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Africa Twin With Panniers and Crash Bars

63K views 61 replies 25 participants last post by  superfunkomatic 
#1 ·
Part of the official launch photos, a good signthat Honda intends to offer accessories right out of the gate?

 
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#3 · (Edited)
Honda's Used That Theme For A While

I remember seeing the Captain America colored Hondas with gold rims when I was a kid. HRC seem to love the gold rims. Me, I like black, thinking it makes for a tougher look, especially when combined with an aggressive tire. Silver and gold, not my thing.








Click the image below for a link to another cool Africa Twin history site...

 
#4 ·
I have a source who has given me couple of "rumours" and atleast 4 I know now to be true...
I think there will be no harm done if I tell you one of them:
my "source" said that AT will get a lot of accessories from the start and not from Honda. There will be Honda OEM panniers and crashbars (which this time will be real crashbars, not just lightbars like NC or VFR has), but there will be also 3rd party stuff available with AT logos. Source wasn't so sure, but told me that alu panniers will be one of the things, also helmets, boots, etc. Helmets will be Arai Tour X4 (http://www.araihelmet-europe.com/site/collection/tour-x4/) with AT logo etc.
But I know one thing, its just a rumour until proven true.
 
#9 ·
The boxes above look like the ones you get on the 1200GS. Not sure what brand they are, but the side cases are expandable which is a nice feature. My friend has them on his GS and never takes them off. Useful for day trips and then they expand to carry his camping stuff on week long trips. If these function the same way I would be interested. If not I would probably go soft luggage
 
#11 ·
The BMW branded ones are the Vario, typically on the GS. The Aluminum BMW branded panniers are actually Touratech if I remember correctly. Various would shatter on a good drop and the aluminum ones would deform and pop the tops off. That being said I loved the aluminum pannier - easy to take on and off, lots of room and looked good.
 
#22 ·
I actually emailed them to ask a few weeks back. They don't have any UK suppliers - or European ones.

They will ship to the UK though - you "just" need pay 20% VAT and duty (an indeterminate amount based on some official in Customs and Excise's arbitrary decision on how to rate motorcycle luggage - probably around 2.5 - 5%) so around 25% extra - plus a fee from the courier for the aggravation.

So the attractive $700 pannier set become a slightly less attractive $900 pannier set. Which makes Kriega start to look attractive amazingly.
 
#23 ·
I used to be a big Kriega guy, but I've gone off them the more I've toured with Kriega products. Their bags aren't big enough unless you join lots of them together using their modular system - though even then it's hard to pack unusually shaped things like tent poles. But once you start tying multiple bags together it all becomes very fiddly and unwieldy. Hard to take off the bike, hard to carry into hotels, hard to reattach, etc. Over the course of a long trip you start to get annoyed.

So if you just want a small bag to come with you, Kriega is fine. But if you want more capacity, I think I'd go with Mosko despite having to pay import fees.
 
#24 ·
Thanks @anotherbiker - interesting and useful perspective on Kriega. I did wonder a bit about that aspect. And the Kriega pannier rack setup look a little odd imho.

The other half and I quite fancy a trip to NYC in the near future so I wonder how small you can pack the Mosko bags up if I were to buy them over there and get them delivered to our hotel?!
 
#25 ·
Now I am sitting at apduro.com (local producer of accessories near Cracow, Poland). Half of my bike is dismantled and they are thinking how to mount the panniers racks. When whole construction will be ready I will post pictures. The main issue is that there are few mount points and I was told that some solutions, like Touratech's, requires drilling in plastic parts to reach good mounting points. Here, they just figured out how to do this without altering orginal parts.

There is another issue with guards - most of them are not really guards but only accessories racks and will not protect bike or a rider and can make more harm than good during a crash. I am also waiting for solution in this matter from smaller producers with experience in preparing bikes for long and hard trips.
 
#26 ·
Radekw
Because you fairing is removed, if your are in the possibility to make a close up picture off the under fairing service connector. I would like to now the kind of connector it is to make connection for GPS.

I got a picture but I can't find out what connector it is.

 
#27 ·
Radekw
Because you fairing is removed, if your are in the possibility to make a close up picture off the under fairing service connector. I would like to now the kind of connector it is to make connection for GPS.
Sorry, but the rear half is removed - they are trying to create some good mount for panniers :) And I think that to be shure about wiring we should wait for service books to be available in Internet or be nice to the nearest offcial Honda Service :)

Another guy from Poland just put the photos on one Polish forum with front part dismantled - he tries to figure out some good crash bars. I will ask him to take a look at that connector.
 
#29 ·
This is the feedback:
Photo I was saying about was not his. But he says there are three connectors for heated grips, led lights and 12V socket. He still does not know how to get to them and not damage anything (as I said, there is no access to service books on Internet yet). He tried to connect his Garmin directly to the battery and it works, there is no power drain when engine is stopped, but to do this right you need to take off a tank. There is a little place to run a wire in correct way. So he decided to connect that Garmin of his to the connector for 12V socket. But none of us know which one is it :)

As soon as I will know something more I will post here :)
 
#32 ·
It is, but not easy. You need to take off tank and some of plastic parts if you want to do it in a right way. Of course you can route the cable in other way with using of power tape and/or zippers (is this a good name? I mean these small plastic stripes) ;)
 
#31 ·
That white thing on my picture(above) is the under fairing connector. My dealer say's thats the connection of the 12V socket in the fairing.
The additional lights are connected under the seat following dealer. The additional lights are delivered with button in the fairing and wiring loom.


 
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