Honda XL750 Transalp (2023) - Review

Original Technical Review: Ben Purvis

Price: £9499 otr | Power: 90.5bhp | Weight: 208kg | BikeSocial rating: 4/5

After a decade of absence from Honda’s range the Transalp name is back in 2023 with the all-new XL750.

The 2023 Transalp is an easy bike to place in Honda’s line-up – the CB500X is Honda’s “pocket-sized adventure bike” (their words), the Africa Twin is their flagship adventure bike, and the reborn Transalp slots between the two – promising a pitch-perfect combination of off-road styling and some degree of off-road ability, coupled with day-to-day lightweight practicality and the option to take on much longer trips, two-up, with luggage. And with Honda’s respectable finish quality, a great look, and at the right price.

As with seemingly every other new bike these days, the new Transalp is no longer a V-twin but a parallel twin – using the same perky and powerful 755cc engine as the new Hornet CB750, in an almost identical state of tune.

The Transalp the latest in a new category of mid-priced, mid-sized, mid-capacity adventure bikes with wire-spoked 21in front wheels, sub-100bhp performance and varying degrees of green-lane ability – a class which includes the market-leading Yamaha Ténéré 700, Aprilia’s Tuareg 660, KTM’s re-born 790 Adventure and Suzuki’s new V-Strom 800DE.

Simon Hargreaves, who some might say is a significant all-rounder himself, is on the launch of the Transalp in Portugal – and, having ridden all four of the Transalp’s immediate rivals including the Suzuki only a few weeks ago, is in the perfect position to bring you the facts about what the Transalp is, what it feels like to ride, how it measures up to its rivals, and whether you should buy one.

Honda Translap (2023) Review

The Transalp is back as Honda debuts new 2023 XL750 adventure bike, and Simon Hargreaves hopped off to Portugal for the press launch where he rode it both on-and-off-road.

Review – In Detail

Price & PCP
Engine & Performance
Handling, Weight, Suspension and Brakes
Comfort, Pillions and Economy
Equipment and Trim
Off-Road
Rivals
Verdict
Specification

2023 Honda XL750 Transalp price & PCP

The 2023 Honda Transalp costs £9499 on the road, which makes it the cheapest bike in its class. It undercuts Suzuki’s £10,655 V-Strom 800DE by £1156, Yamaha’s £10,100 Ténéré 700 by £601, KTM’s CFMoto-assembled £9999 790 Adventure by £500 and the official list price of Aprilia’s Tuareg 660 – now reduced to £9850 – by £351.

When the original Transalp – a 50bhp 583cc V-twin – was launched (at Suzuka circuit!) in 1987 it cost £2999 but went up to £3399 the following year. £2999 is £7941 in today’s money; £3399 is £9000. If there’s a lesson, it’s that if you want a new Transalp, I’d buy it now before the price goes up. This time next year it’ll be over ten grand.

PCP example

The Transalp comes in three colours: classic Transalp Ross White (red, white and blue) with gold rims, Matte Ballistic Black Metallic or Matte Iridium Grey Metallic, both with black rims. All colour options cost the same.

The Ross White bike imitates the colours of the original Transalp, and does it very well – when I caught a glimpse of a bike in my mirrors, I genuinely thought for a second Honda had brought along an original to the launch.

Over the years since its 1987 launch, the Transalp has built up a loyal following. I know because I’ve met some of them, in the Alps, funnily enough.

At the time the 583cc, 50bhp V-twin was unexpected – taking the then-popular Paris-Dakar concept of a big single enduro with a long-range fuel tank, and adding an extra cylinder for civility’s sake, and a full, frame-mounted fairing (arguably BMW kicked it all off in 1981 with the R80 G/S). The result wasn’t wildly popular in sportsbike-obsessed UK, but sold well and steadily across Europe, despite soon being superseded by 750 enduro-tourers like Honda’s own Africa Twin, Yamaha’s Super Ténéré and, eventually, the R1100 GS.

The Transalp plugged away unchanged for 14 years, moved into road-based middle-age with a facelift and a 647cc engine size increase in 2001, and in 2008 increased again to 680cc with a 19in front instead of 21in. The bike was discontinued in 2013.

2023 Honda XL750 Transalp Engine & Performance

Honda’s 755cc parallel twin is so diminutively compact it’s easy to overlook the fact it’s a 750, and maybe explains why the Transalp’s performance is surprisingly impressive – 91bhp wouldn’t shame a sports 600 back in the day (and remember when a se’n-fiddy was a big motor? They used to win World Superbike races for bloomin’ sake). And so, when you bat the Honda’s throttle to the stop, it opens up its lungs and starts to bawl as it charges off down the road, gathering pace with an effusive grin if not face-mangling hysteria. It's disproportionately hearty for such a small motor. But, as we discovered with the new Hornet recently, this is not a pedestrian Honda engine; it’s a proper little banger – and less of the ‘little’.

The Transalp’s 755cc parallel twin is shared with the CB750 Hornet. Valvetrain is Honda’s familiar single overhead cam Unicam, which reduces engine complexity, height and weight. The motor uses the now almost universal parallel twin crank angle of 270° to generate those good, V-twin-style vibrations, and then uses twin balancer shafts to minimise the bad vibrations.

Like the Hornet, the Transalp has Honda’s twin vortex flow ducts to ‘spin’ the air entering the airbox intakes, which Honda claims increases air velocity and assists engine performance and pick-up across the rev range.

With a class-topping oversquare bore and stroke of 87.0 x 63.5mm, the engine is comparatively high revving. Peak power is 91bhp at 9500rpm with 55 lb.ft of torque at 7250rpm, which exceeds Suzuki’s V-Strom 800DE figures of 83bhp at 8500rpm and 58 lb.ft at 6800rpm, and Yamaha’s smaller Ténéré 700’s 72bhp at 9000rpm and 50 lb.ft at 6500rpm.

Honda say the Transalp’s power-to-weight ratio is better than the CB500X, NC750X, Africa Twin Adventure Sport and matched only by the base Africa Twin.

Honda have remapped the Transalp’s throttle and fuel injection settings to soften response slightly compared to the Hornet, to better suit the Transalp’s riding style. There are five engine modes. Four modes of Sport, Standard, Rain and Gravel give a one-press global button adjustment for traction control, engine braking, throttle response and ABS settings. But each can be individually adjusted and programmed into a fifth User setting, from five levels of traction control (plus off), three engine braking levels, and four throttle response settings. ABS can be disabled at the rear only or completely disengaged for off-road riding – but will be re-engaged if the ignition is turned off and on again.

On paper the engine’s architecture and its 10,000rpm redline suggest the Transalp will be a peaky creature, begging for revs to show its teeth. But although its performance is distinctly weighted towards the upper quadrant of the rev rage – that’s where the real action lies – modern fuelling and engine management preserve a healthy midrange and, if not a fulsome, then at least a smooth, progressive bottom end response. This is a flexible motor too.

On the road

Punking the Transalp around on sublime Portuguese mountain roads, flicking up and down the sweet gearbox (fitted with an almost mandatory up/down quickshifter from the accessory catalogue) is a lesson in how to design a modern motor: fast enough to stimulate an old hack, tame enough to satisfy a novice, clean enough to please emissions regs (for the time being) and efficient enough to return over 45mpg despite some serious ragging. And it’ll never break down either, probably outlasting the supply of dinosaur juice that feeds it.

Worth mentioning the induction and exhaust noise too – because there’s plenty of it. The exhaust is specially tuned not just for performance, but for sound too. I spoke to Tatsumi-san (pictured above), Transalp test project leader and specialist in sound and vibration, who demonstrated, with the aid of a jacket sleeve, how one muffler exit is tuned to produce high-pitched noise while other is tuned to produce low frequency sound.

Tatsumi-san also pointed out the bike’s exhaust note is even a consideration right back at the engine planning stage and can influence engine design architecture, including fundamentals such as valve angle, and even its bore and stroke dimensions. I love it when engineers give us mere mortal brains a glimpse into the staggering complexity and cascade effect of engine design choices, because it shows how little we know about what it really takes to make the machines we sometimes so easily criticise.

How does the engine compare to its rivals?

The Honda feels sparkier at the top end than Suzuki’s V-Strom 800DE, and delivers its power with a more conventional, road-based performance ethic. The Suzuki’s 776cc parallel twin is almost the opposite of the Honda; it’s tuned to make more bottom end, where it feels richer and more tractive than the Transalp – and then progressively runs out of puff as engine speed rises. It also feels as if the Honda is longer-geared than the Suzuki – in top at 80mph the Honda is pulling 5000rpm; the Suzuki is revving 500rpm harder. I even suggested in the Suzuki launch review – here <link> – I’d be inclined to fit a smaller rear sprocket to the V-Strom to reduce cruising revs by a few hundred rpm. It seems maybe Honda thought the same thing.

This has two noticeable effects – first, Suzuki’s engine vibrates more harshly than the Honda, even though they both have twin balancer shafts. The balancer arrangements are slightly different – the Suzuki’s balancers sit at 90° to each other, the Honda’s are further apart, more like 120°. I asked a Honda engineer why it would be that the Honda engine is smoother – he suggested that having the balancers at 90° is better for making the engine more compact, but not as good for balancing the vibrations.

It’s slightly unfair not have the chance for Suzuki engineers to reply, but that’s the order I spoke to them – and on the evidence of riding both engines almost back-to-back, I’d say the Honda engineer is more righterer. I’m going on the launch of the Suzuki GSX-8S soon, which uses the same engine as the V-Strom 800DE, so I’ll have a chance to ask Suzuki to come back. Japanese engineer face-off!

The other effect of the Honda’s longer gearing is it’s harder to paddle the Transalp around low speed hairpins off-road. The Suzuki’s gearing is perfect for leaving the clutch alone and trickling along at walking pace in second gear without the transmission lashing or engine stalling, with perfect throttle control. The Honda won’t go as slowly or engine pull as cleanly so low down – off-road hairpins on the Transalp need more juggling with the clutch in second gear or dropping into first with a more jerky throttle.

It’s just one of a host of minor indications Honda have quite intentionally placed the Transalp at a different position on the road vs off-road compromise axis – as we ride the bike a bit more, we’ll see how the Ténéré and Tuareg sit to the off-road side, the V-Strom sits in the middle and the Transalp falls clearly on the roadside.

Compared to Yamaha’s Ténéré 700, the Honda is more powerful, faster and more civilised; it has a polished, mannered sheen while the Yamaha runs with a zany, slightly chaotic, wide-eyed rev-ability; a hyperactive teenager to the Honda’s middle-aged experience.

An A2 licence compliant Transalp, restricted to 47hp, is available.

2023 Honda XL750 Transalp Handling, weight, suspension and brakes

If the Transalp’s engine is surprisingly rapid, its on-road chassis dynamic is nothing short of sensational. The Honda is, for the class, fabulously composed and confident in the corners – the 21in front is extremely plugged-in; stable under braking and composed when turning in – I’d not even be able to tell it’s a 21in and not a 19in front wheel, it feels that good. There’s no fork wandering or squirming, rate of turn is steady but not over-eager, fork dive on the brakes is controlled, the rear doesn’t squat too heavily on the gas – it all feels very un-adventure bike-like, and very much attuned to road riding behaviour. If anything, the Transalp’s road behaviour reminds me of something more like BMW’s F900XR – it doesn’t actually need all the adventure bike styling stuff – it’s a very good road bike as it is. I can quite easily see Honda getting another two models out of the same basic engine and frame platform – as well as the Hornet and Transalp, they could also make a sportsbike, and then a purely road-based tall-rounder concept too, similar to Triumph’s Tiger Sport 660.

The bare spec is a similar steel tube frame to the Hornet, with reinforcing around engine and shock mounts – but the subframe is wide, longer and stronger to support a more likely larger payload than the Hornet (pillion and/or luggage). It’s still non-detachable (another hint at the Honda’s road-/off-road priorities) because, despite the frame’s difference to the Hornet, it’s still essentially a shared platform design. And, like the Africa Twin, the Transalp mates its steel frame to an aluminium swingarm.

Wheels are 21in front and a 17in rear, both tubed, running either Metzeler Karoo tyres or Dunlop Mixtours – in the slightly sketchy road conditions at the start of the day, I swore I was riding on the Metzelers because recent experience on the Dunlops haven’t filled me with confidence. I was right, the Transalp was on Karoos – it was a 50:50 guess, to be fair, but they feel to me like a markedly better choice of rubber.

Like all its rivals, the Honda is on tubed rims. I asked why this was, and Honda gave the traditional answer: ride off-road on tubeless rims and a ding could deflate a tubeless tyre with no recourse to fix it, whereas a dinged tubed rim will still hold air. I pointed out the number of people suffering punctures on the road will far outweigh the number dinging rims – and besides, given the Honda’s overall preference for tarmac to dirt (which I’ll get to in a minute), anyone seriously off-roading the Honda could always fit a tube inside a tubeless tyre anyway.

Honda then conceded a tubed rim is slightly heavier than a tubeless rim, but it’s cheaper too.

Suspension is 43mm preload-only Showa forks and similarly preload-only Showa shock – but the stock settings are good, holding the Transalp flat on the road and tempering hard braking and extreme throttle action with steady damping. The springs feel a bit on the soft side – not as soft as Yamaha’s Ténéré 700 – which I think is Honda’s attempt to make up for the superior ride quality of more expensive suspension, such as the fully adjustable Showas on Suzuki’s V-Strom 800DE. Wheel travel is 200mm at the front, 190mm at the back, giving 210mm of ground clearance – the lowest figure in the class, but only by 10mm over the Suzuki and a slightly larger gap to the Ténéré’s 240mm. Again, in yet another nod to the Transalp’s preferences, Honda don’t fit any sort of bash plate as standard, leaving only an aluminium accessory option.

The Transalp is also a lot lighter than the Suzuki – Honda claim 208kg fully fuelled, 22kgs less than Suzuki’s claimed 230kg and only a few kilos more than Yamaha’s Ténéré 700 (all are manufacturer’s claimed wet weights, not dry weights). And it’s noticeable – the Honda is lighter and easy to push around at standstill than the Suzuki, especially as much of the Suzuki’s extra weight is carried high on the bike (because a lot it comes from a larger fuel tank and more fuel).

Further down the running order we have mere two-pot axial calipers – this may be a budgetary consideration, although seeing at the brakes are perfectly capable of overwhelming the front tyre, it’s also reasonable to suggest the Transalp might not actually benefit from sharper brake performance but instead just get more ABS intervention.

Stylistically, axial calipers aren’t as sexy as radial calipers – but the Transalp has what looks like a fake radial arm spurring off the bottom of each fork leg. I asked the Transalp Large Project Leader Hosokawa-san (a very senior engineer and an important man, so it was a bit cheeky) if that’s what it was. No, he laughed, thankfully – it’s not a fake radial caliper. It’s to stop dirt and stones getting into the caliper.

Brake disc sizes are 310mm with a serrated pattern with a a 256mm disc at the back. ABS has two switchable levels of intervention or can either be switched off at the back only, or completely disengaged for off-road riding (but will come on when the ignition is reset).

2023 Honda XL750 Transalp Comfort, Pillions & Economy

The Transalp is instantly compatible with just about all human forms – in that way Honda manage so often. It just fits immediately, no readjustment of hands or feet necessary. It’s so intuitive it almost feels as if you’ve ridden the bike before. At least it does until you’ve rattled off just over 100 miles – because that’s when the soft seat foam compresses enough to let your bum know it’s running on empty and that equally familiar ache sets in. When I look at the seat after I get off at the end of the launch ride, the covering is rucked-up at its lowest point, suggesting the position I want to put my bum in, and the one it ends up sitting at, aren’t the same. It’s not the end of the world, but I never noticed anything like that on the Suzuki, and that was over a larger distance.

I did notice the Suzuki has next-to-no wind protection, and that the Honda certainly does. The screen is thick – there’s no flapping or rattling wind vibrations – and although it doesn’t look sculpted, it’s very well positioned. Even at 80mph plus on the motorway, there’s no turbulent head buffeting, just a consistent pressure – which is all you can ask of a screen (unless you’re on an NT1100 or a Pan European with the screen vertical).

The Suzuki and, to a lesser extent, the Yamaha have much less wind and weather protection.

Seat height is a class-lowest 850mm, 25mm lower than the Ténéré (what was the ground clearance difference again... 30mm?) and 5mm lower than the V-Strom 800DE. The Transalp doesn’t have anything like the off-road riding position of the Yamaha – when you throw a leg over the seat, it fits like a road bike and feels like a road bike, sitting deeper into the tank.

There’s no serious opportunity to take a pillion and get a coherent verdict on the Transalp’s passenger accommodation – I could’ve asked a fellow journalist to go for a five-minute spin, but they absolutely never ride pillion normally so their opinion would be pretty worthless. What we can say is it looks generously proportioned – you’d need Hulk hands not to get them round the biggest grabrail I’ve seen in a while. Pillion pegs look to be sensibly placed with decent leg room, and the seat pad is as spacious as the rider’s.

The Transalp has a 17-litre tank, which is three litres down on the 20-litre Suzuki V-Strom and a litre more than the Ténéré 700’s 16 litres. Honda, like all manufacturers, make absurd claims for mpg back calculated from exhaust emissions. On the launch, under a variety of conditions, the Transalp’s own display was averaging between 45 and 50mpg, giving a full-to-empty range of between 170 to 190 miles, or a full-to-reserve light range of 130 to 150 miles. The Suzuki will give you an extra 30 to 40 miles before refuelling.

2023 Honda XL750 Transalp Electronics and trim

The Transalp also shares the Hornet’s clocks – a TFT display, bright, clean, several options for the style of tacho, and with the various modes and settings crammed into one side. It’s a matter of taste, but for me it’s not quite as crisp and colourful as the Suzuki V-Strom’s clocks.

However, the switchgear is good – same as the Hornet again, and a nice halfway house between Suzuki’s simple set-up and Honda’s own Africa Twin multi-button nightmare. It’s quick and easy to figure out – within a couple of seconds even I could work out how to change the units from metric to imperial, without have to ask for help. And one area the Transalp definitely beats the Suzuki is when you suddenly ride into rain – it takes several button pushes and menu switches to set the Suzuki in a rain mode because you have to adjust traction control and throttle response individually – on the Honda, it’s a dedicated mode so it’s literally one button press.

In terms of extras and accessories, the base Transalp has a few omissions compared to its rivals. The up/down quickshifter (which is excellent and has independent Hard, Medium and Soft settings for up and down) is an extra; it’s standard on the V-Strom. There are no hand guards, engine bars, bash plate or heated grips. As mentioned, aluminium panniers and top box aren’t a Honda option; only the plastic cases.

Accessories are available as individual items, but also come in five ‘packs’:

• Urban: 50-litre top box with aluminium panel and pillion back rest, inner bag, tall screen and centrestand for £935

• Adventure: upper crash bars, LED fog lights, radiator grill for £655

• Rally: quickshifter, lower crash bars, bash plate, rally footpegs, hand guards for £1100

• Comfort: tankbag, wind deflectors, lower pillion pegs and 12v socket for £290

• Touring: panniers, inner bags and heated grips for £1290

2023 Honda XL750 Transalp Off-Road

We only had limited time on the Transalp off-road at the launch – you can often tell a lot about a manufacturer’s intentions for the market position of a new bike from the way they organise the launch. The Suzuki V-Strom 800DE was two days’ of riding, totalling well over 200 miles, of which between 80 to 100 miles were off-road, or around 40 to 50%.

Yamaha’s Ténéré 700 launch was equally weighted to off-road riding – and so was KTM’s 790 Adventure when that was launched back in 2017.

The Transalp covered 130 miles, of which around five miles were off-road. Yet another hint at Honda’s perceived intentions for the bike. At the press briefing, Honda staff barely mentioned the Transalp’s off-road ability, compared to rival manufacturers who wouldn’t stop banging on about it.

Also, it was pretty wet and slippery for the Transalp off-road section; the V-Strom was ridden on dry trails. But it’s possible to draw on some actual riding impressions, and they are that the Honda is less suited to off-road, from the crate, as the Suzuki, Yamaha, Aprilia and KTM, for several reasons:

• The Honda hasn’t got the optimal gearing or engine performance curve – it doesn’t chug around just above walking pace as easily as the others because it’s first is too low and second too high.

• The chassis balance feels slightly too road-orientated; there’s too much weight over the front end and the bike doesn’t sit back with enough weight on the back end. The suspension doesn’t allow a great deal of weight transfer, either, so it’s hard to find that nice, ‘loose’ feeling off tarmac where the back is compressed and the front is light and skimming over the surface. The Honda’s steering feels a bit too weighty, too.

• Even in Gravel mode, the traction control light comes on too easily and the stuttering stops the bike moving forward with the right velocity. Gravel mode isn’t a bespoke off-road setting (as it is with the Suzuki), it’s just standard combination of settings.

• There’s no bash plate as standard.

• Or hand guards.

• Despite the lack of weight, the Honda’s seat doesn’t feel as if it tapers into the tank quite as much as the others – they have a better stand-over feeling of control.

• This sounds mad, but the Honda is just too good-looking to get covered in off-road battle scars. The Ténéré in particular – a good-looking bike itself – somehow feels like it’d not look much worse, or even quite cool, with few bashes and scrapes on it. A Transalp in a similar condition would just look abused.

But there’s no doubt companies such as Rally Raid will soup up a Transalp at the earliest opportunity, and no doubt improve its off-road looks and actual credentials. So the above is merely as the bike rolls out of the showroom.

2023 Honda XL750 Transalp Rivals

Suzuki V-Strom 800DE | Price: £10,655

Slower, heavier, more vibes, worse wind protection, more expensive. But a comfier seat (for me), better suspension, and only a marginally less focused road bike – and, as standard, a better off-road bike.

Power/Torque: 83bhp/58 lb.ft | Weight: 230kg

Yamaha Ténéré 700 | Price: £10,100

Bossed the class for years. Lighter, less precious, more obviously adapted to riding off-road than the Transalp. On road, perfectly capable but nowhere near as smooth, sophisticated or well-suspended, or as fast, as the Honda.

Power/Torque: 72bhp/50 lb.ft | Weight: 205kg

Aprilia Tuareg | Price: £9850

Very similar to the Ténéré, with slightly more power and a natural ‘born-off-road’ feel. Great road bike, but taller, more rangy and less tidily finished than the Transalp.

Power/Torque: 80bhp/52 lb.ft | Weight: 204kg

KTM 790 Adventure | Price: £9999

Re-issued, re-styled original parallel twin KTM adventure bike, now built by CFMoto in China. Some original bikes plagued by electronic issues, but low-slung fuel tanks aid a comfortable on and off-road compromise with a wide spread of ability.

Power/Torque: 94bhp/64 lb.ft | Weight: 215kg

2023 Honda XL750 Transalp Verdict

If you wanted Honda to build a Ténéré 700, the Transalp isn’t that bike. It’s an excellent road bike with a fab motor, quite astonishing roadholding and handling, very pretty styling and Honda’s magnificent finish. It’s much more practical and convenient to sling around on a daily basis than bigger adventure bikes, but it’s also substantial enough to bust out longer rides, even two-up. And the launch price is excellent.

What it’s not, from the box, is as obviously competent off-road – or that I’d be personally happy to tip-off off-road – as the Ténéré, V-Strom 800DE, Tuareg or 790 Adventure. The weight balance is wrong, the gearing is not quite right and it’s too pretty to roll around in the filth with.

2023 Honda XL750 Transalp Technical Specification

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