Larger, Leaner & Meaner Africa Twin Coming Soon

The first of the large capacity Hondas is set to arrive on our shores as the new Honda CRF1100L Africa Twin will be launched on 5 March. The bike is set to arrive via the CKD route, with an expected price tag of Rs 15 lakh (ex-showroom India). As it has been the case with the older CRF1000L Africa Twin, it is highly likely that Honda will only bring in the DCT version of the bike.

There has been a major overhaul in terms of build as well as the motor of the new Africa Twin. The new twin pod LED headlights scowl at you if you stare at its face for far too long. The wind-screen is extremely small. Dimensionally, the new Africa Twin is smaller and more compact. The DCT version of the bike tipping the scales at 236kg with fuel on board, 6kg lighter. The seat height, while adjustable, has gone up from 820mm-840mm to 850mm-870mm. And although, this might seem daunting to you right now, know that Honda has slimmed down the Africa Twin by 140mm.

Powering the new CRF1100L is a retuned 1084cc parallel-twin (Duh! Isn’t it already in the name) motor. Honda has increased the stroke length of the old 998cc mill to displace the extra cubes needed to meet Euro 5 (and BS6) emission norms. As a result, the new engine puts out 102PS, the adventure tourer finally breaking past the 100PS barrier. It produces even more torque, 105Nm in total. However, we guess that Honda India will detune the engine, like it has done in the past with all of its CKD products, to meet Indian noise emission laws.