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Another Africa Twin Cometh from Honda?

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Honda Motorcycles Europe has a peculiar video on its YouTube channel, which teases that “the adventure continues” starting this Friday, October 16th. The video is peculiar, because we have already seen the Honda Africa Twin, which debuted at last year’s trade shows.

The video itself doesn’t give away much, other than two riders making their way through some backcountry on a pair of Honda Africa Twin motorcycles.

Best guess seems to be that we’ll see a model variant or two from Honda, most likely including a “touring” model. More radical guesses would be a smaller displacement machine to accompany the 1,000cc adventure-touring beast.

While the latter makes a great deal of sense from a segment point-of-view, there is nothing to suggest such a thing, so we are thinking it’s more likely the prior. We won’t have to wait long to find out though.

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Official Details & Photos of the 2016 Honda Africa Twin

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After leaking twice yesterday, Honda has officially dropped details and photos on its highly anticipated adventure-tourer, the 2016 Honda Africa Twin. A continuation of the legacy by the same name, the new Honda Africa Twin is an off-road focused machine that will go head-to-head with the big ADV bikes already on the market.

Built around a 998cc parallel-twin engine, which makes 94hp and 72 lbs•ft of torque, the Africa Twin tips the scales at the curb at 503 lbs (standard model, first photos after the jump) / 534 lbs (DCT/ABS models, shown above).

Spec-sheet off-road racers are likely not going to be happy with these numbers, though they measure well against the KTM 1190 Adventure R and BMW R1200GS Adventure.

What we think ADV riders will come around to is Honda’s off-road built dual-clutch transmission, which will have the benefit of making shifts while out of the saddle much easier, and giving clutch-free operation, much like a Rekluse clutch.

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Honda Africa Twin Specs Leaked with Hi-Res Photo

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Last night we brought you a leaked video of the new Honda Africa Twin, which revealed the off-road oriented adventure bike in all its glory. Today, we get to see the leaked specs of the Honda CRF1000L (the model designation of the Africa Twin), along with what looks like an official high-resolution photo.

The spec-sheet for the Africa Twin has long been something of interest for ADV fans, with the obvious questions being 1) how much horsepower will it make? and 2) how much will it weight. The answers are 94hp, and 458 lbs dry (467 lbs with ABS, 489 lbs with DCT).

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Finally, Here is the Honda Africa Twin in All Its Glory

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UPDATE: Technical specifications for the 2016 Honda Africa Twin have also leaked.

Honda has been teasing a six-part video series about the Honda Africa Twin, and the final installment has just leaked onto the internet. As you would expect, the video finally gives us the full monty on what the Honda CRF1000L will look like, along with some great action footage.

Perhaps even better, the final installment of Honda’s video series also features a very interesting discussion with HRC riders, Honda engineers, and stakeholders to the Africa Twin brand.

The discussion is very insightful to the development of the 1,000cc adventure bike platform, including off-roading’s first dual-clutch transmission (DCT).

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Even More Photos of the Honda Africa Twin

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After a few grayscale photos of the new Africa Twin hit the internet from Honda’s Australian patent filing, now even more photos have emerged, which show the adventure-tourer from every angle…literally.

The Honda CRF1000L, as it is designated, will features a 1,000cc parallel-twin engine, an option dual-clutch transmission that has been tuned for road use, and a setup very similar to Honda’s Dakar stage-winning bike.

If the hype is to be believed, the Africa Twin is going to be a very capable off-road ADV bike, something that the machine’s 21-inch front wheel hints at with a purpose.

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Honda Africa Twin Revealed in Photos

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After Honda first released heavily cropped and vignetted photos of the 2016 Honda Africa Twin, we have been wanting to know more about the 1,000cc ADV bike.

It helps that a video leaked of the Africa Twin out playing in the dirt, but of course we know that the CRF1000L (as Honda designates it) will be very similar to the True Adventure prototype that Honda brought to EICMA.

But like the spoiled children we the media are, we want to open all our Christmas presents right now, so we go digging through the interwebs for every little clue.

Luckily, patent applications for the Honda Africa Twin’s design show the new off-roader in all its glory, sans color unfortunately. Still, this is our first glimpse at the final design of the Africa Twin, which will be in US dealers early next year.

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Leaked Video of the Honda Africa Twin Out Testing

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It looks like some video of the new Africa Twin has leaked out of Honda HQ, showing the adventure-touring bike going through its paces.

From the few glimpses we see from the video, the Honda Africa Twin looks very similar to the True Adventure prototype that Honda unveiled at EICMA.

Designated as the Honda CRF1000L, the Africa Twin is shaping up to be a very interesting motorcycle from Big Red.

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News

Honda Begins to Hype Its “True Adventure”

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We were a bit dismayed when Honda didn’t debut its new “Africa Twin” at the 2014 EICMA show, as a proper ADV machine from the Japanese had been well-rumored prior to the show.

To its credit, Honda did show us the “True Adventure” concept, which fit the bill quite nicely, though no technical aspects were made public, and no production date was mentioned.

Looking like a near-production machine though, we had hopes of seeing the Africa Twin / True Adventure / Whatever debuting officially soon, especially since the concept had some intriguing aspects to it (namely, no clutch lever).

Honda seems to be warming up to that release date though, after posting two videos to its European YouTube channel. The first video plays on Honda’s history in the Dakar Rally, an event that is rapidly approaching us; and the second video depicts various long-distance Honda explorers — both key elements to the ADV culture.

Could Big Red be readying its proper ADV for a last-model year release? It’s certainly acting like it.

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Up-Close with the Honda “True Adventure” Prototype

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One of the more anticipated motorcycles at the 2014 EICMA show, off-roaders were expecting to see the new Honda Africa Twin in Milan this week. Instead, Honda trotted out what they’re calling the “True Adventure” prototype. Despite not being a production model, the True Adventure prototype looks ready for prime time, and we got a series of “up-close” photos of the machine.

Most obvious is the bike’s parallel twin engine, which is rumored to be 1,000cc in displacement. That sizing/weight class seems to jive with the dual front brake discs, which also sports an ABS tone ring. We can expect Honda to have traction control operating off the front and rear wheel speeds as well, and other electronic packages as well.

Less noticeable is the fact that the Africa Twin prototype doesn’t have a clutch lever or gear shifter on it. Whether its an overshight from Honda, or the sign of a new shifting mechanism from the Japanese manufacturer is up for debate, but it’s an interesting development, for sure.

Check out the photos after the jump, and let us know if you see any other details from the muddied and camouflaged show bike.

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Honda Africa Twin “True Adventure” Prototype Revealed

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Honda doesn’t have any actual new bikes to show at the 2014 EICMA show, but it did bring two “prototypes” of the bikes we most eagerly wanted to see from Big Red.

We already posted about the Honda RC213V-S prototype street bike with MotoGP blood, and here we have what Honda isn’t calling an Africa Twin, just yet.

The long-rumored dual-sport looks quite similar to the renderings we have already seen, and Honda is using the working name “True Adventure” for now.

Expected to be based off the company’s Honda CRF450 Rally race bike, the prototype diverges with its parallel-twin engine, the headers for which can be seen in the photo above.

Like the RC213V-S, we hopefully will see the finished machine at the Tokyo Motor Show, later next month. Until then, chew on these photos from the Honda stand in Milan.

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Rumors

More Honda Africa Twin Rumors from Europe

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After we spotted the name “Africa Twin” in the USPTO online filings, buzz about a proper adventure-touring model from Honda have been swirling the internet, and even in print. German magazine Motorrad adds to the rumor mill, saying that the recently released privateer racer-only Honda CRF450 Rally will serve as the basis for the ADV model.

Italian online site Moto.it confirms that the Africa Twin will be visually similar to the CRF450 Rally, and goes on to say that the new model will likely not debut in 2014, but instead Spring 2015.

According to Moto.it, the Honda Africa Twin will have a strong off-road bias as an adventure model (a 21″ spoked wheel up front), be roughly 440 lbs at the curb, and have a displacement between 900cc and 1,000cc.

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