I have a bit of a weak spot for underdogs. Maybe this is the reason why, being a German and living in the BMW hometown of Munich, I decided against a GS last year and bought a new 2014 XT1200ZE.
Ironically, I did not have any real opportunities for my typical motorcycle trips to the Alps since I bought the new bike. Instead of two or three day trips to the Dolomites, the Tenere saw duty as a commuter bike, taking me to the office and back, and maybe the occasional Sunday afternoon ride. While the bike did all that ok, I felt the Tenere lacked some of the excitement my other rides could give me on these shorter trips. Consequently, I put it up for sale a few weeks ago in the German equivalent of Craig's list.
Last weekend came as one of the first this year without any family or social obligations, so I decided to make use of the reasonable good weather forecast and do my end-of-season tour to Italy. The plan was to leave Friday evening, spend the night in a hotel in Bressanone, start Saturday early and ride the full day in the Italian Alps and return Saturday night to be able to spend Sunday with the Mem-Sahib.
Summer has passed in Europe and evenings in late September are chilly, so I decided to take the Tenere. It might be the last ride with the bike before selling it anyway, so a good-bye ride at the end of the season seemed a good thing. Admittedly, the Tenere's fairing and heated grips weighed in into this decision as well.
Leaving Munich towards the Italian mountains, one of the fastest ways is to take to Autobahn for about 90kms to Garmisch and then take some Austrian country roads towards Italy. On the Autobahn, I appreciated the tall windscreen and the cruise control, then the good lights and 300kms later the comfortable riding position. Arriving at the hotel late in the evening, I felt the first doubts creeeping into my mind whether selling the bike was really the right thing to do.
But getting to the passes is one thing, riding them is another. In the past, I often had bikes that were bad getting there but great fun once I was there. I thought that with the Tenere, it must just be the other way around.
Enter Saturday. Waking up in the middle of biker's heaven (aka Dolomites) under an unreal blue Italian sky, I quickly sipped my cappucino and hurried to get back on the bike. My expectations were somewhat conservative as far as the fun was concerned I would have with the Yamaha. It is a heavy bike, a good - no, as I learned the day before: a very good - tourer, but here, on these passes, I am convinced it will not perform as well as it did yesterday.
Three passes later (Mendola, Palade, Giovo), things look different for me (and for a few BMWs, V-Stroms, and a group of Tuonos - but I will spare you more bragging).
The mountain passes are quite unforgiving when it comes to bad or over-eager riding. Crosses at the side of the roads are sober witnesses of that fact. There is little room for error, as is always when you are in the middle of an adventure. As a rider, you have to perfom 100 percent, and so has your bike. I bike that is entertaining on a boring road might just ask for too much attention that is better spent for the demanding roads.
And it was here where the Tenere really exposed ist true character to me: What had felt boring on my daily commute, turned into precise, predictable and reliable performance in the Alps.
Here, 2000 meters high up in the mountains, the Tenere has tought me a lesson: The ride is the adventure, not the bike.
I arrived home safely Saturday evening, having zoomed through the last Autobahn kilometers back to Munich at 200km/h sitting upright and relaxed behind the windscreen. After a quick shower, I was ready for an evening downtown with the best wife of all, who, as always, listened patiently and understanding (if mildly bored) to my latest riding stories over steaks and wine.
And a 2014 Yamaha XT1200ZE dissapeared on the selling ads on Sunday morning.