering about 150 miles through ghost towns, pine forests, and open Arizona desert. This is definitely a long haul bike since the long day in the saddle didn’t feel that long at all. The new seat, windscreen, and seating position made gobbling up dirt and highway miles a breeze, and we weren’t even close to having to stop for gas. If memory serves correctly, the tank read about half full at the end of our test day.

We are looking forward to adding a CRF1000L2 in our test stable soon so we can get a proper shakedown of the new suspension. Follow the link to see our full first test of the Adventure Sports.

Author: Sean Klinger

With his sights set on doing what he loved for a living, Sean left college with a BA in Journalism and dirt bike in his truck. After five years at a dirt-only motorcycle magazine shooting, testing, writing, editing, and a little off-road racing, he has switched gears to bigger bikes and longer adventures. He’ll probably get lost a few times but he’ll always have fun doing it. Two wheels and adventure is all he needs. 

Author: Sean Klinger
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7 Things To Know About The All-New Honda CRF450L - ADV Pulse
June 5, 2018 10:07 am

[…] has been, without a doubt, a huge year for Honda. They launched a new version of the Africa Twin (CRF1000L2 Adventure Sports) and made a ton of changes to the standard AT as well. We were pretty sure that […]

trackback
5 Reasons Why DCT on the Africa Twin Is An Asset Off-Road - ADV Pulse
June 11, 2018 12:01 pm

[…] time for the back wheel to roll back down the ledge and we were stuck. The good news is that the 2018 Africa Twin(s) don’t have this issue because of their throttle-by-wire […]

Jake Murray
Jake Murray
July 11, 2018 8:48 am

Do you think the Adventure Sports’ OEM crash bars and oil pan can stand up to legitimate OHV park abuse? I’d hate to buy the “premium” package and then have to replace all the premium parts, haha!

Thanks!

ADV Pulse
ADV Pulse
July 11, 2018 4:51 pm
Reply to  Jake Murray

Hey Jake. The crash bars are the same as what comes on the standard Africa Twin as an accessory. In our experience, they work pretty well. Well enough to not feel a strong need to replace them. The new skid plate looks a lot beefier than the old one. We’ll be picking up an L2 soon, so we’ll report back after getting a chance to test it more thoroughly.

Jake Murray
Jake Murray
July 12, 2018 8:08 am
Reply to  ADV Pulse

That’s great news! My “cheap” KLR isn’t as cheap as it once was with all the farkles I’ve had to bolt onto it to take it off-road in earnest up here in OR.

Thank you very much for your reply, and I’ll look forward to your review of the L2! Stay safe my man 🙂

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