We’d all love our motorcycles to be forever motorcycles. But such is the march of technology that there is always something bigger, better, faster that is launched every single year. This used to be the prerogative of sports bikes, because they were representatives of the cutting edge of technology on two wheels, and every last tenth of a lap time matters to them. However, this attitude has shifted to other genres of motorcycles as well. The annual updates, like consumer tech products, have now become the new normal in the motorcycle industry. That includes ADVs!
Adventure Bikes Are At The Cutting Edge Of Tech
Touring motorcycles are guilty of this these days because they are not as constrained by cost targets as other types of motorcycles are. Another segment that follows this is the adventure bike segment for many of the same reasons. They are expected to be overengineered, and therefore, there is a lot more flexibility for the manufacturer to price it at a premium. This opens the door for more technology to be included in the product, and this cycle continues.
The Different Philosophies Behind ADVs Today
There are many different kinds of adventure bikes available in the market today. Some are little more than a dual-sport motorcycle with the ability to hit the highway and carry luggage. Others are mostly road-bound behemoths that can go off-road but need a rider with appropriate skills and training to push their limits. There is everything in between these two extremes. All adventure bikes aspire for one thing, though: reliability.
This is very important to them because they are expected to operate in extreme temperatures and conditions. And they are expected to carry their rider through areas with very little human habitation. In these places, breaking down can mean the difference between getting home and telling the story of the trip of a lifetime or having a near-death experience. So selecting the right adventure motorcycle for your needs takes on a whole new meaning.
Bare-Bones Mountain Goat Or Overcomplicated Powerhouse?
Yamaha decided to take on the competition by making an adventure bike that could, quite literally, take on the Dakar Rally with minimal modifications. The Tenere 700 even looks like a rally-raid motorcycle with its tall, narrow stance and quad-projector headlamp design. It is a very simple motorcycle that has only recently acquired electronics like a by-wire throttle and an optional two-way quickshifter. The ABS has always been present and always has had the ability to be switched off at both axles, showing how serious an off-roader this is. But it’s too serious for you if you don’t really hit the dirt that often.
At the other end of the spectrum is the Ducati Multistrada V4 Rally. This is a premium motorcycle that costs more than most touring motorcycles. However, the moolah is justified with a premium kit. Radar that faces both forward for adaptive cruise control and rearward for blind-spot detection, a by-wire throttle, a six-axis IMU, and an engine with a counter-rotating crankshaft and rear cylinder bank deactivation are all standard. It has even got newfound reliability with the choice of valve springs. However, would you really want to take something this complicated and this expensive to places you have never been to before, especially if a loose surface is involved? Thus, what you need is someone to sit between the Tenere and Multistrada. We have just the thing.
10 Adventure Bikes That Get Surprisingly Good Fuel Economy
The most fuel-efficient adventure motorcycle on this list is a city-friendly bike with an automatic gearbox and an under-$9,500 price tag.
The Honda Africa Twin Adventure Sports Is Built For Riders Who Plan To Keep It Forever
Enter the Honda Africa Twin. Specifically, the Africa Twin Adventure Sports, which is designed to be both a tarmac tourer as well as an off-road explorer with its smaller front wheel and added electronics. Honda does not play the horsepower game; the Africa Twin makes a mere 100 horsepower even today from its full-size engine. And it offers a feature set to fulfill all your needs without overcomplicating things. Couple this with Honda’s penchant for overengineering products, and it makes a convincing case for being the adventure motorcycle built for riders who plan to keep it forever.
The Price Makes It Look Like A Midsize Motorcycle – In A Good Way
The Africa Twin range starts at a little over $15,000 in the US market. But the base variant of the Africa Twin Adventure Sports with the manual gearbox is priced at $17,799, and if you add the dual-clutch automatic gearbox, it jumps ever so slightly to $18,599. This is great value pricing for the segment, especially when compared to the premium competition. It does have a few other names in the full-size segment that are priced similarly, but none that have the brand value of a large, respected manufacturer. And knowing that this is a Honda, spares will be priced reasonably and will be available.
The Engine’s Horsepower Figure Belies Its Real-World Performance
This is a very familiar engine because it has been around for half a decade now. Let’s run quickly through the specs. It is a 270-degree parallel-twin with liquid cooling, PGM-FI, and four valves per cylinder. Honda uses its patented Unicam SOHC head to help make the engine shorter. It displaces 1,084 cc, has a short-stroke design, and has a compression ratio of 10.5:1. The performance figures are 100 horsepower at 7,500 RPM and 82 pound-feet at 5,500 RPM. All that is usable performance rather than being peaky.
10 Adventure Bikes With The Longest Riding Range
The most affordable 300+ mile adventure touring bike on this list is priced under $7,000 and is powered by a single-cylinder engine.
Automatic Gearbox One Of The Main Selling Points
The Africa Twin Adventure Sports is available with a six-speed manual gearbox that is equipped with an assist and slipper clutch and a standard two-way quickshifter. However, the more interesting option is the dual-clutch transmission. This is a true automatic gearbox, unlike the automated manuals that are available with the competition. It has six speeds and two clutches, and over the years, it has gained features that make it a great match for the Africa Twin.
For example, you can leave it in the regular drive mode, and it will adapt the gear shifts to the style of riding. If you want a more aggressive gearshift sequence, switch it to one of three ‘S’ modes that have increasingly aggressive shifts. Alternatively, you can choose to shift gears manually via the paddles on the left handlebar. Finally, there is also something called the ‘G Switch’. When toggled, either allows the engine to slip the clutch more for technical work at walking speed off-road or engages the transmission swiftly so that you can spin the rear wheel up under power.
Showa Electronic Suspension Smoothens The Ride
The Africa Twin uses an old-school semi-double cradle frame, which is unique among the competition. This type of frame adds extra weight, but makes the motorcycle very good off-road. It has a steel rear subframe and an aluminum swingarm. One of the main selling points of the Adventure Sports is the electronic suspension. This is a Showa EERA system with 45 mm inverted forks and a Pro-Link single shock with a gas-charged damper. Both ends are fully adjustable electronically. There is 7.3 inches of travel available at the front and 7.9 inches at the rear.
The Adventure Sports has one of the more unique wheel combinations with a 19-inch front wheel and an 18-inch rear. These are cross-spoke wheels fitted with radial tubeless tires. The brakes are standard fare, with twin 310 mm wave discs at the front paired with radial four-piston fixed calipers and a 256 mm wave disc at the rear with a single-piston caliper.
Tips The Scale At Over 530 LBs
Like the engine power output, the dimensions of the Africa Twin Adventure Sports do not really tell the full story on the spec sheet. It is 88.1 inches long, 37.8 inches wide, and has a 61.8-inch wheelbase. However, it feels a lot more compact and narrow than these numbers suggest. That is a very good thing because the seat is fairly high, at 33.7 inches.
The ground clearance is more than enough for an adventure-touring motorcycle at 8.7 inches, and you can say the same for the 6.6-gallon tank. Coupled with the engine’s fuel efficiency, it has one of the highest tank ranges among all motorcycles. The huge tank does mean a curb weight of 535 pounds, though.
Luxurious Features Without Overdoing Things
The Africa Twin has a large 6.5-inch touchscreen TFT equipped with wireless Android Auto and Apple CarPlay, and still has the small LCD below that shows parameters like the gearshift mode, the speed, and the warning lamps. This display lets you access a full electronics suite. That includes a seven-level traction control system, six total riding modes (two customizable), cornering ABS, wheelie control, and cruise control as standard.
Elsewhere, Honda has thrown in cornering headlamps, an adjustable windscreen, and, in the US market, the electronic suspension. There are a couple of areas where we feel Honda shouldn’t have cut corners with the Africa Twin Adventure Sports because it is the flagship adventure-touring product. A standard engine guard and center stand would have gone a long way in making it more appealing without giving a big hit to the value.
10 Most Practical Adventure Motorcycles In 2026
The most affordable adventure motorcycle here is a sub-$6,000 Royal Enfield with a 40-horsepower mill, a TFT screen, and switchable traction and ABS.
All The Competition Is Way More Expensive
While there are some very impressive products in the premium adventure-touring bike category, there are a grand total of three products that offer the option of an automatic gearbox. The Africa Twin, obviously, is one of them. The other two are the BMW R 1300 GS and the KTM 1390 Super Adventure S Evo.
Both the KTM and the BMW offer an automated manual system that adds to the manual gearbox rather than a completely different automatic gearbox like the Africa Twin Adventure Sports offers. This option also drives the price of these products up significantly. The GS will set you back by nearly $26,000, while the Super Adventure will cost nearly $30,000. This makes the Africa Twin a massively desirable value purchase if an automatic gearbox is important in your adventure-touring motorcycle.
Source: Honda PowerSports