The perfect bike is, well, impossible. Everybody has a different preference, and with everybody's choices being so different, we are never going to land on the perfect motorcycle. However, some do come pretty close to it. Take the modern sport tourers or crossovers, as we call them. If you like riding on tarmac, you trade in a little bit of the handling prowess of a sport bike, but you also add the long-distance capability of a two-wheeler. They are capable of dealing with bad roads incredibly well and offering thrills in normal everyday situations. Why Adventure Touring Motorcycles Make So Much Sense DucatiAdventure bikes have also got some pretty good candidates for the perfect motorcycle, especially the adventure touring motorcycles, because, like the crossover, they focus on being good at a myriad of things. And with the help of technology today, they are pretty darn good at all of them. Now there is an adventure bike that suits every single budget. But to find the bike that gets everything almost perfect, we will have to look at the premium end of the adventure touring scale.The answer is not what you would usually imagine it to be. The bike that gets everything almost perfect needs to appeal to the widest possible audience. That means it needs to deliver on almost everyone's expectations, whether it is someone who wants value out of the bike or someone who wants premium features and is willing to pay for them. Thankfully, the world's largest two-wheeler manufacturer, Honda, has an answer for us. The Honda Africa Twin Adventure Sports Is The Bike That Gets Everything Almost Perfect Honda PowersportsThe Africa Twin is either a motorcycle that Honda refuses to change because it wants to hold on to its identity at the risk of appearing stagnant, or it was born almost perfect. Swing a leg over one. You will likely believe the latter because while the Africa Twin does not look very impressive on the spec sheet, in the real world, it is much greater than the sum of its parts. It is so effortless at doing so many things that would have other motorcycles in its segment out of their depth. The automatic gearbox makes it very, very easy in traffic when combined with its narrow feel and light steering. On the highway, it has the legs to keep up at highway speeds all day, and then if you show it a patch of dirt, it will behave like a dirt bike, not like a full-sized adventure bike. This Is Priced Like A Bargain HondaThe base Africa Twin costs just $15,199. But the Adventure Sports variant starts at $17,799. For the variant with the manual gearbox in the US market, the Africa Twin Adventure Sports is available only with electronic suspension. This explains the price difference from the regular Africa Twin, which is available only without electronic suspension. You can also add the dual-clutch automatic gearbox to the Adventure Sports and drive the price to $18,599. Of course, this is a full-featured product, as Honda usually does, so you do not need to add many things to it, but we would want to add the center stand and the engine guard to it. Still, it is a very reasonable price compared to the leaders in its segment. Familiar Engine Is Reliable, With Real-World Performance Honda PowersportsThe Africa Twin's engine is a familiar one because it has been around for a while and is now used in both the NT1100 sport tourer and the Rebel 1100 cruiser as well. In the Africa Twin, it displaces 1084cc from a parallel-twin configuration with a 270-degree firing order and Honda's Unicam SOHC head with four valves per cylinder. It has a compression ratio of 10.5:1 and makes 100 horsepower at 7,500 RPM and 82 pound-feet at 5,500 RPM.These are not very exciting figures for a mid-sized adventure bike, let alone a full-sized one, but somehow the Africa Twin makes it work. It does not lack performance in any sense in the real world. And if you select the manual gearbox, you get a six-speed one with an assist and slipper clutch and a standard two-way quickshifter. The Automatic Gearbox Is A Better Choice For Most Honda PowersportsHowever, there is a very interesting option as well, and that is Honda's six-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission. This gearbox has also been around for a very long time, so its reliability is quite good. It offers different modes for different situations. D mode, as expected, is the regular mode; it prioritizes smoothness, efficiency, and quick upshifts over everything else, although it is a dynamic mode and can hold onto gears longer if you ride aggressively. However, if you want a more aggressive shift pattern, there are three versions of the S mode available, each with more aggressive shifts that happen higher in the rev range.HondaYou can also go fully manual and shift gears either with the paddles on the left handlebar or the optional foot shifter. The Africa Twin is unique in that it gets something called a ‘G switch’, which allows the clutch to be slipped more at walking speeds. This allows the Africa Twin automatic to deal with technical, low-speed maneuvers off-road, while in normal mode, it engages the clutch quite quickly so you can spin up the rear wheel and kick the tail out. Off-Road-Type Chassis Is Unique In The Segment HondaThe Africa Twin has a semi-double-cradle frame, which is a kind of frame usually seen on off-road motorcycles. Today's full-sized and premium adventure motorcycles do not use this kind of frame because of the weight penalty it imposes. The Honda has a steel rear subframe for extra load-bearing capacity, but pairs that with an aluminum two-sided swingarm. The Adventure Sports has 45mm inverted Showa front forks and a Pro-Link Showa monoshock with a gas-charged damper. This is the Showa EERA electronic suspension with automatic damping adjustment, and it offers 8.3 inches of travel at the front and 7.9 inches at the rear.HondaThe brakes consist of twin 310mm wave discs with radial four-piston fixed calipers at the front and a 256mm wave disc with a single-piston caliper at the rear. The Adventure Sports has a 19/18-inch wheel diameter combination. These are spoke rims capable of fitting tubeless tires on them. This is also a pretty unique wheel size combination, and the regular Africa Twin has a more standard 21/18-inch combination. A Slight Weight Penalty, But Otherwise A Fun Size ADV Here too, the specs do not quite give the full story of the Africa Twin. This is a big motorcycle at 88.1 inches long, 37.8 inches wide, and with a wheelbase of 61.8 inches. However, it feels a lot smaller than it actually is, which means it does wonders for rider confidence. Short people will not particularly like the high 33.7-inch seat height, but you do get a very good 8.7 inches of ground clearance thanks to the relatively low height of that unique Unicam SOHC engine. Where the Africa Twin is not as good as its competitors is in the curb weight, thanks to the semi-double-cradle frame. The figure stands at 559 pounds (in DCT form), ready to ride with a full tank of fuel. Good Feature Set That Doesn’t Go Overboard Is Present HondaA by-wire throttle and six-axis IMU are standard, which means you get Honda's full electronics suite. It includes seven-level HSTC traction control, cornering ABS that is also switchable, four ride modes plus two user-customizable ones, three levels of switchable wheelie control, and cruise control. None Of The Competition Are As Perfect As The Africa Twin BMWThe Africa Twin is not a perfect motorcycle, but it is as close to perfect as you could possibly get because of its combination of pricing, features, reliability, ownership costs, and simply how good it is to ride. The leader in the segment is the BMW R 1300 GS Adventure. It has a great base price, but if you want the automatic gearbox, it jumps to nearer $30,000 rather than $20,000. If you look at the other giant of the segment, the Ducati Multistrada V4 Rally, its base price is well over $30,000. You do get some fantastic features with these, but the price difference is simply too large to ignore if you want value for your money.Source: Honda PowerSports