Honda’s first Africa Twin, the XRV650 (RD-03), debuted in May 1988 to capitalise on Honda’s success in the Paris-Dakar Rally with the legendary NXR750 race bike. The Africa Twin stuck as closely as possible to the race bike’s design and was even produced by HRC rather than Honda. In 1990 it was bumped up to 750cc, with all these early models boasting a V-twin engine, before production finally ceased in 2003.
Some 13 years later, Honda decided to relaunch the Africa Twin name and the 2016 model CRF1000 was unveiled, this time with a parallel-twin engine. This was one of the most anticipated adventure bike launches in history and the bike didn't disappoint. Sales were so strong that the first shipment into Australia fast sold out. But then disaster struck in Fuji, Japan, when an accident at a nuclear powerplant caused major delays in manufacturing subsequent shipments of ATs.
TORQUE TO ME
The latest-generation Africa Twin
