The hunt for a Honda Africa Twin RD04
To be honest, I was perhaps a bit jealous when Jo bought his Africa Twin RD07.
While Jo is building / turning his Africa Twin into a very custom one, I'm more into keeping it as stock as possible.
Inspired by Adam Riemann's Warhorse I went looking for and RD04.
It wasn't easy, as there are not a lot of them on the Belgian market.
Those who are on the market are sold very quick, or are in really bad shape.
After missing out on a very good RD04 (had upgraded suspension and some nice updates already) I found this little gem.
Jo and I endured a little Belgian snowstorm when visiting the bike for the first time, but when we got there the Africa twin immediatly conquered my heart.
A diamant in the rough
Let's be honest here, when we bought the Africa Twin, it had some issues:
- It didn't have a battery. We tested the bike with another battery, so we were sure it was running.
- A well known issue with the output shaft. It's not up for replacement yet, but it will be coming.
- The rear wheel is having the typical corosion issue. We'll keep it until Winter 2025 and then replace it with Excel wheels.
- An old bike always has bolts that won't come loose... The. counter is at this point at 5 bolts that I had to drill out.
- General maintenance is a bit lacking.
So we built ourselves a list of things to do to get our Queen on the road again:
- Check / Adjust Valve Clearance (ongoing)
- Replace Oil & Filter
- Replace Air filter
- replace fork oil & springs)
- replace the rear shock
- Ride it like we stole it ;-)
Already done?
- Service the brakes (replace all seals, pistons and replaced the brake lines for braided ones)
- Replaced the Neutral sensor
- Replaced the Sprockets (front one is a super pinion to reduce the load on the shaft)
- Got new tyres mounted
- Cleaned some greasiness
Brake caliper could use some TLC, and it's getting it.
After some blasting & Ultrasonic baths it's looking a lot better.
New seals and pistons seal the deal!
Along the way it starts looking better and better
As you can see, the new superpinion is a lot wider as the original sprocket.
It will spread the load on the shaft a bit more, and as such reducing the wear.
The bolt covering the crankshaft was seized, it took a bit of brute force to get it out.
But nothing a hammer & screwdriver can't fix.
