2014 EICMA: 2015 Honda True Adventure Prototype Preview
The rumors leading up to EICMA were that Honda would introduce an all-new Africa Twin adventure bike at the Milan Show. Unfortunately, those rumors were only partially true, as Honda revealed prototype it calls the True Adventure.
Discuss this at our Honda Africa Twin Forum.
But make no mistake, the True Adventure is indeed the modern Africa Twin in spirit, if not in name. The prototype on display is caked in mud, barely covering its camo-pattern paint job, suggesting the True Adventure is actually off-road capable unlike the mainly road-going adventure-inspired models currently in vogue.
Honda says the True Adventure was influenced by its CRF450 Rally racer, though the engine is clearly a twin-cylinder powerplant instead of the 450’s single. It’s unclear, however, how big the engine is. Dakar rally rules restrict motorcycles to a maximum displacement of 450cc, but there’s nothing holding the True Adventure prototype to those regulations.
No further details were provided, which is a bit of a let down. We’ll have to wait a while longer for Honda to let us know if/when the True Adventure will head to production, and whether it will be called the Africa Twin.
Dennis has been a part of the Motorcycle.com team since 2008, and through his tenure, has developed a firm grasp of industry trends, and a solid sense of what's to come. A bloodhound when it comes to tracking information on new motorcycles, if there's a new model on the horizon, you'll probably hear about it from him first.
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The Kawasaki is awesome, but this is a bike I would love to see for sale in America. A modern smaller sized real adventure touring bike with a bit more sophistication than the KLR and still retaining Honda durability? Absolutely.
I am absolutely stoked about this. Honda was promising already back in 2010 all bikes were to phase into fuel injection by 2013. I was expecting/hoping Honda would give the XR650L the same update treatment the CRF250L got. I have been bugging Honda to put a small diesel in a big bore adventure bike (like that'll happen), but it looks here like they might have put an NC750X engine in the frame. Or perhaps it's the same idea as the NC750 but scaled down to a 500. That would be absolutely, absolutely stellar. The NC engines are absolute torque monsters and tractors, which is perfect for this type of adventure bike, IMHO. A 500cc NC type engine with gobs of torque and low and mid-range power, water cooling with fuel injection and even better mileage than the NC750, which is already stellar, plus a dedicated chassis and Honda reliabability...this could be the one I've been waiting for. Won't need a diesel with that kind of engine. Please please Honda, into North America with this???