In the past months I've been haunted by the idea to buy a new motorcycle so I started to search for something to fulfill my "dreams", as is always marketed.
To begin with ... I got scared searching the internet, a lot of opinions, thoughts and fierceful brand loyalty. Reading posts from guys who owned 17 motorcycles in 10 years - what can I say .... like two per year and the motorcycle "time-frame" is about 8 months, means 4 months per motorcycle and approx 4 ride-outs?!?! ... how can I trust this opinion? Ok, he has money, but to put down a brand ... only if is a shit bike, but real shit.
I had also my share of bikes in more than 10 years and more than 80.000 Km: Kawa KLE400 from 1994 - Japan Model, Kawa KLR600E from 1991, Kawa KL250 from 1982 and Suzuki GS500E from 2004. Also on occasions I had the opportunity to drive more than 50Km a Kawa ER6-N, Honda Dominator and KTM LC4 620 (this one just for 2Km, because is a KTM, always breaks something). Always riding all year round except the few weeks with snow or ice on the roads.
You can see I am a Kawa fan, at least for enduro - dual sport category. I wanted for years to get a KLR650, but is made for US only and since some dickhead from Kawasaki Europe decided that if we purchase from other markets Kawa Europe will not help with any documentation required for vehicle registration .... which left us butt-naked with the Versys line. Something like this I will ride only if I am paid to do it. But I am not here to share my reasons behind KLR650 and my hate towards Versys. Anyway shame on you Kawasaki! The same thing I could tell about Suzuki with all DR line gone from Europe and Honda who transformed all models to a more road dedicated model rather than 50/50. Ok, they were smart to launch now the new AfricaTwin. I would have purchased it if it was not so expensive, for my budget - not compared with BMW, and was not in the first year of production. But first year ... no thanks I am already test user for Win10 and I curse the day I trusted the internet that is a smart move.
The only possibility in Europe to go for a dual purpose bike is to look at KTM, maybe at Husaberg / Husqvarna for more off-road, BMW some models and Yamaha.
Looking at specs, forums, bla bla, you know all the stuff you can find on internet, I decided to go for Yamaha XT660Z Tenere. But why?
Some complain is old technology, does not have all the bells and whistles of BMW. Well this is bullshit! And it is bullshit because when you are in the bushes you don't have to call the service to ask for the code 65846. For my taste it has already too much being with injection, so a bit hard to repair this on the first rock you find to take a sit. But except the injection looks quite straight forward to repair it on your own.
Some complain is too heavy - Except KL250 all the other bikes I owned were cows, or at leas cow sized. Yes is heavy but what would you expect 125Kg? Buy a real enduro or cross. And would be your beloved BMW 1200GS lighter?
It is too tall - well, sorry to say it blunt but midget sized enduros I haven' seen. Then go shop in the pocket bike or kids bike section. Yes I know the BMW is not so tall, then you get your product from them. Not so tall but with a big clearance is not possible with current motorcycle design.
No ABS as standard - a reason for me to cheer and party hard. No ABS means a bit taller, a bit lighter and some electronics and mechanics less to worry about. ABS will not help once you hit the dirt, is not designed to drive at warp speeds so I see again no issue for a relaxing ride on the roads. When you drive carefully knowing all the idiots in your immediate vicinity and you practice a bit anticipating the traffic, you will not need ABS for about 90% of your time. For the rest of 10% ABS will not help you anyway. On the plus side you will learn how to brake in the proper manner. I was surprised to learn how many "bikers" don't know the rules of braking, they just slam the brakes and that's it. All because they had only ABS bikes and intelligent systems who split between the front and back regardless which one you use. This goes for the cars too. Lean to brake in the case of ABS failure. Learn your stopping distance from all the speeds and keep the required distance from the cars in front of you and you don't need ABS. Not to mention that if your bike is not perfectly straight even with the ABS you can take a fall, and shit happens exactly when you are in a curve, or on bad streets.
Not a real ADVENTURE BIKE - please define adventure!?!?! Well, is a buzz word like all the other buzzwords we hear from marketing people. I hear all day IoT, cloud, delightful design, cozy design, user experience and so on ... just buzz but seems everyone can and knows how to do it. The same with adventure bikes. If your adventure is driving on Sunday after church for 200Km on C class roads just to eat a salad .... is more than you need, a 50cc would fulfill the need and the legal speed.
You want some sand? will do it too so where is the problem? You want to go the distance at warp speeds and do some real hardcore enduro? Buy an enduro, drive with your car up to that point and jump on your enduro.
Not good for hardcore off-road - WTF!?!?! Do you hear yourself? Would you go to a hardcore off-road with your SUV? No! SUV is for some forest roads, light off-road and road. The same goes for Tenere. Do you want hardcore off-road? then you are in for a cross. But wait, if you were .... then you wouldn't even consider a Tenere, because you would have experience and not just posting stuff on net.
Vibrates - what would you expect from a single cylinder? Just use your brain and think that you ride a metal block with a hole of cca 660 cubic cm. In this hole you have a piston which moves from top to bottom very quick. Yes, is a vibrator feeling, maybe you old lady will have the time of her life but not for a long time before starts to hurt. So what would you expect? The smoothness of a 6V engine?
Not a real world crosser - well, see the point above - is just a 660ccm vibrator. For sure it can take you to the end of the world but not smooth or fast. You can't pack all the luxury items from your 4 room apartment and half service shop. Also you can't pack your old lady with her luggage and let her sit on the back while you fly on the highway with 140+ Km/h. For solo riding on harsh roads is more than perfect.
Is not good on highways - duh! First is tall, second is small engine, third is a vibrator (did I said again this word?!?!), and forth ... is not a sport bike. What do you really want, high speed or to be able to ride on forest paths? You can't have both, use your brain! From my experience with other dual sport bikes, you can do highways as long as you are below 120 Km/h, to be preferred around the speed of trucks on European highways - 90 - 100 Km/h.
As I could see all the negative comments are coming from false expectations, and of course if the bike does not fulfill them then is a bad experience, worth to share with everybody. Ghosting ... yes it seems to have this issue, I don't know yet if worse than the singles I used, or better. I had for one week a rented bike, back in 2005, was a Yamaha XT660, but being in Greece and a rental bike I doubt it was not suffering from bad service and crazy foreigners coming to do racing with it. I had my lady as passenger and just a backpack with our beach equipment and we were riding around the island more than staying at the beach. I can tell that it was the worse engine I have seen on a bike -always ghosting, always struggling on higher gears and low rpm. I still blame the service and I hope they fixed this issues from 2000 anyway because more or less should be the same engine. Other than that I still managed to get some off-road with it and was behaving better than on the road. In the last day I have learned how to drive it without problems but it was already too late.
Now that I kicked all the "negative" aspects produced by expectations, I have kept my expectations under control and I have identified the following positive aspects:
Easier to repair that the full electronic modern awesome bikes
Tall, high clearance, no ABS (yes, I opted for the non ABS version)
Big community with real info on repairs, mods, 3rd party parts at decent prices (lot of diy mods also available, not just "went to the dealer and purchased x")
Moderately priced - not the cheapest, not the most expensive but somehow unique in the class, actually I couldn't find a competitor on the European market - 650ccm, high clearance, almost at the sweet spot of 50/50 road/off-road. This is a sad aspect to have only one producer in this area. Please don't start with BMW F800GS, it does not compare, is more expensive, more street, more electronics, although a competitor. But for the price of a new F800GS you can get a fully equiped Tenere and with Akrapovic exhaust, remaining some money for the first tank and beer.
Single cylinder engine - personal preference, I love the sound, I love the pops and I love the feeling. From another point of view is easy to change the spark plug ( I hated changing two of them), cheaper to repair.
Can do road and go past the McDrive entrance, it would hurt if I drop it but I will not bleed to death when I hear the price for some plastics.
Love the design - I can put a high fender guard. For BMW or some Honda bikes you have to live with that duck peak, Here is simple just put the high fender and remove the lower one. Maybe is true that we don't forget our first love. My first one was the KLE 400, and I had purchased it with this high fender.
A bit on the high scale of weight but not so much, I am used with something around 200 Kg falling in dirt and having to pick it up. So it does not feel so heavy with just extra 10 Kg.
Height - I am tall too and with the Suzuki GS500 I really had the feeling that I ride with my knees behind my ears. I miss the good old days when I was riding in a standing position, not having troubles after 200 Km because I really need to extend my legs. Tall guys and small naked street bikes are a no go for me.
Reliability - at least on the net are a lot of signs that it can be used more than 50.000 Km without any major service.
The whole package - is good for light to medium off-road without sacrificing too much of the street comfort, even the OEM parts are not priced in a manner that I would sell a kidney in order to purchase them, they have relative the same price with the aftermarket counterparts. Of course some can be a better quality compared with the OEM but still it does not need to do huge financial efforts. Also I got some good offer from the dealer, not awesome but fair, meaning it was just the price of the bike plus the parts from catalog. Some may say it was a bad deal but I pay no fee for transfer papers, for transport from Yamaha to the dealer and also the installation. And we talk here about the Akrapovic (is a bit of work to change the exhaust), center stand, and aluminium engine guard. Also they agree to fit HB crash bars and OTR water pump protection. As bonus they will register the bike on my name, I have just to pay the registration taxes and number plates. All in all it was not a super deal with 20% discount but a fair price for the package and I get just to go there, pick-up the keys and drive without any stress that I need to register it and other paperwork.
Now I return to my beer and wait for the first drive.
