Honda Africa Twin India Launch In July

It is time for Adventure tourer enthusiasts in India to rejoice, as the Honda Africa Twin is finally heading our way. In a discussion, YS Guleria, senior VP, HMSI, said that Honda will launch the Africa Twin in India by July, 2017. The adventure tourer motorcycle from Honda was first showcased in India at the 2016 Auto Expo and it was speculated that the bike will be launched by the end of 2016. Honda had announced that the the Africa Twin would be brought in via the CKD route, making it the highest displacement motorcycle from the Japanese two-wheeler giant to be assembled in India. 

But for that, Honda had to train its workforce for assembling the bikes in India and allot a separate CKD assembly line which delayed the launch. Honda has managed to localise only five per cent of the components of the Africa Twin in India which means the pricing of the bike will be on the higher side. 

Interestingly, the company plans to launch the six-speed DCT variant in India and not the manual six-speed version. The bike is powered by a 998cc parallel-twin motor that produces 95PS of max power at 7,500rpm and 98Nm of peak torque at 6,000rpm. Talking about electronic goodies, it gets ABS, three-stage traction control and both the systems can be turned off completely, though the ABS can only be fully deactivated for the rear wheel only. 

The bike is equipped with 45mm dia USD forks at the front that are fully adjustable with 230mm of travel and the rear monoshock is fully adjustable as well for damping, rebound and preload and features a travel of 220mm. The bike will also come with a height adjustable seat with the standard height being 870mm.The Honda Africa Twin is expected to be priced around Rs 14 to Rs 15 lakh ex-showroom in India. It will rival the Triumph Tiger, Suzuki V-Strom 1000, Ducati Multistrada and the upcoming BMW R 1200 GS.