For 2020 both the Africa Twin and Africa Twin Adventure Sports ES offer more power and better handling, with a larger parallel twin-cylinder engine carried in a lighter, stiffer chassis. The Adventure Sports ES adds a barrel-full of adventure-touring features such as electronic semi-dynamic suspension, spoked tubeless wheels and tires, cruise control, a larger 6.5-gallon tank and more.

Honda?s CRF1000L Africa Twin was a little late to the adventure-bike party when it was introduced for 2016, but the bike immediately established itself as a solid performing, less-expensive (and often lighter) alternative to the dominant European liter-class ADVs. Nine inches of suspension travel at each end, good ground clearance and 21-inch front and 18-inch rear wheels gave the bike notably good off-road handling for a 500-pound motorcycle, and it offered enough on-road manners for light sport-adventure riding and touring, too. The availability of a DCT version with automatic transmission expanded the bike?s customer base (about 37% are purchased with DCT), and some found DCT made the bike easier to ride off-road. For 2018 Honda added long-range ?Adventure Sports? DCT and manual models with a larger fuel tank and more suspension travel, made minor engine changes to both to beef up midrange power and gave them throttle-by-wire. Today Honda says it has sold 87,000 units worldwide and that the Africa Twin is now the #2 best-selling liter-class adventure bike.
Despite its success, there ...