The Adventure Sports is
designed for the rider
who wants to go further
without refuelling, and
jump higher/ride harder
with greater comfort and
control than with the
standard model
onda’s CRF1000L Africa Twin Adventure
Sports is a new high specification version
of Honda’s Africa Twin, which was released
in 2016. The Adventure Sports is designed
for the rider who wants to go further without
refuelling, and jump higher/ride harder with
greater comfort and control than with the
standard model. It is Honda’s top of the line,
alpha male, chest-beating, silverbacked and
totally hard-arsed adventure machine. So…
when KR is offered such a noteworthy machine,
a genuinely testing test ride must follow. It turns
out Honda had two 30-year anniversary models
in Christchurch, a DCT and a manual version… all
we had to do was ride them back to Auckland.
THE PLAN
Obviously, we could have ridden them straight
back up the highway. But… we thought it was
obvious a trip on these bikes should take in
the best NZ has to offer to thoroughly get a
feel for the capability of the new machine. So,
it seemed compulsory to take a ride through
the Molesworth when heading north from
Christchurch. Then, we figured once we hit the
north island we’d take a good old-fashioned
exploration through my old stomping ground
– way out beyond the black stump in the
Wairarapa. After that, Hawkes Bay, the Gentle
Annie and on to AK via the Desert Rd, the
western side of lake Taupo, Waipapa dam and
Kihikihi etc. Plan sorted.
Now, as it was a boys’ trip we decided to go
36 KIWI RIDER
with as little kit as possible for a three-day ride…
just riding gear, a spare pair of keks and a tooth
brush. So, packed with very little and a camera
and a lens or three, Geoff ‘O-show’ Osbourne,
KR snapper extraordinaire and myself took a
super cheap airborne bus to Christchurch.
After a superb overnight stay, catching up
with the MacDonald family of enduro legends
– thanks guys – we greeted our smart looking
Africa Twins, loaded up our ‘gear’ and hit the
road. Our bikes came in special red, white and
blue livery, commemorating Honda’s four on-
the-trot Dakar rally wins in the late 80s, with
legendary riders, Cyril Neveu, Edi Orioli and
Gillies Lalay. In those days they truly did race to
Dakar from the Paris start.