3D Concept Design featured in Italian InMoto MagazineRumours are flying that Honda is working on a new replacement for the Africa Twin adventure bike, but with several competing stories, it’s getting hard to distinguish fact from fallacious fiction.

Honda originally introduced the Africa Twin in 1989, on a swell of Dakar success, and ended production in 2003. You don’t see many, if any, in North America but the rugged adventure bike is a cult classic overseas. Pages of ongoing discussion can be found on ADVrider and the ATiC forum even though Honda hasn’t made the bike in over 10 years.

That might be about to change, though. After Honda re-entered the Dakar Rally back in 2013, rumours started circulating that they were going to bring out a new Africa Twin. Those rumours continue to intensify, but are getting progressively more divergent.

Originally, the rumours swirled around a statement supposedly made by a bigwig with Honda’s Italian arm. La Gazzetta dello Sport said Vito Cicchetti , general manager of Honda Italy, told them a new V-twin adventure bike was en route, and that we might see it in 2015. At the time, it was expected to be in the 800cc range.

A few months later, we haven’t really seen anything of that bike, except more rumours. Some European mags are reporting the bike will be a challenger to the BMW R1200GS’s crown, with serious off-road capabilities, unlike other adventure-ish bikes Honda’s built lately (hello, NC700X and XL1000V Varadero). Not only will the bike have tons of power, they say, but it’ll be something you can take off-road without worrying about breaking it.

Most of the recent rumours come from Motorrad, a German mag that put the gossip on their front cover for the April issue, saying the new bike would be built around a 1000cc parallel twin, with dirt-friendly 21/17-inch wheels and a 440-lb wet weight. Bold claims, indeed - that sounds pretty lightweight, for a machine of that size.

On the other hand, there are also rumours that Honda is working on a smaller-capacity bike that’s more along the lines of their 450cc Dakar machine, which is itself a spiced-up version of the CRF450 platform. 

Concept Sketch by S. Kraft featured in German Motorrad Magazine

The most solid information we’ve seen comes from the US Patent and Trade Office. Last July, they registered the name Africa Twin as a trademark, and in the past weeks, drawings of an adventure bike have also surfaced from the USPTO, supposedly showing a Honda patent application for a machine with spoke wheels and parallel twin motor.

Honda’s official line through all this? The US Honda media rep says, no department of Honda has released anything official to anyone. In other words, if anyone has been spilling the beans, they aren’t doing so with company blessing. Alternatively, every industry has media hacks eager to fabricate just about anything to create a sensational headline and capitalize from the clicks, though they may be short-lived.

When will we know for sure about the Africa Twin? If the gossip is true, it’s hard to imagine we won’t catch some glimpse of the bike in the coming months, especially if it’s released as a 2015 model. If it’s not true, then ADVMoto speculates we’ll see the new Africa Twin release about the same time as a host of other comparable models form the “Big-Four” perhaps in 2016, or as late as 2017. A mass market introduction like this would be a major game changer for the market, one that consumers and the aftermarket could really get excited about.

Recent Patent Drawings Showing a Parallel Twin Motor for the New Africa Twin

While the Japanese manufacturers are pretty good at foiling spy photographers, they usually release concept bikes detailing their plans well in advance of any official launch. Suzuki provided concept art and hints of details well before the V-Strom 650 and 1000 actually came to market. If the original rumored 2015 launch date is true, or even if we’re looking at a 2016 date, you can probably expect something solid soon. Considering the recent swath of Honda’s heavy automatic transmission and adventure “styled” models, we live in optimism that the rumors of a big-bore off-road capable adventure bike from ol’ Red will come to fruition in one form or another. Like any adventure, hope must spring eternal! Check out our latest article on the 2016 Africa Twin.

Comments: Place your bets!  Will Honda release a new Africa Twin CRF1000 in 2015?