Smaller Honda Africa Twin in the making

Honda is planning to bring a smaller version of the Africa Twin to the world market. But we’ll have to wait for couple of years more before we see it in the concept or production form. 

The Japanese manufacturer felt there’s a need of a smaller Africa Twin that will cater to less experienced and younger riders. The Africa Twin is a full-blow adventure bike which has a litre-class motor and weight that a few might find intimidating. 

“When we speak about pure adventure, we don’t have such a wide line up. And yes, we are thinking of putting a half-way model in to attract younger people. We will develop this bike, but it’s not something we are working on right now," said Kenji Morita, large project leader, Honda.

There’s a high chance of a smaller adventure bike to be in the 650cc-800cc space as this is where most of the action is. KTM has the upcoming 790 Adventure, Triumph has their new Tiger and BMW just unveiled the F760GS and the F850GS. The Japanese manufacturer has a 750cc parallel twin motor doing the job in the NC750X. So we can expect Honda to borrow this motor and mate it with their famous DCT gearbox and bring in their new middle-weight adventure bike. 

While Honda did say that this project is not in their priority, we believe it will definitely show something at the 2019 Tokyo Motor Show. The new Euro 5 emission norms kicks in 2020, so expect a lot of new models from all the manufacturers. 

Source : MCN