2024 Honda Transalp Review

Over the past week I finally had the opportunity to give the much anticipated Honda Transalp a go, brought back after a small hiatus newly updated and reengineered for 2023. Being that the original Transalp was debuted back in 1986 as the XL600V TRANSALP, and was running from that time up until close to 2008, it had been over 10 years since we last had an update from Honda with a bike carrying the name Transalp. Announced earlier in 2023 and released to the public in September of that year, the Honda Transalp had been building hype and anticipation for one of the most legendary adventure touring motorcycles in history. Now that it’s here, and I have had the chance to put a few hundred KM’s down, does it live up to the legend? 

The original Transalp was boasting a 583cc liquid cooled V-twin, making 50HP and 38.8 ft-lb of torque, weighing in at 430 lbs wet. At the time, it was more then enough power to take you across the world if you so wanted, having a reliable engine through and through, a staple of Honda engineering. There would be a host of updates/upgrades for the Transalp line up, boosting the engine from a 600 to a 650 and ending it on a 700 until its reinvention. Now in 2024 we have ourselves a 755cc parallel twin with a 270 degree crank, a 6 speed transmission instead of a 5 speed, and putting out 90HP and 55.3 ft-lb of torque. It also comes equipped with a quick shifter as well as auto blipper, making the slipper clutch light and smooth. Of course the cockpit is completely new for the 2023 update, now having a full LCD display, with rider modes and a host of electronic rider aids. The seat height is the same since 1986, having a 33.4” seat height. With myself being 6 ft 2”, it was easy enough for me to flat foot this bike with only the slightest bend in my legs. Like the original model, this is definitely suited towards those folks that are 6ft and above for maximum stability when rolling to your stops, but anyone could ride this bike so long as the have one foot on the ground. Once the bike is rolling, its feather light yet extremely well planted for its height and 21” front tire. 

After I swung my leg over and turned the key, the bike fired alive as if to say “Where are we adventuring to today?”. A short animation comes over the LCD display, which is very bright and easy to read across all the info that it presents. The display comes with everything that would need, and a bit more that you may not. 4 rider modes are standard here, being Sport, Standard, Rain and Gravel. Each mode slightly changes the engine braking, TC, power and ABS function, Sport mode being the most aggressive as you would expect, and Rain being the tamest. There is also a USER mode for you to go in and make custom setting choices to make the bike and ride truly your own.  Taking off is effortless on the Transalp, with the slipper clutch smoothly pulling you away, power delivery is predictable and responsive with the ride by wire throttle. With the quick shifter enabled, pulling through the gears feels amazing. Compared to other quick shifters I have tried, this one is pretty solid. For me, it does feel a bit heavier than what I have tried, but it never feels like you are crunching the shift lever and hurting the transmission in any way, gears click in place with a solid response that gives you confidence to keep slamming through them from 1st to 6th if you so choose. 

The Transalp has gorgeous power delivery. I left it in Sport Mode so I could experience everything that bike had on tap and was very surprised. 90HP has never felt faster, and with the engine being higher revving then say the Africa Twin, it gives you the sense and feeling that you are on something with more power on tap. Torque is punchy and immediate, from the low rev range up until the middle, its all there. As you climb higher up past 7K RPM, it falls of slowly as you would expect. Compared to the Africa Twin, it feels like a sport tourer more then anything. I had no chance to try it out in the dirt and gravel, but from review I have seen on people taking it into the thick of it, it seems to handle and pull exceptionally well. Being about 60 pounds lighter than the Twin, it definitely helps. The seating position is comfortable, and it feels like you could sit in the saddle all day without much fatigue. I did a couple hour stints seeing if my butt would get tired, but I have only good things to report here. I two up’d the Transalp as well, and my passenger reported all good things from the rear seat, not too stiff and not too small. The suspension helps a lot with the comfort of this bike, as its insanely responsive in corners, and gives you more confidence with every heavy lean. I got this bike down pretty low in the tread and it held through the corners with shake or wobble. The fairings aren’t too bad for wind deflection, its obviously not as good at pushing back the wind like say the Africa Twin but for it has its phenomenal. The windscreen falls under the same category, it does the job but if it were mine, I would be buying a bigger windscreen to keep my helmet from buffeting in the wind. The engine isn’t very loud on this bike either, which isn’t a negative, but we did have one of our friends who owns an Africa Twin try it out and said it was too quiet for him. To each their own, I find the engine not being as grunty is nice for me, as I am not a fan of outrageous sounding bikes with no baffles. This one has a nice growl to it off the line up until 6K RPM, after that the wind becomes too much and you can’t hear much more from it. 

There are a host of aftermarket/factory upgrades for the Transalp, and I would be getting all of them for the most part. Side panniers for saddles, engine crash guards and top cage, an extended windscreen, handguards, and a crash plate for the bottom. All of that won’t be cheap, but it would make the bike feel just that much more premium. As it is standard, its amazing with what it does have, it just needs the last few touches to make it truly adventure ready as Honda would want you to have it doing. After everything we’ve discussed here with the updated Honda Transalp, does it live up to the name? I think for the most part it truly does. It carries the name proudly, and it’s a solid continuation of what Honda originally started back in 1986. My only change I would’ve liked to have seen in the board room for stylizing the bike would have been not to include the CB500X’s small front headlight and front end all together. It doesn’t seem to fit the overall look and name of the Transalp lineup. With the original models, they had the massive square headlight that fit the character of the bike and the times it was made, and it blended beautifully into the side fairings and tank of the original Transalp. This updated variant has a tiny front that suddenly pops into a full sized adventure bike from the tank onwards, and it doesn’t look quite right. For the rest of the bike however, the style is inline with today’s market and fits the body of the Transalp nicely.

At the end of the day, the 2024 Honda Transalp is a very capable “middle weight” adventure bike with all the bells and whistles that you could expect in today’s category of bike. If you were looking to get started in the adventure segment, or maybe wanted to upgrade to the newest from Honda, this should be at the top of your list of bikes to consider. Great power, amazing milage and storage options to upgrade to, saddle comfort that can keep you riding for hours, and all packaged together with the reliability that we have all come to know Honda for. The Honda Transalp is a stellar bike, and one that we can’t wait to see come out with new styling, trims and packages. 

---

Author: Enrique Flores-Smith

Photo credit: Enrique Flores-Smith

Check out our Honda line up HERE!