I just looked online. Lots of new 2017 LE models for sale. Like Honda threw out whatever they had left in the warehouse.You can buy new ST1300 LE models today. My dealer just got 3 of them in. Not really updated, but new and a bit different.
I like the driveshaft. And I’m afraid that knocking 20 or 30 kg off the weight, will mean chain drive.
That was great!We go through this every time this topic comes up. Some of you have some great ideas. Some of you are very, very confused.
For you 2018+ Goldwing owners... Do not every say or type that again. It's a lie. You don't own a Goldwing. Read your owner's manual. You own a ST1800 and it will never be a GL. For those ST1300 fans, the ST1800 IS the new ST1300!
We can look to the FJR to see what you can expect for future upgrades to the T12. An engine change is completely off base. Not that they might follow Sierra's concept of a T3, T9, etc, but those could be anything from a single to a triple to who knows what.
Vehicles are going all LED, like it or not. So that's not out of the realm of possibility. The cornering lights would also be pretty easy.
More power you say? F you wanker, go buy something else. You're not using the power you have now 90% of the time, what the heck would you do with more?
People whined for years on the FJR forums for a 6-speed. Finally Yamaha gave it to them... Except it wasn't what most people wanted, because they couldn't correctly identify what they wanted. The FJR was using less than half it's rpm band at interstate speed cruising. There was ZERO need for a 6th gear. What 99.8% of the people that asked for 6th gear wanted was a lower rpm at interstate cruising speeds. They didn't need it. The huge torque of the FJR's inline four motor could handle it, but no one needed it. Yamaha did that with a taller ratio final drive.
Be careful what you ask for and try to understand and elaborate exactly why you want a feature and what you hope to get from it.
Think about how you would shed weight on the Super Tenere. An aluminum frame? Maybe, but it would be more susceptible to crash damage on an adventure bike intended to go off pavement.
Every factory option that is already, or could easily be, duplicated by the aftermarket is going to just drive the price up and provide no real benefit to buyers.
I suspect we might eventually see an all LED bike with new body work to make it visually stand out from the current T12. The LED headlight and corner lights will pretty much dictate that anyway. Maybe switchable ABS or just switchable rear ABS. That's cheap and easy. They tried lighter already and it was a bust. Owners immediately made the bikes heavier again. (Maybe some of you forgot the EU models that came w/o center stands) I wouldn't mind seeing ADV bikes and Touring bike start coming with an Aux fuse block already in place to allow customers to easily add electrical items.
The list of crap I added to my Super Tens is long. But many were not things every rider needed or wanted. Bar risers, crash bars, skid plate, extra lights, highway pegs, heated gear port and SAE port for charging, bigger windscreen, GPS, fuel cell and eventually an expanded main tank, etc. A bunch of other items were things available already like heated grips and LED lights.
There is room for people to individualize the bike. There should be. If you load it up like a garbage barge you end up with a GSA or a GTL1600 that comes stock with every single thing you can think of. Then you pay $30k for it and maybe toss some bar risers and a headlight guard on it or a bigger windscreen, but there isn't much left. It looks like every other one like it until you resort to spending money on bling items so you can find it in the parking lot full of bikes that look just like it.
The market does not need a $20k plus Super Tenere, IMHO.
You are aware that this is a “discussion” forum right?!We go through this every time this topic comes up. Some of you have some great ideas. Some of you are very, very confused.
For you 2018+ Goldwing owners... Do not every say or type that again. It's a lie. You don't own a Goldwing. Read your owner's manual. You own a ST1800 and it will never be a GL. For those ST1300 fans, the ST1800 IS the new ST1300!
We can look to the FJR to see what you can expect for future upgrades to the T12. An engine change is completely off base. Not that they might follow Sierra's concept of a T3, T9, etc, but those could be anything from a single to a triple to who knows what.
Vehicles are going all LED, like it or not. So that's not out of the realm of possibility. The cornering lights would also be pretty easy.
More power you say? F you wanker, go buy something else. You're not using the power you have now 90% of the time, what the heck would you do with more?
People whined for years on the FJR forums for a 6-speed. Finally Yamaha gave it to them... Except it wasn't what most people wanted, because they couldn't correctly identify what they wanted. The FJR was using less than half it's rpm band at interstate speed cruising. There was ZERO need for a 6th gear. What 99.8% of the people that asked for 6th gear wanted was a lower rpm at interstate cruising speeds. They didn't need it. The huge torque of the FJR's inline four motor could handle it, but no one needed it. Yamaha did that with a taller ratio final drive.
Be careful what you ask for and try to understand and elaborate exactly why you want a feature and what you hope to get from it.
Think about how you would shed weight on the Super Tenere. An aluminum frame? Maybe, but it would be more susceptible to crash damage on an adventure bike intended to go off pavement.
Every factory option that is already, or could easily be, duplicated by the aftermarket is going to just drive the price up and provide no real benefit to buyers.
I suspect we might eventually see an all LED bike with new body work to make it visually stand out from the current T12. The LED headlight and corner lights will pretty much dictate that anyway. Maybe switchable ABS or just switchable rear ABS. That's cheap and easy. They tried lighter already and it was a bust. Owners immediately made the bikes heavier again. (Maybe some of you forgot the EU models that came w/o center stands) I wouldn't mind seeing ADV bikes and Touring bike start coming with an Aux fuse block already in place to allow customers to easily add electrical items.
The list of crap I added to my Super Tens is long. But many were not things every rider needed or wanted. Bar risers, crash bars, skid plate, extra lights, highway pegs, heated gear port and SAE port for charging, bigger windscreen, GPS, fuel cell and eventually an expanded main tank, etc. A bunch of other items were things available already like heated grips and LED lights.
There is room for people to individualize the bike. There should be. If you load it up like a garbage barge you end up with a GSA or a GTL1600 that comes stock with every single thing you can think of. Then you pay $30k for it and maybe toss some bar risers and a headlight guard on it or a bigger windscreen, but there isn't much left. It looks like every other one like it until you resort to spending money on bling items so you can find it in the parking lot full of bikes that look just like it.
The market does not need a $20k plus Super Tenere, IMHO.
Yeah, that’s a downer. This is my first shaft drive bike, and whilst a chain isn’t a deal breaker for me, I would miss the fuss free and mess free of a shaft, I’d feel it was a step backward.
Having put myself back into that exact situation I can say, yes and no on the step backwards. I LOVE a shaft drive. But unless I was willing to drop $25K on a setup GS, there was no other real option out there I could accept. I honestly had to adjust my thinking that a chain drive is a "real" motorcycle. That's how far gone I was. I'm now at a place where I say, I don't like chain maintenance, but it's the price I have to pay to ride a bike that truly excites me. That I get off at the end of the day, and start trying to figure out when I can get back on it. If I have to do some chain maintenance to have that level of satisfaction in my life, I'm okay that.
I need to share this photo of you from our last night ride, when I insulted your taste in pistachios, and just before I passed out.
As said before, I don't think anybody could argue that the bike is due for an update. At the same time, EricV has been part of the family forever and what he wrote has a lot of background to it. Every year we go through the same "need to upgrade, need to change [whatever], etc. For those unaware, we do have actual Yamaha employees on the forum, so to me it's all good both to vent and they may get some feedback from it all.
I still say the red dyed pistachios should not have gone away!
Big adv bike to me means:
The motor is a gem. Plenty of power and it never stalls!
