HONDA AFRICA TWIN XRV650 (1988-1989) RD03 added to BikeMatrix.net
The 1988 Honda Africa Twin XRV650 was the marque’s first major foray into the market for adventure motorcycles. The bike was officially launched on 20th May that year – painted in red, blue, and white it was intentionally made to look like the Paris-Dakar Rally winning bikes.
Head of the design team, Tomonori Mogi, used a Paris-Dakar winning NXR750 as the basis of the design for the new commercial bike. With its design being heavily influenced by the NXR750 the commercial XRV650 was built to perform in a way that was true to its heritage.
Its engine was a 647cc water-cooled 4-stroke 52° V-Twin SOHC with 6-valves, somewhat de-tuned by comparison with the race bike because Honda wanted to keep the hard-earned reputation of their bikes having bulletproof reliability. The engine produced 57hp. Transmission was 5-speed with chain drive, front suspension was by 43mm Showa forks with 220mm travel whilst at the rear was a Pro-Link mono-shock with 210mm travel.
The front brake was a 296mm disc and at the rear a 240mm. Seat height was 880mm and the fuel tank was not the monster competition unit of the Paris-Dakar bike but provided an adequate capacity of 24 liters (6.34 US gallons). Dry weight of the XRV650 was 193kg (425.5lb).