The supposed lack of "character" is why I ended up buying a Tenere. In the interest of full-disclosure I wasn't looking for a hardcore Adventure bike, I wanted a comfortable sport-tourer I could aim down the occasional dirt road that caught my eye.
I came off an 07 VFR 800 that I absolutely loved! Great engine, not the most powerful, but dead-nuts reliable. I know guys with six-figures on the odometer that have never even checked the valves, as the price/hassle with the VTEC system was so great if you could make it to 50,000 miles it's cheaper to just replace the engine if something goes wrong. Never heard of anyone not making it, and very, very, rarely heard of a valve needing adjustment when they were checked.
But...no matter how much I spent/tried I couldn't get the bastardized 'somewhere-between-full-tuck-and-upright' ergos to work for me. Guess one needs to be a 5'6" 148 pound Asian test-rider to really appreciate them. I dunno...
I need reliability as I work 60-70 hours per week and riding is my decompressor. When I want to ride, I want to ride - not wrench or spend time at a dealership. Like all of us, I like to hit the road to remote areas, and can't afford being stranded with no dealership for hundreds of miles if something does go wrong...
Enter the Adv bikes I considered:
Ducati MS - beautiful, awesome road performance, and I could afford the bike, but not that Italian "character".
BMW GS - good-looking bike in a rugged 'Road Warrior' way, fawning reviews, and a cult following that makes a newcomer think all is good from the outside-looking-in...then deeper research uncovered how much "character" the final drives etc. have. No-go for me.
Explorer 1200 - probably the perfect bike for me, a powerful sport-tourer in an attractive and functional package, but it hadn't even hit dealers in the UK at that time so there was no telling if it had "character" yet or not. It was too new, and the sparse dealer network was a deal-killer.
Enter the Super Tenere: I'd bought into the reviewers' lines that it was underpowered and over weight, boring and lacked "character", etc. - that's why it was last on my list. Then I started reading real-world reviews from owners here and on the other forum, and my interest perked up.
One Saturday I was in-bound from a 200 mile ride on the VFR, with my neck, shoulders, and lower back killing me from the riding position. I stopped by my local Yamaha/Kawi dealer (where we bought my wife's Ninja 250 and FZ6R) to see if they had a Tenere to look at. There at the front door was a Blue Beauty - the Tenere had a true presence in person. I sat on her and immediately thought, "Damn, that's comfortable!" I spent a few minutes poring over the bike and setup a test ride for the following weekend.
Ten miles of test riding was all it took. One year and about 11,000 miles later I have zero regrets. The only ergo mods I've made are Grip Puppies ($10.00), Seat Flattening Mod ($5.00), and a slight bar adjustment ($0.00). I've done 800 mile weekends without the slightest discomfort - just returned from a 700+ mile, two-day trip yesterday and still couldn't be happier.
I do plan on getting a Flash soon, and adding a fuse block for some electrical farkling, but other than that I'm good. Even with that and the Akra pipe I added in December I'm still in for thousands less than the bone-stock versions of the other bikes I considered. Smart Money in my book... Eventually I'll upgrade the suspension, but at 178 pounds the stock stuff works fine, so I'm gonna beat on it for a while longer before upgrading it.
I'm sure my story isn't unique, I know two other VFR riders from the VFRD forum who have traded for a Tenere, and have seen many more here from other sport-tourers. Actually, the Tenere is quite similar to my VFR in that it's not the most glamorous or exciting offering in the class; it just does everything I want it to do very well (just more comfortably). That's the kind of "character" I enjoy...