RUST Magazine: RUST #49

HONDA AFRICA TWIN
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I meet our friend Harry Michael at
the woods near Westfield. These are
not vast woods as you’ll find in say the
Appalachian Mountains of the US, but
one of many small pockets of ancient
woods, known as coppices, scattered
among the patchwork of pastoral farms
of the South East. From the hilltop on
which we stand we look down the
gentle valley slopes of the River Brede
(which helps feed the Military Canal)
and across the way there’s a farmyard
with oast houses, a classic vista in this
region and another historic connection,
back to an age before industrialisation
when hop drying, and beer making, was
effectively a cottage industry.
We assess the Africa Twin. It came
to me with just 20 miles on the clock
and exactly as you would find in a
showroom – no run-in and check over
possible due to the restrictions. We
consider off-road riding with road tyres
and no added protection for the bike.
For this woods ride the best we can do
is select the off-road setting on the rider
modes and lower the tyre pressures,
down to 18-20psi – as low as we dare
with no rim locks.
The woods themselves are seemingly
waking up from their winter slumbers,
the trees just coming into leaf. While
these are ancient woods, years
(centuries) of coppicing mean most
of the tree growth we see is probably
no more than 20 years old, although
throughout the woods tall birch and
ash trees have been allowed to grow to
full maturity and will create a cooling
canopy through the summer. And
here and there, on the corners it would
seem, we find sprawling beeches.
Between these, the shorter, coppiced
chestnuts have a strong cultural link
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