I woke up on a sunny Saturday morning in June and looked forward to my arranged demo on the 2023 model Honda Transalp. This bike has rave reviews and started as the Honda XL600V in 1986, eventually going up to the XL700V in 2008 when it stopped production. It has been restarted again as the XL750 this year. The bike was always an understated, do it all “dual purpose” bike made in the usual Honda fashion, and was a smaller version of the then Africa Twin and the new model sits again underneath the Africa Twin’s 1100cc.
You can get this in Paris – Dakar colours of blue, white and red, but mine was an understated metallic grey. It was sitting there very purposefully and it looked higher than
I expected – or dear! Newcastle motorcycles were very busy that morning, and I had to make do with a quick whizz around the controls. It had an interactive TFT display with various modes on it. I elected to use the standard mode, I pressed the button and what a lovely woofly start-up sound.
Off up Scotswood Road. My first feelings were that it had a lovely high seating position in traffic and was very easy to manoeuvre, but I had to get used to the serrated foot pegs (off-road use as an accessory on this model) to gear shift. No problem in keeping up with traffic. Where to go? I had thought of going over the back roads to Blanchland but decided to take the A69, turning off at Heddon on the Wall and took the Military Road. This route has a lovely mixture of tight bends, long but bumpy straights and less traffic. This demo had just over 500 miles on the clock but still had the new bike smell and went really well. It shows its off-road credentials by having a thin 21-inch front wheel. Remember, these types of bike have long travel suspension, so if you put the brakes on quickly there’s a bit of fork dive if you are not gentle enough. Through the course of the morning, I got used to the seat height which is 33.5 inches and it wasn’t a problem. Foot on the peg-like getting on a horse and swing over!
The engine is a peach. I’m told it’s the same engine in the current wow machine the Honda CB750 Hornet. It’s a 755cc unicam (one cam) 8 valve 91 BHP engine which has the fashionable configuration of the 270° crank to make this parallel twin feel and sound like a V twin. It’s liquid-cooled with Transalp written on the radiator which looks pretty fetching. The attention to detail from Honda is excellent.
A non-adjustable screen, but everything seemed to be kept off me in terms of wind protection, so it did its job.
Really good spread of power, but obviously was still being run in at 500 miles. I think I probably only used 5000 of the revs up to the 10,000 red line, which shows you what it can do. It hardly drank any fuel when I was out.
Where to go on this glorious day? I decided not to continue along the Military Road, but at the junction with the A68, I took that for a while North (I could see 40 miles to the border!) and was going to Otterburn/Carter Bar but decided to turn in on the B6342 which I’ve done before. This route takes you through the hamlets of Colwell and Little Bavington, and eventually
you end up at the cyclists’ and motorcyclists’ favoured watering hole of the village hall of Capheaton, which is also just off the main A697 out of Belsay. It’s in another little hamlet and is only open on Saturdays and Sundays.
I was basking in the sunshine with all the racing cyclists, also having their tea and homemade Victoria Sponge Cake. Marvellous. If you haven’t been before, please go, it’s like stepping back into the 1950s. Thanks to Ellie, who runs the cafe, for more amazing homemade food and a great welcome.
Back to base was now called for. The bars are high and wide but light and make short work of turns. This bike turns easily and is planted on the road. It has a gravel mode for going off-road, but at £9500 (although that’s cheap for many bikes now) I wouldn’t want to drop it. Back through Ponteland and on the motorway back to Scotswood Road – it dispatched everything with ease.
I found out when I got back that I could have been using the quickshifter accessory on this model – Doh! This bike is a lighter and more manageable (for some) alternative to higher-capacity adventure bikes or dual- purpose bikes. It has plenty of poke for performance and handling – is a good looker and did everything right the first time.
I didn’t cross any mountain ranges on this run, but you might want to cross over town and give this a whirl. The bike was booked out all of the time and the next rider was waiting to get on it when I got off! Thanks to Graeme again at Newcastle Motorcycles for the demo.
Mark Hipkin is a Partner/ Head of the Personal Injury and Civil Litigation department. He welcomes your e-mails or calls on the law (or your biking experiences) at wbay@aldersonlaw.co.uk or call 0191 2533509.
