justlookin
New Member
As you can see from my user name I have been looking at the forum for a few years now. On July 1, I pulled the trigger and bought a new 2017 ES.
I have been riding bikes for 50 years and this is the first new one (and probably my last). My old bike was a 2004 BMW R1150r on which I did 100000 miles over the last 7 years.
I wanted a long distance touring bike that could carry all my camping gear over long distances, and also be able to handle the sign "pavement ends" when the road surface disappears.
I live in the bay area and just got back from a 4000 mile 2 week ride around Utah and Colorado, staying at a couple of BMW rallies along the way.
I have to say this bike fully met my expectations. The Tenere is a great long distance tourer. This is the first bike I have owned which is set up to allow standing on the pegs. I made full use of this capability in Colorado, covering maybe 60 miles of unpaved roads, by design and accident. I still need to work on my gear changing skills when on the pegs, but the motor has so much torque that I ended up only using 2nd and 3rd. It made me look as though I knew what I was doing. Sand and soft mud are above my capabilities and I would not attempt with such a heavy bike, on what are essentially road tires.
Here are my impressions after the first 5000 miles.
Cruse control is brilliant. Just love it
Fuel economy over the trip was better than 50 mpg. I am in the habit of setting the trip at each fill up. Mileage ranged from 44 mpg when running at a contant 80mph to 56 mpg when just poodling around in the 60s. My riding partner had an Africa Twin and at each fill up he got 5 mpg more, but I am extremely pleased. It means the bike has a 300 mile range. Maybe altitude helped - we will see.
Linked brakes are a great feature. I was worried that coming from BMW with anti-drive front suspension that braking into a corner entry would be an issue withe the ST. Not so. The linked brakes work great and if you find that you are entering a corner a bit hot, the bike remains stable even when braking deep into the corner.
Small feature but I love the rear view mirror shape. Really gives a panoramic view across multiple freeway lanes.
I like that the pedal travel into first gear pedal travel in to limited so you know when you are in first without taking eyes off the road.
Suspension is great. Comfortable but holds up well in the corners. Set and forget.
The standard seat is a problem after 10 straight hours in the saddle. I supplemented it with a airhawk but it still hurts. I like the shape and the fact that I can move around, but I am hoping it will break in a bit.
The engines sounds sometimes like a tractor, sometimes like a can of nails, and sometimes like an old single. It is however smoothing out, and if it keeps on running without problems I dont care.
The really big negative has nothing to do with the bike but the Yamaha dealers. I was in Salt Lake and the bike developed starting difficulties and the left hand LED display started glowing brown. I called the dealer I purchased the bike from, and his initial reaction "it is nothing to do withe the 600 mile service we did". I went to the local dealer and he said they couldn't look at the bike "since they had a 6 week waiting list". Coming from BMW I was in shock. Go into ANY BMW dealer when you are on the road and they fall over themselves to help you. You immediately become the number one priority. What I need is a list of Yamaha dealers in the US and Canada who will help me when I am on the road. I dont know if such a list exists but I would be very grateful if someone could point me in the right direction. (I believe in this case I caused this problem by switching between S and T modes repeatedly, confused the CPU controlling the fuel injectors and maybe the display. The thing eventually reset itself and everything was back to normal - however the dealer problem definitely exists)
Well thats it for the first 25 days. Now if only I could figure out how to make the eco light go out .......
John
I have been riding bikes for 50 years and this is the first new one (and probably my last). My old bike was a 2004 BMW R1150r on which I did 100000 miles over the last 7 years.
I wanted a long distance touring bike that could carry all my camping gear over long distances, and also be able to handle the sign "pavement ends" when the road surface disappears.
I live in the bay area and just got back from a 4000 mile 2 week ride around Utah and Colorado, staying at a couple of BMW rallies along the way.
I have to say this bike fully met my expectations. The Tenere is a great long distance tourer. This is the first bike I have owned which is set up to allow standing on the pegs. I made full use of this capability in Colorado, covering maybe 60 miles of unpaved roads, by design and accident. I still need to work on my gear changing skills when on the pegs, but the motor has so much torque that I ended up only using 2nd and 3rd. It made me look as though I knew what I was doing. Sand and soft mud are above my capabilities and I would not attempt with such a heavy bike, on what are essentially road tires.
Here are my impressions after the first 5000 miles.
Cruse control is brilliant. Just love it
Fuel economy over the trip was better than 50 mpg. I am in the habit of setting the trip at each fill up. Mileage ranged from 44 mpg when running at a contant 80mph to 56 mpg when just poodling around in the 60s. My riding partner had an Africa Twin and at each fill up he got 5 mpg more, but I am extremely pleased. It means the bike has a 300 mile range. Maybe altitude helped - we will see.
Linked brakes are a great feature. I was worried that coming from BMW with anti-drive front suspension that braking into a corner entry would be an issue withe the ST. Not so. The linked brakes work great and if you find that you are entering a corner a bit hot, the bike remains stable even when braking deep into the corner.
Small feature but I love the rear view mirror shape. Really gives a panoramic view across multiple freeway lanes.
I like that the pedal travel into first gear pedal travel in to limited so you know when you are in first without taking eyes off the road.
Suspension is great. Comfortable but holds up well in the corners. Set and forget.
The standard seat is a problem after 10 straight hours in the saddle. I supplemented it with a airhawk but it still hurts. I like the shape and the fact that I can move around, but I am hoping it will break in a bit.
The engines sounds sometimes like a tractor, sometimes like a can of nails, and sometimes like an old single. It is however smoothing out, and if it keeps on running without problems I dont care.
The really big negative has nothing to do with the bike but the Yamaha dealers. I was in Salt Lake and the bike developed starting difficulties and the left hand LED display started glowing brown. I called the dealer I purchased the bike from, and his initial reaction "it is nothing to do withe the 600 mile service we did". I went to the local dealer and he said they couldn't look at the bike "since they had a 6 week waiting list". Coming from BMW I was in shock. Go into ANY BMW dealer when you are on the road and they fall over themselves to help you. You immediately become the number one priority. What I need is a list of Yamaha dealers in the US and Canada who will help me when I am on the road. I dont know if such a list exists but I would be very grateful if someone could point me in the right direction. (I believe in this case I caused this problem by switching between S and T modes repeatedly, confused the CPU controlling the fuel injectors and maybe the display. The thing eventually reset itself and everything was back to normal - however the dealer problem definitely exists)
Well thats it for the first 25 days. Now if only I could figure out how to make the eco light go out .......
John
