Honda CRF1100L Africa Twin

From the perspective of just the way it looks, the Honda CRF1100L Africa Twin scores full marks as a motorcycle that looks like it is built for the purpose it is meant. The tall stance and the lean-looking body panels of the Honda CRF1100L Africa Twin look very much inspired by Honda’s Dakar Rally motorcycles, which are designed and engineered to survive in the most gruelling conditions.

At the front, the Honda CRF1100L Africa Twin has a minimalist-looking front face, which comprises sunglasses-shaped dual semi-rounded LED headlamps with daytime running LEDs on their outer circumference. While there is a compact blacked-out visor above the headlamp with a transparent cowl attached to it, the lower part of the headlamp has a broad-looking blacked-out chin. The LED turn indicators are positioned slightly behind the upper corners of the front fascia. The front fender with its edgy design towards the front also suits the character of the motorcycle very much.

Moving towards the side profile, the Honda CRF1100L Africa Twin impresses with its tall stance lean looks, with sharp-looking body panels adjacent to the front fascia, which flow towards the bottom and end with sharp edges. The fuel tank is large and goes well with the overall persona of the motorcycle with its flowing-downward design. Other elements which look purposeful are the heavy-duty engine sump guard made of aluminium, spoke wheels with off-road spec tyres, high-rising side-mounted exhaust pipe and exposed bits of the frame and tubular sub-frame.

The Honda CRF1100L Africa Twin looks wider when moving towards the rear, with the tailpiece having broad panels and a large pannier mounted attached on the sides of the pillion seat. The tailpiece of the motorcycle ends with a small LED tail lamp flanked with LED turn indicators and a small luggage rack above it. The rider’s cockpit of the Honda CRF1100L Africa Twin too looks as if it has come straight from a Dakar Rally motorcycle, with a large rectangular 6.5-inch TFT touchscreen instrument console with Apple Carplay and Bluetooth compatibility, and a small auxiliary screen for the instrument console.

The Honda CRF1100L Africa Twin feels rock-solid and planted not only in traffic conditions and long highway stretches but also on the surfaces when the going gets tough. It is all down due to the fantastically-tuned suspension combination of Cartridge-type Showa 45mm inverted telescopic forks with dial-style preload adjuster and DF adjustments at the front and pro-link fully-adjustable mono-shock from Showa at the rear. The motorcycle rides on a purposeful set of 90/90-21 tyre at the front and 150/70-18 tyre at the rear, while for braking, it comes with dual 310mm front discs and a single 256mm rear disc at the rear.

The Honda CRF1100L Africa Twin gets the biggest twin-cylinder engine from the Japanese two-wheeler maker – a four-stroke, liquid-cooled, 8-valve, 270-degree parallel-twin, 1083cc engine. This engine is derived from the technology used in Dakar Rally-spec motorcycles and pumps out 102 PS of maximum power and 104 Nm of peak torque output. The Honda CRF1100L Africa Twin comes with an 18.8-litre fuel tank and promises a fuel efficiency figure of 20.5 kmpl.

The Honda CRF1100L Africa Twin is one of the most well-equipped motorcycles from Honda, which comes with six riding modes (tour, urban, gravel, off-road, User 1 and User 2 modes), dual-channel ABS with off-road ABS mode, Honda Selectable Torque Control, Rear Lift Control, Wheelie Control, Cruise Control and a 6-axis IMU.

With a perfectly-engineered engine and suspension setup and a long list of features, the Honda CRF1100L Africa Twin is one of the most desirable and iconic motorcycles you can buy in the full-size adventure tourer category.