[Honda Africa Twin News]

Courtesy of Motorcycle.com, we now have a 16' Honda CRF1000L Africa Twin dyno chart.

According to Honda, the Africa Twin is supposed to hit 93.9 crankshaft hp at 7,500 rpm and 72.3 lb-ft of torque at 6,000 rpm. Of course, the guys at Motorcycle.com had to put this to the test so they strapped a new Dakar Rally AT to the MotoGP Werks Dynojet 250 and the actual numbers are a bit lower than what Honda claims.

Before anyone picks up their torches and pitchforks, we have to remember that the Dynojet measures the rear wheel horsepower and not the crankshaft hp. Generally with chain drive bikes we see around a 10% horsepower reduction in the rear wheel. The resulting numbers are just around the estimated ballpark at 86 hp and 67 lb-ft of torque if you take into account that 10% difference.

Numbers aside, EiC Duke thinks “Honda’s motor feels much livelier than the dyno chart indicates, pulling strongly from down low and revving out with decent gusto up top”. We can see proof of his claim in the strong and linear torque curve that will deliver instant response anywhere on the rev-range.

A contributing factor to the AT’s lively feel at low revs could be its lightweight body. With a full tank of fuel the AT only weighs 525 pounds and 545 pounds with bags, putting it just one pound over its liter-class adventure bike competitors like the Suzuki V-Strom 1000 and Kawasaki Versys 1000.

In the future, we will be seeing the Africa Twin go head to head with its main competitors in the publication’s next Adventure Touring Epic.

 

[FullThrottle]

does the AT have a soft rev limiter? I see a bit of a dip before it goes up again at around 8000 rpm.

 

[rider_marc]

Can the title of this thread be corrected? I doubt it really is a 16' (foot) chart.

:grin2:

 

[SoAZRider]

does the AT have a soft rev limiter? I see a bit of a dip before it goes up again at around 8000 rpm.

Reviewing video of a false neutral between 3rd and 4th while attempting to shift at 7700 RPM shows that the bike does indeed have a hard rev limiter at 8k. IDK why anyone would want a soft rev limiter as this would make it much harder to feel the power dropoff as it occurs so close to redline. I am guessing the bike could rev to 10k but there would be no point as you're way out of the powerband at that point. Still, with a Power Commander, you could remap it and possibly make use of the extra 2k. It is a super smooth engine.
Keep in mind, this bike has a lot of performance potential waiting to be unlocked because it is detuned to run on low octane gas.
The compression ratio is only 10:1. Premium fuel plus power commander will equal a 130 HP bike. Once mine is several years old and paid off, I'll jack up the compression to 12:1 and be getting more like 160 HP. It will probably be that long before high compression heads and/or pistons are available anyway.

Be sure to check out the SoAZRider channel on YouTube.Thanks.
I will be getting her out to the track soon to see how she does.

 

[Meurigxp]

The compression ratio is only 10:1. Premium fuel plus power commander will equal a 130 HP bike. Once mine is several years old and paid off, I'll jack up the compression to 12:1 and be getting more like 160 HP. It will probably be that long before high compression heads and/or pistons are available anyway.

Maybe this link maybe of interest

http://www.zabikers.co.za/2017/04/19/africa-twin-performance-upgrades-that-work/