Well Gents, today was the day. That this lucky guy test rode the Tenere! Me, and the family left the house at 830 for the hour ½ car ride to Middleton, WI. For the Star days 2011 held at the Marriott Hotel. First my wife had planned to take mini me to a mall nearby and spend papa’s hard earned dollar. While, I played around on Yamaha’s toys. Before leaving the house, I tripled checked the weather and it called for scattered showers. Driving though a rainstorm and my optimism was very low. It didn’t look like it was going to clear up.
Once pulling into the parking lot of the hotel, I saw that huge trailer where bikes were already lined up ready for the day. Before I even parked the car, there it was parked next to the trailer’s awning. A black Tenere! I’m like there it is. Wife: There what is? Me: The Tenere. Wife: Oh, is that even the color you liked.? Me: Yup!
Once parking we went into the trailer and meet some of Yamaha sales reps demo and other demo hopefuls. Once getting there I spoke with the nice lady about signing up for the demo and she told me. “I don’t think were going to have a demo today, because of the rain.” By now the rain tapered off and just left cloudy sky’s and even the roads were dry to the tough and conditions were greatly improving. So in the mean time I spoke with some of the sales staff about 1. The bike 2. How I’ve been obsessed with it. 3. A plug for the forum. Took a couple of photo’s and touched every nook and cranny. This bike I have to say has been put together with quality parts. Nothing really rattled when I shook it; except turn signals, which I guess oscillate during motion and the plastic side covering the radiator and battery. On of the after market guys that was there said, those need to be painted to match the paint, not the black plastic that they are. (I’ll remember that)
So I continued my molestation of the bike turning it on. Having a sales rep show me the bottoms for the Traction Control, Display settings, Mode settings. I asked about the sport and touring mode. He just laughed and said, “When we your on the highway or just cruising along, switch it to touring mode. But for today’s purposes, trust me leaving it in sports mode.” I got to sit on it which already, I was checking out the bikes cock pit and the seat it very comfortable. I put the tenere on the center stand and the wife crawled on to it and said the rear seat is like stadium seating. She said the seat reminder her of our Tennessee Trip, where I rented a Harley Ultra Classic. A Big + for the tenere.
Nevertheless, Finally at around 1030 they finally allowed people to start signing up. Although I was the first one there to test ride the tenere, I wasn’t the first one to ride the bike. I was forced to ride the FJR as an appetizer before the main coarse. It was actually a good reference point before riding the tenere. FINALLY at 1:00pm I got to ride the bike I’ve been waiting for like most of you for a year. After learning about it, watching everything on youtube. Reading every magazine article. Following WASP development and postings on ADV. Finally, it was my time to ride the bike. But first, the safety instructions before each and every demo must happen. I brought my GoPro and the guys running the demo said, “whats with the camera, that will hinder your appreciation of the ride.” I’m like I don’t have to turn it on. But you will see the sale rep who I’ve talk with all day in the video made sure I had the camera rolling when I rode the bike. I’m use to getting on bike from the right side, but for this I had to mount the bike from the left, because the seat has this rubber coating on it.
Once the bike was fired up I went back and forth about leaving it in T or S. Quick decision leave it in S, I trust the sales rep opinion. And off we went. I’ve read in other postings about how smooth the transmission was. No Lie, its very smooth. Coming from a Harley background and having to Kick to get the thing in gear. This wasn’t the case at all. I’ve even missed shifted about three times on up shifts. My fault, not the bikes.
I couldn’t get over how well the fairing protected my lower parts of my body. My legs were covered just as well on this bike as on the Bmw R1200Rt. I couldn’t stop looking down at the bike and how well it covered me from the wind. Today was really hot. The temp was 86 degree according to the tenere’s display. So I did notice a little heat near my feet, but nothing that got uncomfortable. It was mostly at slow speeds But once we hit the highway on ramp that heat was gone.
I was expecting to get my head snapped back once I rolled on the throttle hard. But that wasn’t the case. It was smooth. There wasn’t any throttle lag at all. Every time I rolled the throttle the bike sped up. It was much smoother than the R1200RT. When we finally got to some stoplights. I tried the brakes. First was just the front brake. I didn’t get any vibration out of the brake hand to see if the abs activated, but there wasn’t any lag in the brakes at all. I didn’t really feel any rear braking from the rear, because the system is linked. Just applying a constant squeeze and the bike slowed down. Nothing that would send me into the ditch and nothing that would have thrown me from the bike by applying a lot of front brake. For the next sets corners I used the rear brake first and then applied the front. Still no difference that I could tell.
The handling was very good! The demo leader, who was in front of me was on a FZ6, I don’t really know if it’s a great handling bike, but I was leaning a little bit further and catching up to him once I accelerated out of the corners. I’ve noticed that as I could turn the motorcycle, I would shift my hips instead of using more handlebars for the turns. While in the corner, this thing was just planted. I had no fear of wobbling or miss reading the apex. I was just to hit every bump I could to test the suspension and hit a couple of pot holes on the way back and not even a twitch from the bike. I’ve hit smaller potholes on my current bike and feel the front fork bottom out and the frame being shoved into my groin.
Another thing about the bike is the sound of the engine in S mode. To tell you the truth it sounds like a boxer motor! It sounded like the same motor from the R1200RT. AWW I loved it. I cannot imagine what an aftermarket exhaust would do. Nevertheless, like all fun things they must come to an end. After 15 minutes I knew that I made the right decision by riding this bike. IMOP the Super Tenere is very comparable to the R1200RT. Both are very comfortable. Great sounding engines very well made machines. But they’re different. Once I got back the sales guys asked me what I think. I told them, it was everything I expected it would be and more! The engine has great power and its very smooth. The transmission, once I got the hang of it, was very easy and smooth. The drive shaft takes all of what you gave put into the throttle, with out any lag, like the BMW. In that 4000 rpm range is when the animal really comes to life. It also feels very light. That’s another thing I’m sure you’ve all read, how light this bike feels. It felt like my
Bro-in laws Ninja 600. I couldn’t get over the paint. That black just sparkled under the sunlight.
With a few minor changes, tall windshield for cooler weather, and bar adjustment. I could easily ride that motorcycle all day and be comfortable. Even in 86 degree temperatures. After saying good-bye to the nice people I’ve meet, I made that call for the wife to return and pick up her very happy man. In the car, I was pretty quite, like any married my knows, women cannot stand silence. So the wife asked me how it went and I told her that I’ve found the right motorcycle for what I want, can afford, and could appreciate for a very long time.
GREAT NEWS! Right. So when I got home I called my local dealership and he had ordered a Blue Tenere. I told him I have to have black and still need to sell my current bike. He quickly called Yamaha Corp and called me back saying there are Black Tenere’s available and the dealerships order could be changed from blue to black. +
Today was a fun day especially, knowing I will finally become a Tenere owner.
