First Honda Africa Twin Off Road Adventure Ride: Exploring The Forest on my New Adventure Bike

Alright, well, this is a problem. I'm not feeling it. Let's ride through this water feature. Yeah, how do you like that? Another creek for ya. One of the things I don't want to do is get stuck down a shitty road and have to turn this thing around. What's the first thing I do? Hello everyone, welcome back to the dork side. It is I, your friendly neighborhood dork in the woods, and today I'm on my first off-road woods exploring adventure on my new-to-me 2016 Africa Twin. It's awesome! That's right everyone, I am the dork in the road, and I want to be your internet riding buddy. So please, consider subscribing. Ooh, and don't hesitate to hit that notification bell so you know when I post awesome new content just like this. Alright, well, this is a problem, and I don't think I can ride over that. And right here is a really good place to turn this bike around, so I might do that. Yeah, I'm not comfortable taking this bike over that right now. We'll take a look at it. Do she got the turning radius? She do! Alright, well this adventure might be a short one because I can't get up this road like I wanted to. Yeah, that's significant and new. So people have been driving over it in their trucks. So if I was on my 250L, I would ride over this. But on my brand new Africa Twin, it's heavy, I haven't gotten used to riding it yet. I'm just not there yet. So we will not be exploring down this road, as I had hoped that we would. This is going to be a pretty mild adventure. We're not going to get off on the side roads or anything. Just learning how to ride this thing off-road today. Normally my dual sport adventures are a little bit more involved. Try to get you a little color as I'm loading up and coming back. But like I said, I really want to concentrate on the riding today. So there will be less of that than a normal video. But don't hesitate to subscribe if that's the kind of thing you're into because there's more to come. A little snow. I can't believe how much this thing feels like a big dual sport bike. I just... I mean it's heavy, especially at slow speeds. But once you're moving, it does not feel that different. I'm not confident enough to push it as hard just yet. But I can see the capability. Like I can feel that it is possible. I love the sound of this stock exhaust. It's the best sounding stock exhaust I've ever heard. It's got to be close. There's some more waterfall. I guess. Let's just explore up the other side for a little while. I got a new jacket. This is the Alpine Stars Andes 2 Drystar. And it has been... it's very comfortable. It doesn't feel bulky like my Tourmaster jacket did. And it's been warm enough. I haven't been cold at all. But I don't get overheated unless I stop and I'm moving around a lot either. So it seems to be well vented. It does well. It's a well designed jacket. So I still haven't gotten the new windscreen but it's coming. I should have it in the next day or two. And then you'll be able to see a heck of a lot better. So apologies if it's annoying staring directly into a tinted screen. I'll try to stand up if there's anything interesting to see. So what do you think? Should we go? There's this junction and there's another one. This is the one I think that goes across the creek. Let's go look at the creek. I've had the traction control and the ABS kick in a few times. I don't really like the ABS on the rear when I'm riding off road. It's too aggressive. I wish I could turn it down. I don't need to turn it off necessarily. But I wish I could turn it down. Alright, well let's ride through this water feature. No problems whatsoever. God, this thing is awesome. She's going to be able to take anything I throw at her and then some. I don't have the guts or the experience to throw more at her than she can take. This is a creek for you. Some decent views today. Yeah, I want you to be able to see the creek. So I'll stand up for a little bit. This is Canyon Creek. Which is also the name of this road that I'm on conveniently. But down here there's a bridge that goes across. So I'll stop and get a look out of there. Here's that Y I was looking for. Get a couple good shots on the bridge maybe. We're still in first gear. Let's take a look. That'd be a good place to get a picture. Yeah, how do you like that? How do you like that? Oh, this thing is so dirty. I just washed it and I'm riding through puddles and mud. I'm going to have to clean it again. But that's okay. I like it. I want to clean it again. Oh yeah, it's dirty. I didn't zip up my pocket. It's a miracle I still have a phone in it. 46 degrees right now. It feels warmer. So I lowered the seat on this. I think I might put it back up. Oh, there's another bridge. Cool. Oh, wow. They're doing work in the rock quarry right now. So here's another creek for you. Oh, it's pretty up there. All the way up there. I've been down here before. I want to say that it goes out into a clear cut. And if that's the case... Oh, I can't go up that way anyway. They closed this whole road off? Wow. That's super weird. That's new information. This goes up and over. I can't believe they closed that off. There must be logging nearby. That's why this gate is open. So I don't know what the hell I'm getting myself into right now. So this could be sketchy. Yeah, okay. I don't know what this is going to go up to. I feel like I've been out here before. But not on a bike this size. Okay, we're going into a clear cut. Let's go look. I think I've been down here before. I should have gone up there. Let's just look. Some of the things I don't want to do is get stuck down a shitty road and have to turn this thing around. What's the first thing I do? Take off down a shitty road. I don't know where it goes. Yeah, okay. I'm going to stay on the main road. I'm just going to take advantage. I'll get there eventually, you guys. First ride, first time out. Most of these just go to landings. And landings give you plenty of room to turn around. The kickstand on this thing is super sketchy. Like, weak. So I'm not really confident kickstand turning it yet. And that's my only really go-to move for when I'm in super tight quarters and need to turn around. I'm just going to see what's up here. Today's supposed to be low-key. I was trying to get to places I know, but that's alright. We're here to explore, and I'm taking you with me. So if I get myself into trouble, at least we have a record of it. That's pretty. I've got no one to blame but myself. This is the ----, you guys. This is why we're here. Oh yeah, beautiful. Beautiful! Okay, so far, totally worth it. Oh man, y'all. Oh yeah, there's a pond down there. Wow. Cool view. I'm going to stop and look back the other way when I get up around this corner. Right here. Look at this. That's amazing. Nice work. Mother nature. Damn nature, you pretty. Pretty cool. This bike. Standing up is like... easy. It helps that this thing's got rocks risers on it. So the bars are very high. Oh yeah, here we go. I can't get out there. Damn. That's the shot right there. Can't get out there. Road doesn't go out there. Oh, well it does go down into a dank, dark tree tunnel. So that's exciting. Huh, quite a change from like 50 feet ago. This is like sketchy, scary territory. Scaratory. That looks promising. I'm just not in the in the super sketchy hill climb territory yet. Let's just go look. I can always back up and turn around, right? I'm doing dumb ---- right now. I don't feel good about this. That's how we get better though. Damn. Oh yeah. Good spot. Stop right here. Right here. This is a spot. Look at this. Wow. Wow. Okay, I'm going to shut up and pan for you. Alright. Let's go down this road just a little farther and see what there is. Just wow. I don't know if I mentioned it, but wow. So we're just chasing views today. In both senses of the word, but mostly epic views in the forest. Now if people want to watch the video and it gets a lot of views, I'm okay with that too. When I get a little better on this thing, we'll get a little bit more adventurous. Not quite there yet. You seeing this? Beautiful. I really hope this camera doesn't screw up again. It crashed on me earlier. I may be losing all of this. Alright, Traction Control. I don't need you that much. Fuck. Cool. They ought to pay me, Honda, to make Africa Twin ads. I'm going to let you in on a little secret. It's the third video I've filmed today, so it's not like I just got up here. There's been quite a bit of riding and I do need to get home at some point soon. So I'm going to maybe turn around and get you some views on the way out. You just can't argue with this. You just can't. Beautiful. I'm going to go down in it and try a drone shot or two. Let's go see. Could be fun. There are clearly roads that are going down in there. I don't know where the entrance is. But that clear cut would be a good spot for some dronage. So keep your eyes peeled for roads off to the left. I'm going to leave in a bunch of footage of this. It's just so beautiful. So I'm sorry if the talking parts are boring, but I want you to see it like I'm seeing it, because it is amazing. Oh yeah, that rear shock is definitely set stiff. That's a good thing. But you're going to be dirty when I get home. What a beautiful day. It's cold. It's like 45 degrees. It's like clear and sunny. It's February. I just couldn't ask for a better day for this. I mean a little warmer maybe, but I'm not cold. Not with all this gear on. This thing is so comfortable to stand up on. I don't even want to sit down. My calves hurt a little. I'm just going to build up the muscles. There is a road that goes out there. Let's go see. Let's go check it out, and then we'll go home. Theoretically. Unless something else strikes our fancy, which is incredibly possible. This looks freshly graveled. So they're logging down here. Well, we haven't tried the big rocks yet. Let's see how we do. I'm guessing I'm going to bounce all over the damn place. Because these tires are so well inflated. There's a little road off to the left that might go out in the middle of this clearing. What do you think? Should we try it? Does it go anywhere? Um, yep. Oh yeah. Okay. Good. Pretty. Look at that hillside. She's getting me there, you guys. What a great bike. Dude. It's a great choice. Great purchase. Here we are. It's a landing. But what a great place for some epic drone shotage. What do you think? Should we put some drone shots up? Hit that like button if you want me to put the drone up. Okay. I think there's a good drone shot here. I hope you enjoyed that drone footage. I think it's time for us to turn around and head back towards the highway and start thinking about getting home for today's adventure. I'm pretty excited about all the beautiful stuff we've seen so far. And there's still some fun riding between us. And the highway. Let's roll. These tires kick ass. I'm impressed. It's got Mitas E07s. And I've had great traction all day. Not bad. Alright. Back down this short little side spur road. Back to the main road. Say goodbye to our snowy hillside for now. Thank you all so much for coming along with me on this, my first off-road adventure on the Africa Twin. Really looking forward to years and years of amazing adventures with this thing. And I hope to be able to bring you all with me. So thank you for watching. I appreciate you. Please don't forget to subscribe. Like the video if you don't mind. It really, really helps it. And if you're crazy, maybe even consider supporting me on Patreon, like these fine folks. But for now, I just want to say thank you very much. And as always, please do not forget to be excellent to each other. Thank you. Excellent! Bye!