Dual-Sport Tourer: 1989 Honda Translap

In 2007, the trail south from San Felipe to Coco’s Corner was a part of the Baja 1000 course: a rough, rutted, rocky track interspersed with treacherous stretches of deep, soft sand. Steering in the sand was pointless: I was just a passenger. I can’t now remember who was passing whom, but there was a coming together. My R100GSPD ended up on its side, but the Transalp I hit stayed upright. Neither was there any damage to the Transalp’s plastic bodywork, crash bars taking the brunt. When we got to Mike’s Sky Rancho, the credulity of the dirt-bike mounted Baja regulars was seriously stretched: “You rode that — up here?”

And what was a motorcycle described by Cycle Guide as “intended to reside primarily on the street” doing in the brutal terrain of the Baja California desert anyway? I learned two lessons on that trip: the rider is more important than the bike; and don’t underestimate the Honda XL600V!

By the late 1980s, Dual-Sport Touring motorcycles were well established in Europe, though you couldn’t give them away in North America. Each market entry in this class was treated with curiosity and bemusement but not real enthusiasm. For a start, dirt bikes had always been singles, and V-twins were cruisers until perhaps the arrival of the Transalp, Cagiva Elefant, and Guzzi V65TT. But it took until the early aughts for our daily drivers to start looking like Paris-Dakar entries. So, no one knew what to make of the Transalp when it was launched in the U.S. in 1989.

And the Transalp itself was a conundrum, sending lots of confusing signals. Its 21- and 17-inch wired wheels, brush guards, spark-arrestor mufflers, almost 9 inches of ground clearance, 33-1/2-inch seat height, and quasi-knobby tires all said dirt while the sleek plastic bodywork, close-fitting front fender, and sophisticated liquid-cooled engine all said street.

The Transalp’s engine was derived from the VT500 Ascot. The 52-degree V-twin’s crankshaft used offset throws, obviating the need for balance shafts. In each cylinder head were two spark plugs, three valves (two intake, one exhaust) and a single overhead camshaft providing easy screw-and-nut adjustment. A 5-speed transmission and chain final drive connected to the rear wheel.

The drivetrain sat in a dual-cradle frame of square and round section steel tubes with a substantial single front downtube and steel tube swingarm with a single damper adjustable for preload. No adjustment was provided for the leading-axle telescopic front fork. The Transalp was equipped with a small rear carrier for luggage, though the steel gas tank was less than ideal shape for a bag, and throwovers would have gotten fried by the exhaust. Handlebars were rubber mounted, and steel footpegs had rubber inserts for comfort. Add full instrumentation with tach, speedo, and coolant temperature gauge, and the Transalp looked more like a tourer. Perhaps the Transalp, Elefant and V65TT were what automakers would now call “crossovers.”

That said, some motojournos were still determined to take them seriously off-highway. Road Rider‘s Rob Anderson chose a Transalp to run in the Barstow-Vegas race in 1989 in atrocious conditions and reported that it performed “better than I was capable of.”

Another quirk is that, while the Transalp was only sold in the U.S. in 1987-1990, it remained in production through a number of upgrades to the present, its latest iteration finally on sale again in North America. (Honda’s other big-selling Europe-only duallies — the Varadero and Africa Twin — were also shunned here.) Perhaps Cycle World got it, including the Transalp in its list of the ten best motorcycles of 1989.

So, was the Transalp just 20 years too early in the U.S.? Or did it miss its market? In the intervening years, adventure tourers have captured a big share of the market — though they’ve become bigger, heavier, faster, and way more powerful. The Transalp was considered in its day to be “light by 600-class street standards,” but at 441 pounds, “blubbery by off-road measures,” said Cycle magazine. Now, it would be a relative featherweight. And at $4,498 MSRP, was it worth a grand more than the $3,499 KLR650?

Cycle summed up the Transalp thus: “The XL600V enters 1989 as our favorite any-surface explorer: comfortable, utilitarian and stylish. If chasing the horizon down seldom traveled roads, paved or not, is your picture-perfect weekend, the Transalp is a first-class ticket. So what is it? In the end, that is up to you.”

Contenders: More Alternatives to the Transalp

1985-1989 Cagiva Elefant 650

• Power: 58hp (claimed) @ 7,500rpm
• Top speed: 115mph (indicated)
• Engine: 650cc (82mm x 61.5mm) air-cooled, SOHC, L-twin, desmodromic valve operation
• Transmission: Gear primary, wet (later: dry) multiplate clutch, 5-speed, chain final drive
• Weight: 454lb (curb, full tank)
• MPG: 38mpg
• Price then/now: $4,288 (1985) $4,632 (1986)/$2,000-$4,000

The Elefant used Ducati’s desmo 2-valve, air-cooled L-twin engine breathing through two Dell’Orto PHF36 pumpers. Ignition was Bosch electronic. A full cradle frame of square-section tubes hung from a tubular spine that formed a plenum for the carbs, fed from an airbox under the seat. The box-section alloy swingarm worked a three-way adjustable Ohlins shock with Cagiva’s “Soft Damp” rising rate linkage and a Marzocchi 41.7mm front fork, giving 8 and 9 inches of travel, respectively. Wheels were Akront alloy, 17-inch rear and a 21-inch front, and brakes were Brembo with a four-piston caliper, 10.2-inch front disc and 9.4-inch disc at the rear.

“The Elefant loves to run in wide-open spaces,” wrote Cycle, “across the desert, down fast sweeping fire roads. The desmo engine is a powerhouse off-road — smooth, torquey — and the rigid long wheelbase chassis provides unshakeable high-speed stability.” It had “powerful brakes, excellent steering, near-perfect suspension calibration,” all of which made it “a formidable fire road flyer.” That said, compromises became apparent in tighter off-road conditions: “When 454lbs of motorcycle gets away from you, the chances of snatching it back are slim,” wrote Cycle.

But the Elefant’s main problem was its price, as much as the gold-standard BMW R80 G/S. And when the versatile and capable KLR650 arrived in 1987 at $2,999, the Elefant looked too rich.

1984-1987 Moto Guzzi V65TT

• Power: 45-50hp @ 7,000-7,500rpm
• Top speed: 106mph (claimed)
• Engine: 643cc (80mm x 64mm) air-cooled L-twin, OHV, 2-valves/cyl, 10:1 compression
• Transmission: 5-speed, shaft final drive
• Weight: 405lb (curb)
• MPG: 45mpg approx.
• Price now: $2,000-$5,000

Guzzisti everywhere revere Ing. Lino Tonti for the light, rigid frame he designed around Giulio Cesare Carcano’s 1967 V-twin engine, creating the iconic 1971 V7 Sport. They’re sometimes less generous in recognizing his other main contribution to Guzziology: the V35, V50 and V65 “small block” engines. Nevertheless, it was the 650cc V65 transverse L-twin engine that powered Guzzi’s first foray into dual-sport motorcycles, the V65TT “Tutto Terrano.” The TT inherited the V65 two-valve engine. A pair of 30mm Dell’Orto PHB carburetors fed the two-valve, Heron-head engine, which slotted in essentially the stock V65 frame. It drove an engine speed clutch, 5-speed transmission and shaft final drive. Brakes were Brembo single-disc front and rear. Suspension used a Marzocchi 42mm “enduro” front fork and dual rear spring/shocks. Wheels were wire-spoked with 3 x 21-inch front and 4 x 18-inch rear tires.

The TT wasn’t without issues: its gas tank held just 3.4 gallons, not really suitable for adventure riding; the final drive and transmission cases were notoriously fragile, both being prone to fracturing; rear suspension travel was inadequate, and the forks stiff, though Which Bike‘s tester added that the ride was “hard, but never rough.” The result was a nimble and reasonably fast dual-sport that Which Bike in 1985 said “handled light and steered very quickly” while having “an overriding impression of leanness and compactness.” The same magazine found the engine the TT’s “finest revelation … feels so crisp, free and responsive.”