[PathRider]

Hi there. I've been living and riding in Japan for 25 years. Just love the new Africa Twin. Took one for a test ride, but haven't bitten the bullet and ordered one yet. Looking forward to checking it out completely at the Osaka Motorcycle Show this month.

 

[PathRider]

Hey PathRider, how tall are you?

I'm waiting on delivery of my AT and thinking of buying the lower seat.

I'm 174cm and I used the seat in the low position for a couple of days, but now it is in the high position. I think I'll go back to the low position for riding around town as it feels safer in traffic, but use the high seat position for long touring.

 

[PathRider]

So I picked up my Victory Red CRF1000L Africa Twin last Friday. I went for the MT version as I felt the DCT to be a bit disengaged. I can certainly see how in certain situations the DCT would have an advantage, but for me, I like to be in control of the gears. I also didn't like the styling of the crankcase with that Borg implant on the side, LOL! That and the additional weight, and of course the additional expense secured my choice.

So far I can say this is the most awesome bike I have ever ridden. The bikes I test rode up until the AT really didn't impress me enough away from my 2007 Versys to warrant dropping an extra 6-800,000JPY (about 6-8,000USD) in order to change, but when I first test rode the AT (MT version), I knew I had to have one. I test rode both the MT and the DCT, and for me the MT was the one that did it for me.

On all other bikes I test rode I was miffed that they needed premium gas, or the screen didn't protect enough, or the fuel consumption didn't impress. Silly stuff. With the Africa Twin, I didn't really care. In fact I didn't even bother to find out whether it needed premium gas or what the fuel consumption was before I bought it because it was just so awesome to ride. True, I checked Fuelly.com to get some real-world fuel consumption figures, but nobody with an AT had joined yet, and it seems I am the first now to post any data. (I'm getting 19km/l BTW after two fill-ups).

Anyway, I love this bike and I look forward to a long relationship with it.

 

[PathRider]

Whats Japan like for riding? I spent 3 weeks in Japan last year an loved it, a bike seems a great way of seeing the country, I would love to ride over there from the UK however is suspect that won't happen ;-)

Is there any bike hire available in Japan ;-)

Also as the average heigh of Japanese people seems less than in the EU and being height challenged myself (162cm, 5ft 4 in) is there a market in lowering etc in Japan as most bikes on the market are a challenge for short people. I have a low seat on my AT but I am still on tip toes.

Japan is an awesome place to ride a bike. All manner of roads to enjoy from forest trails to twisty mountain passes to fast sweeping curvaceous ribbons to high-speed motorways (well 100kph, but...).

Bike hire can be had from this place. I believe they have Africa Twins:-
https://www.rental819.com/english/

 

[PathRider]

Hello PathRider,
My daughter works in Kobe and my wife and I travel to Japan from Australia as often as we can. I would be interested if you can share any information about riding in Japan etc. I bought my Africa twin 3 weeks ago after trading out my vstrom 650 and MT-09. The Africa sits somewhere in between the two in terms of power and torque. Reminds me of riding a oversized crf450r. Lots of useable power, responsive and well balanced. Great ergo's make this bike extremely comfortable and fun to ride. I think the bike is absolutely tremendous value without much compromise. After buying a number of bikes over the years in search of the one for me I think this is it.

I totally agree. I feel it is closer to my old DRZ than my Versys. Love at first sight.

Get your daughter to buy and send you a Touring Mapple map book for Kansai, and start by plotting routes following the the highlighted roads. Personally I would try to avoid the red national highways and stick to the green and yellow prefectural and local roads.