00:00 (upbeat music)
00:03 What took so long for the Transalp to return to the US?
00:06 And is it too late?
00:07 So the original Transalp was brought to the United States
00:13 from 1989 to 1990.
00:16 We only got it for two years.
00:18 Back then a lot of people were buying sport bikes.
00:20 Adventure bikes weren't really a thing yet
00:22 and the bike wasn't successful.
00:23 But now the middleweight adventure bike is really exploding.
00:27 So the all new Honda Transalp has their new 755 CC
00:32 parallel twin with a 270 degree crank.
00:36 This has been a really nice engine in this motorcycle.
00:39 Good usable bottom end, a really strong mid range,
00:42 and then it revs up really nicely
00:44 all the way till it's red line.
00:46 And it's just been a really nice motor off road,
00:48 on the pavement, good amount of throttle down low
00:51 and it hooks up and has a lot of traction.
00:54 And then once you get into that mid range,
00:55 you can really put the power down, slide a corner,
00:58 get out of the hole on the pavement.
01:00 And it's a really nice well-rounded motorcycle.
01:03 The suspension, it has a Showa 43 millimeter fork
01:06 and a Pro-Link Showa shock in the back.
01:08 7.9 up front, right around 7.5 in the rear.
01:12 Preload adjustment on the front and rear.
01:14 There's no other adjustments on this suspension.
01:17 It's not super aggressive.
01:19 So if you go really fast off road,
01:21 you're gonna blow through the stroke
01:22 and it's gonna be a little bit harsh.
01:25 But when you ride it within its limits,
01:27 it's been, you know, really comfortable ride.
01:29 The Honda Trans Elf has a really nice,
01:31 the electronic sweep, especially for a bike
01:34 that costs $9,999.
01:37 You have the option of four preset ride modes,
01:40 standard, sport, gravel and rain.
01:43 And then you have a fully customizable user mode
01:46 where you can dial in the power, traction control,
01:49 engine braking and ABS intervention.
01:52 I spent a lot of my time on this ride
01:54 in user mode, full power, no traction control,
01:58 ABS disabled on the rear.
02:01 And then just the first setting of engine braking.
02:05 And that gave me the ability to slide the bike,
02:07 do wheelies and really kind of make it my own.
02:10 I did experiment with the other modes,
02:12 gravel mode, off road, just the traction control
02:15 kicked on a little bit too much for me.
02:17 But I know some of the other riders
02:18 who have a little less off road experience
02:21 really appreciated that sort of safety net.
02:23 You can get on the gas, it's not gonna step out
02:25 too much for you and you can feel it kind of cut in
02:29 and let the tire hook back up
02:30 before you get moving down the road.
02:33 The bike also comes standard with an up and down
02:36 auto quick shifter.
02:37 And this thing was slick.
02:38 Banging up shifts, going down shifts, it's really nice.
02:42 It's not notchy, smooth.
02:44 It really makes it a nice addition,
02:46 especially as a standard feature for $10,000.
02:49 And it's something that I think everyone will appreciate.
02:52 The Honda Transalp comes with a 21 inch front wheel
02:55 and an 18 inch rear wheel, true off road riding sizes.
02:58 So not only will that give you a great like options
03:01 for tires, but also when you're doing real off road riding,
03:05 you have those familiar settings that you would
03:08 on a dual sport or a dirt bike.
03:10 So you can roll over rocks and logs pretty nicely.
03:14 The ground clearance is right around eight inches.
03:17 So there's not a whole lot of ground clearance,
03:19 but again, this is a more sort of 50/50 adventure bike
03:23 with a really good touring aspect.
03:25 It's something that I think a lot of riders will appreciate.
03:29 The brake system on the Honda Transalp features
03:31 dual 310 millimeter disc with two dual piston calipers
03:36 up front.
03:37 And then the rear, it's a single piston caliper
03:39 with a 256 millimeter disc.
03:42 The brakes are really nice, responsive, progressive.
03:46 They don't have a super aggressive initial bite,
03:48 but I think that's a good thing,
03:49 especially when you're riding off road.
03:51 There was never a point where I felt like, you know,
03:53 the brakes weren't gonna slow me down in time.
03:56 It does have off road ABS.
03:58 You can't disable the ABS completely on the front,
04:01 but when you go into user mode or gravel mode,
04:04 it'll switch to the off road ABS system.
04:08 So you can disable the rear ABS to do skids
04:10 and stuff like that.
04:12 The front will always stay on.
04:13 There was a couple of times in some wet,
04:15 slippery rock sections where just dragging the front,
04:18 I could feel a little bit of that sort of pressure,
04:20 the lever coming back out.
04:22 But for the most part, it was a really unobtrusive system,
04:26 which is really nice for riding aggressively off road.
04:29 So what took so long for the Honda Transalp
04:31 to return to the US?
04:33 And is it too late?
04:34 Well, the Honda Transalp was unsuccessful
04:37 because people weren't buying it in the US.
04:39 It had a lot longer of a run in Europe.
04:41 And is it too late?
04:42 I say, absolutely not.
04:44 This is a great adventure bike,
04:46 especially at the price point.
04:47 I think a lot of people will appreciate
04:50 the electronic sweep, the comfortable suspension,
04:53 and the very fun, exciting, yet approachable engine.
04:56 We're gonna have to put it in a comparison test,
04:58 especially against the new Suzuki,
05:00 and find out which cycle world feels is better.
05:02 But overall, a lot of people are really gonna like
05:05 this Honda Transalp.
05:06 (wind blowing)
05:09 (wind blowing)
05:12 (wind blowing)
05:14 (wind blowing)
05:17 [BLANK_AUDIO]
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