Honda XL750 Transalp | 2023 Bike review

The 2023 Honda Transalp, a new mid-size adventure bike designed for road touring, urban exploring, and some trail riding. But is the XL750 the middleweight motorbike we’ve all been waiting for? James travelled to Portugal for the international press launch of the new XL750 Transalp to find out. Mention the Honda Transalp to adventure bikers of a certain age and persuasion. and they’ll come over all misty eyed at memories of a no-nonsense, do-it-all machine. Introduced in 1986, with a 583cc V-twin, it was a bike that was just as happy whizzing around town, as it was touring across Europe, and taking on a few trails. A series of model updates followed throughout the ‘90s and ‘00s, until the last version, the Transalp XL700V, was discontinued in 2012. But fast forward to today, and mid-size adventure bikes have seen a resurgence, with excellent machines like the Honda Africa Twin, KTM 890 Adventure, Yamaha Tenere 700, Ducati Multistrada V2, Aprilia Tuareg 660, and more vying for your cash. But Honda has been noticeable for its lack of a middleweight adventure bike in its line-up, the only option being the pocket adventurer, the CB500X. So, step forward the new for 2023 XL750 Transalp, a bike steeped in history ready to compete for your cash against some pretty fierce competition. The new Transalp is built around a 755cc, liquid-cooled, parallel twin engine, that makes 91bhp at 9,500 rpm, and maximum torque comes in at 75Nm at 7,250rpm. The bike can also be restricted to 47bhp to make it A2 licence compatible here in the UK. In fact, it’s the same new V-twin engine that you’ll find in the new 2023 Honda Hornet. There are four engine modes, Sport, Standard, Rain, and Gravel, which adjust the engine’s performance to adapt to the road conditions and style of riding. Sport, as you’d expect offers maximum power, Standard is a mid-way setting for urban riding. Rain has the least aggressive power delivery, while Gravel is set up for riding off road. And there’s also a User mode which allows you to fine tune the various settings on offer. ELECTRONICS AND EQUIPMENT As well as the various engine modes, the Honda Transalp allows you to tweak a veritable feast of electronic parameters to adapt the riding to your liking, if that’s your thing. So, you have four levels of engine power and three levels of engine braking. There are also five levels of torque control (which adjusts the engine’s power to optimise torque at the rear wheel and reduce slip. And there are two levels ABS available, depending on how much intervention you want. Or you can simply turn it off altogether. Oh, and there’s also wheelie control, for when your inner hooligan gets out of hand. All this is accessed by the menus on a 5” TFT display. All lighting on the Transalp is LED, and the bike features an emergency stop function. This means, if you brake particularly hard, the hazard lights will flash automatically to warn folks behind you. The bike’s indicators auto cancel, which is a function I always switch off on any bike with it. However, Honda’s system doesn’t simply time out. Instead, it measures your wheel speed and calculates when to cancel the indicator depending on the situation. STYLE AND COLOURS In terms of colourways, the Transalp comes in three options: Ross White, Matt Ballistic Black (which looks very cool accompanied by the red Honda logo), and there’s also a slick looking Iridium Grey Metallic. Whatever colour it comes in, the new Transalp looks sleek and simple in its design, if not particularly rugged, and could easily be mistaken for the CB500 at first glance. This reflects the intended use of the bike. Honda is positioning it as a road-going touring bike, and urban explorer, one or two-up, with some off-road capability, rather than a hardcore trail riding machine. And this is no bad thing, because it reflects what most of us, here in the UK at least, will do with our adventure bikes. #honda #transalp #africatwin #review #motorbike 00:00 - 00:52 The Honda XL750 Transalp 00:52 - 01:46 Honda’s sequals 01:46 - 02:05 Transalp in Portugal 02:05 - 04:56 Transalp Stats part 1 04:56 - 06:22 Time out on the trails 06:22 - 07:07 Transalp Stats part 2 07:07 - 08:33 Transalp engine modes 08:33 - 10:57 Transalp conclusion _Bits from us_ 🏍️ *Grab your tickets for the festival here:* *Grab your Adventure trail tickets here:* *Grab your ABR merchandise here:* *Checkout our Podcast the ABR Garage on Spotify here:* *Be sure to follow us on Facebook:* *Be sure to follow us on Instagram:*