2020 Honda Africa Twin CRF1100L Announcement Coming Sept. 23
Honda officially confirmed that a new Africa Twin will be announced on Sept. 23, releasing a new teaser video offering a glimpse of the front of the updated adventure bike. Though obscured by shadow, what we can see of the 2020 Honda Africa Twin CRF1100L appears to match the photos from Australian certification documents Motorcycle.com was first to report earlier this week.
The video reveals a sleeker front face, with a pair of circular LED headlights. As we saw in the photos we ran, the front fairing comes in tighter around the headlights, eliminating the “goggle” look on the current Africa Twin. The bike in the video has crash bars and auxiliary lighting, suggesting we’re looking at the Adventure Sports version of the new Africa Twin, while two openings below the headlight appear to contain additional lighting; lean-sensitive headlights perhaps?
The video also reveals two versions of the Africa Twin logo, with one incorporating a stylized map of Africa. From the certification documents’ photos, we know the map logo will appear on the Adventure Sports version, and the text-only logo will be on the regular Africa Twin. This suggests that Honda will announce both versions together, rather than stagger them for two separate announcements.
We also know from the certification documents that the 2020 Africa Twin will use a 1084cc engine claiming 101 hp at 7500 rpm, and will be offered with or without DCT. The photos also reveal tubeless rims, a bolt-on subframe, revised hand guards and a new exhaust system.
We’ll find out more about the 2020 Honda Africa Twin and the Africa Twin Adventure on Sept. 23, which incidentally, is just before AIMExpo. Honda says a new bike will make its North American premiere at the show; until now, we thought it might be a model that was already being sold elsewhere, such as the X-ADV, hence the emphasis on “North American”. After this teaser video, that new model may turn out to be the redesigned Africa Twin after all.
Dennis has been a part of the Motorcycle.com team since 2008, and through his tenure, has developed a firm grasp of industry trends, and a solid sense of what's to come. A bloodhound when it comes to tracking information on new motorcycles, if there's a new model on the horizon, you'll probably hear about it from him first.
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We want an Africa Twin 800 that weighs under 490
Let's see. A 40 gallon fuel tank, ride-by-wire, but no cruise.
Curses. Foiled again.