This is an excerpt from an email I sent to a friend after seeing the bike at the International Motorcycle Show, back in January. It seemed worthy of posting here, so here goes:
I spent a good long time checking out the Super Tenere. They had two of them there. One was loaded with most of the factory accessory catalog and had the seat in the lowest position, and one was unloaded and had the seat in the highest position.
The Tenere has spoked wheels but the tires are tubeless - the spokes go to flanges instead of going through the rims. The brake rotors are the fancy floral shape like aftermarket rotors on sportbikes. The bike has ABS. Tires are Bridgestones. Based on my V-Strom experiences I would have preferred the Metzeler Tourances - the V-Strom came with Bridgestones too and they just weren't that good. But tires are temporary - no big deal.
The engine is a 1200cc parallel twin, like a bigger version of what's in my TDM. But the Tenere has FI, which will hopefully be less troublesome than the TDM's carbs with their wear-item jets.
Ergonomically it's similar to the TDM, and doesn't feel any heavier. It has a nice narrow feel between my knees, though on the low seat bike, my knees were pushed apart by the bodywork as I had a greater bend in my knees and they pushed forward more. I liked the higher seat better. I could still flat-foot it.
The bars feel a lot like the bars on the V-Strom - both the width and the angle of the grips. The width and the distance forward is fine but I'd like the grips to angle down and back a little bit more. This is a common complaint of mine, though - apparently my perfect wrist angle is different from other people's. Since I might change the bars, I noticed that the tubular handlebars are 7/8" at the ends, where the controls and grips are, but they are larger, maybe 1", where they clamp to the bike. So you'd need some kind of shims, if you change them. The bars are also painted or anodized silver - I wonder how durable the coating will be.
The fairing and windshield look small compared to the NT or even my VFR750. There's a lot of stuff going on, down lower, that makes it wider in front of my knees than the TDM - it's more like the V-Strom there, though the cowling seems to have more stuffed into it instead of being a big hollow shell like the V-Strom. There's a bunch of black plastic wrapped around it, and it's oddly asymetrical - there are vent holes on the left, and swoopy plastic on the right. There appears to be a radiator under those vents. I couldn't figure out was in the right side to balance that. Hopefully nothing too fragile.
The blue metallic paint looked lustrous, with a nice deep clear. Very pretty.
The rear carrier supports seemed to be made of plastic. That's like the NT, where it hasn't given me any trouble, it's been sturdy enough, but I'm still kind of nervous about it.
The headlights look weird. They have a fairly ordinary cats-eye kind of shape, like other bikes, and thank goodness they're symetrical, no bill-the-cat look like on the GS. But they have round shiny orbs inside them; I couldn't see the bulbs in there. Are they HID or LED or something? They didn't look like normal halogen. I haven't investigated this yet but I'm sure google will know.
When I sat on the high-seat bike, my feet were perfectly positioned, not too far forward, not too far back. The footpegs are nice. They have a wide rubber block to put your foot on when your weight is on the seat, that will support your feet well. But the rubber block is soft, and when you stand on the pegs it squishes down and the metal teeth stick up to give you better grip like a dirtbike peg.
The muffler is a big squat high mount thing on the left side only. Maybe people are getting used to this, since I didn't hear nearly as much chatter about how hideous it is, as I heard last year about the new VFR. It seems to be the new style - other bikes in the show were sporting these grotesque pipes too.
The loaded bike had trendy square boxes, and I couldn't tell if they were aluminum or plastic. The salescritter couldn't be convinced to focus long enough to open them and show the insides to me. The left box had a cutout for the muffler. I think if I bought this bike I would not buy those boxes - I'd just find or make a Givi rack. Because I have my doubts about whether those boxes are as rugged as all that, and they are very expensive. I know the Givis are sturdy even when the bike slides down the road on top of them, and that if I need a replacement lid, say, I can get one, and not have to buy a whole replacement Yamaha kit to get the one damaged part.
The loaded bike had a nice bash plate, which I would buy, because the oil filter is in a very vulnerable spot on the front. It also had a big crash bar cage that is likely overkill - the stock bodywork has very stout metal bumpers that would serve as tipover wings. OTOH, with the radiator where it is maybe the crash cage is a good idea. There are some screws right where you'd attach driving lights, that I assume are intended as mount points - I can't see what else they'd be there for. I asked the salescritter and he obviously didn't understand my question - he said "They're crash bars" and gave me a look like I was a moron. I may be a moron, but I know what crash bars are - I wanted to know about the screws. The salescritter didn't figure it out, though, before more men came into his orbit and he no longer had time for mere females. (I was especially amused when he pulled out a bunch of business cards and handed them to all the men standing around me, bypassing me as if I were not there.)
I was a little put off by some quality issues:
1. On the loaded bike, the exhaust pipe was already showing significant rust, in the section where it is buried down behind the motor. The salescritter said it's a stainless pipe but if that's true it's a really poor one. I think that anyone who buys this bike would do well to get the pipes coated by Jet-Hot or someone like that, before they rusted too badly. The unloaded bike didn't have a rusty pipe. I wonder if they ran through a salty puddle with the loaded bike, on their way in or out of a show?
2. On the unloaded bike, there was something crazy going on with the seat. It moved disconcertingly. Perhaps it wasn't attached properly. Or maybe the latches that hold it in the highest position are flimsier? The loaded bike seat didn't rattle and rock like that. Besides the rattling, I noted that the seat was upholstered in the cheapest possible plastic material, barely even qualifying as vinyl, and it was already showing wear near the seams. And the cushioning felt like it would break down quickly. I think this bike will need an aftermarket seat even if the stock seat is comfortable.
My conclusion:
If I hadn't bought the NT last year, or seen the news stories about the Honda Crosstourer, I'd almost certainly be putting down my deposit to get a Super Tenere this year. As it is, though, I think I will wait and see how it does once the bikes are actually in use, and whether Honda makes a Crosstourer. The fact that Yamaha would have show bikes with rusty pipes and tired seats, worries me, and unlike the NT700V, the Tenere is actually a new bike; there isn't a reliability record in Europe to look to. I think I will sit this year out and consider it for 2012. I will definitely be trying to cadge a test ride on one.
I spent a good long time checking out the Super Tenere. They had two of them there. One was loaded with most of the factory accessory catalog and had the seat in the lowest position, and one was unloaded and had the seat in the highest position.
The Tenere has spoked wheels but the tires are tubeless - the spokes go to flanges instead of going through the rims. The brake rotors are the fancy floral shape like aftermarket rotors on sportbikes. The bike has ABS. Tires are Bridgestones. Based on my V-Strom experiences I would have preferred the Metzeler Tourances - the V-Strom came with Bridgestones too and they just weren't that good. But tires are temporary - no big deal.
The engine is a 1200cc parallel twin, like a bigger version of what's in my TDM. But the Tenere has FI, which will hopefully be less troublesome than the TDM's carbs with their wear-item jets.
Ergonomically it's similar to the TDM, and doesn't feel any heavier. It has a nice narrow feel between my knees, though on the low seat bike, my knees were pushed apart by the bodywork as I had a greater bend in my knees and they pushed forward more. I liked the higher seat better. I could still flat-foot it.
The bars feel a lot like the bars on the V-Strom - both the width and the angle of the grips. The width and the distance forward is fine but I'd like the grips to angle down and back a little bit more. This is a common complaint of mine, though - apparently my perfect wrist angle is different from other people's. Since I might change the bars, I noticed that the tubular handlebars are 7/8" at the ends, where the controls and grips are, but they are larger, maybe 1", where they clamp to the bike. So you'd need some kind of shims, if you change them. The bars are also painted or anodized silver - I wonder how durable the coating will be.
The fairing and windshield look small compared to the NT or even my VFR750. There's a lot of stuff going on, down lower, that makes it wider in front of my knees than the TDM - it's more like the V-Strom there, though the cowling seems to have more stuffed into it instead of being a big hollow shell like the V-Strom. There's a bunch of black plastic wrapped around it, and it's oddly asymetrical - there are vent holes on the left, and swoopy plastic on the right. There appears to be a radiator under those vents. I couldn't figure out was in the right side to balance that. Hopefully nothing too fragile.
The blue metallic paint looked lustrous, with a nice deep clear. Very pretty.
The rear carrier supports seemed to be made of plastic. That's like the NT, where it hasn't given me any trouble, it's been sturdy enough, but I'm still kind of nervous about it.
The headlights look weird. They have a fairly ordinary cats-eye kind of shape, like other bikes, and thank goodness they're symetrical, no bill-the-cat look like on the GS. But they have round shiny orbs inside them; I couldn't see the bulbs in there. Are they HID or LED or something? They didn't look like normal halogen. I haven't investigated this yet but I'm sure google will know.
When I sat on the high-seat bike, my feet were perfectly positioned, not too far forward, not too far back. The footpegs are nice. They have a wide rubber block to put your foot on when your weight is on the seat, that will support your feet well. But the rubber block is soft, and when you stand on the pegs it squishes down and the metal teeth stick up to give you better grip like a dirtbike peg.
The muffler is a big squat high mount thing on the left side only. Maybe people are getting used to this, since I didn't hear nearly as much chatter about how hideous it is, as I heard last year about the new VFR. It seems to be the new style - other bikes in the show were sporting these grotesque pipes too.
The loaded bike had trendy square boxes, and I couldn't tell if they were aluminum or plastic. The salescritter couldn't be convinced to focus long enough to open them and show the insides to me. The left box had a cutout for the muffler. I think if I bought this bike I would not buy those boxes - I'd just find or make a Givi rack. Because I have my doubts about whether those boxes are as rugged as all that, and they are very expensive. I know the Givis are sturdy even when the bike slides down the road on top of them, and that if I need a replacement lid, say, I can get one, and not have to buy a whole replacement Yamaha kit to get the one damaged part.
The loaded bike had a nice bash plate, which I would buy, because the oil filter is in a very vulnerable spot on the front. It also had a big crash bar cage that is likely overkill - the stock bodywork has very stout metal bumpers that would serve as tipover wings. OTOH, with the radiator where it is maybe the crash cage is a good idea. There are some screws right where you'd attach driving lights, that I assume are intended as mount points - I can't see what else they'd be there for. I asked the salescritter and he obviously didn't understand my question - he said "They're crash bars" and gave me a look like I was a moron. I may be a moron, but I know what crash bars are - I wanted to know about the screws. The salescritter didn't figure it out, though, before more men came into his orbit and he no longer had time for mere females. (I was especially amused when he pulled out a bunch of business cards and handed them to all the men standing around me, bypassing me as if I were not there.)
I was a little put off by some quality issues:
1. On the loaded bike, the exhaust pipe was already showing significant rust, in the section where it is buried down behind the motor. The salescritter said it's a stainless pipe but if that's true it's a really poor one. I think that anyone who buys this bike would do well to get the pipes coated by Jet-Hot or someone like that, before they rusted too badly. The unloaded bike didn't have a rusty pipe. I wonder if they ran through a salty puddle with the loaded bike, on their way in or out of a show?
2. On the unloaded bike, there was something crazy going on with the seat. It moved disconcertingly. Perhaps it wasn't attached properly. Or maybe the latches that hold it in the highest position are flimsier? The loaded bike seat didn't rattle and rock like that. Besides the rattling, I noted that the seat was upholstered in the cheapest possible plastic material, barely even qualifying as vinyl, and it was already showing wear near the seams. And the cushioning felt like it would break down quickly. I think this bike will need an aftermarket seat even if the stock seat is comfortable.
My conclusion:
If I hadn't bought the NT last year, or seen the news stories about the Honda Crosstourer, I'd almost certainly be putting down my deposit to get a Super Tenere this year. As it is, though, I think I will wait and see how it does once the bikes are actually in use, and whether Honda makes a Crosstourer. The fact that Yamaha would have show bikes with rusty pipes and tired seats, worries me, and unlike the NT700V, the Tenere is actually a new bike; there isn't a reliability record in Europe to look to. I think I will sit this year out and consider it for 2012. I will definitely be trying to cadge a test ride on one.
