motorcyclistonline.com | 101JULIA LAPALME- in the words of Shakespeare, “To
know adventurous joy we yearn for
function and for sparkle; alas, to farkle
is to frustrate.” He was a man ahead of
his time. I’ve been drizzling little after-
market pieces over the Africa Twin and
having pretty good luck overall—case in
point, the top-box, windshield, and most
recently the DoubleTake mirrors (MC
Tested, page 96), which were all satis-
fying plug-and-play options.
Where I got into trouble was with
the seat and the luggage rack. First, I
dropped the Touratech Comfort Seat on
(touratech-usa.com; $530), which was
exactly as easy as you’re imagining. Then I
thought I’d try a beefi er luggage rack. The
ambitious people at ATO Engineering in
Ohio built a stainless-steel rack (atoeng.
com; $495) for the AT that is stronger—a
few pounds heavier too—and has nifty
features like removable passenger grab
handles in order to accept throw-over
luggage more smoothly.
Installation requires a minor disas-
sembly of the rear of the bike, but the rack
slid on just fi ne without altering anything
and even accepted the mounts for the
SHAD top case with no problem. But then
the seat didn’t lock in place. I started by
wiggling and jiggling it to get it to fi t, and
it escalated all the way to beads of sweat
on my forehead and the eventual use of
an angle-grinder. In the end the seat fi t
into place (with a ground-down locating
fl ange that fi ts into the front of the luggage
rack) and I rode happily to Laguna Seca
and back. The saddle is much morecomfortable, by the way—stiff instead of
soft like the stocker, and my backside was
in much better shape after 1,000 miles.
But, herein lies the Shakespearean
quandary: How much trouble is it
worth to try to make your bike better?
It depends on the rider. If you’re a
hardcore Africa Twin rider, you would
likely appreciate the ATO Rack’s more
compact design and options. The seat,
like I said, was much better—but I’m still
going to research other cheaper options.
Aside from me messing with it, the
bike’s been fl awless. And a staff favorite.
More mods might make it better but, as
I found out, that’s no guarantee. Onward
through the aftermarket! —Zack CourtsDOIN’ TIMEHONDA
AFRICA TWIN
My demons are in these detailswrist Zack Courts
msrp (2017) $13,299
miles 9,154
mpg 50
mods Luggage rack, comfort
seat, mirrors
update 4MCY1017_TIME.indd 101 7/24/17 3:45 PM