We don’t do a lot of adventure bike testing here at ADB so when one does come up I’m always keen for a ride. After contributing to over 500 issues of this venerable tome I’ve accumulated enough injuries that some are coming back to bite me, nobody warns you about that part of getting older so I’ll gladly do the less physically demanding test rides. There’s younger, faster, fitter and to be honest, much better riders than me to test the motocross and enduro bikes that grace these pages so I’m happy to throw a leg over the occasional ADV mount, especially the 2024 Yamaha Tenere 700.
Like many of you I have a pretty firm idea of what I want in an ADV bike, and like many of you it will probably be different to most others, the much spoken of Unicorn. There are still a lot of ADV bikes out there that I’d like to try but so far the 2024 Yamaha Tenere 700 or T7 as it’s commonly known has come about the closest to ticking all the boxes on my list. It’s not a long list, I want a bike that is as close to or even less than 200kgs, a good range from the standard tank, a smooth vibration free motor for the often unavoidable long bits of running on the slab, decent suspension travel and ground clearance, sharp handling and responsiveness in the dirt with good reliability and parts back up.
From the moment I first planted myself on the T7’s seat things felt right and natural, as the 880mm seat height let me reach the ground comfortably. Perhaps I should mention I’m 188cm, 106kg, a Gemini and I like moonlit walks on the beach. Sorry that last bit is meant for my Farmer Wants a Wife application. The first thing I liked about the seat is that it is flat, as being tall I find stepped seats inevitably force me to sit too far forward for comfort on a long day.
It fired into life with a mere caress of the button and settled into a smooth idle and we were soon out onto some forestry roads where the suspension separated me from all but the most horrific sharp edged potholes. Yamaha claim a wet weight of 206kg and I have no reason to doubt it, the Tenere was easy to flick into a change of direction when hidden obstacles like fallen branches or washaways suddenly popped into view. Crossing a cattle grid into a downhill right hand bend revealed a bit of mud and slop at the last minute and by the time I’d registered that the front wheel had slipped sideways everything had sorted itself out. I’d like to claim the save was from skill and years of experience but in truth I have to put it down to Yamaha’s engineering and regular church attendance, I’m dropping an extra shilling in the plate next Sunday.
The trend these days is for all sorts of electronic wizardry like engine maps, traction control, quick shifter etc. to be available via sometimes confusing menus. The Tenere 700 has none of that other than switchable ABS allowing it to be active on both wheels for the street, and disarmed on the back wheel only or both wheels if needed when on dirt. For me that’s all I really want in electronics, the other stuff can be handy and fun to play with but none of it is a “must have” item on my list.
Annoyingly the ABS defaults back to on for both wheels whenever you shut down the motor and you have to be stationary to change it. There is a decent sized button on the dash to turn it all back on again but why not have one to turn it off as well? It, along with other things is controlled from a scroll wheel on the right side grip that requires a combination of scrolling up and down as well as long and short pushes in the correct order to change things. You can cycle through the ABS settings, reset the two trip meters, show engine or ambient air temperature, the odometer, fuel usage and a slew of other things. Towards the end of our multi-day ride through all sorts of weather from fine and sunny to cold, wet and miserable I detected a tightening of the scroll wheel action, perhaps indicative of mud and water getting in which will be something for owners to watch out for.
The brakes worked well with good feel on both sealed and unsealed roads and in the slippery slop we often encountered, were very controllable without any unexpected locking up. Believe me some of the tracks we travelled were as slippery as dog guts on a door knob. Fuel usage was impressive also and when I refuelled after riding for over 15kms after the low fuel warning started flashing it only took 11.5 litres to fill the 16 litre tank to the brim. That should give a respectable fuel range for all but the most remote parts of the island and the tank shape makes standing up comfortable with no bulges in the knee area.
Adjustable suspension is a must have for me although once I get it right I rarely play with it after that and I found the KYB suspension gave no problems. No doubt it would offer an even smoother ride with some further tweaking of the adjusters or the remote preload for the rear end but the settings as I rode it were pretty good. On our ride we experienced a wide variety of surfaces and some teeth rattling bumps and holes but I never found the suspension wanting at either end.
I was impressed by the engine on the 2024 Yamaha Tenere 700 as the twin-cylinder DOHC donk puts out lovely smooth and controllable power that is more than enough to satisfy your inner hoon but is not into the realms that it gets hard to control in difficult circumstances. Yamaha don’t have a horsepower figure on their spec sheet but Google claims it as 72hp which I feel is about right and once it goes through the six speed gearbox it punts you along at a decent clip. When we inevitably had to use a major road and mix with traffic there was more than enough grunt for easy overtaking and I saw a figure on the speedo that would have had my Mum arching her eyebrows and addressing me by my full three names in disapproval.
Wheels are 21 and 18 inch front and rear and come fitted with Pirelli Scorpion Rally tyres standard but my test bike was running the new Dunlop Trailmax Raid tyres. We hit more than our fair share of wet weather and the screen did a good job of breaking the wind and directing airflow around me and I felt no helmet lift or had any undue noise even at highway speeds. All the relevant information you may need at any given time is displayed on the five inch TFT screen which is in portrait mode and is selectable between two different screen themes and can display text messages and incoming call alerts via the free Yamaha Y-connect app. The four LED headlights certainly stand out in daytime and should be visible to even the most complacent cage driver but as we had to make the bar each night for happy hour I didn’t do any night riding so can’t speak for the effectiveness after dark.
The 2024 Yamaha Tenere 700 certainly ticks most of the boxes on my Unicorn wish list so far, and parts availability is a given since it’s a Yamaha, as they have a vast dealer network spanning the country. That leaves the reliability question and again Yamaha is not known for any problems in that area at all, and the T7 engine has been around in various street bike guises for some time. For the final word on the subject I asked RideADV owner Greg Yeager how his fleet of hard working T7 Teneres have fared.
Greg tells me that since October 2019 he and his tour guides bikes have covered over half a million kilometres combined and they have only had one warranty claim for a gear position switch which is pretty impressive. What’s more they have never had to change a fuel filter, fuel pump or had any valves out of spec when clearances were checked. If that’s not noteworthy enough then over the course of four RideADV Tenere 700 Rallys run for a total over all participants of 80 thousand plus kilometres per rally there have been no mechanical breakdowns other than flat tyres.
I think the Yamaha Tenere 700 is going on the top of my wish list, so please take note Santa Claus, I like the red and white colour scheme.
2024 YAMAHA TENERE 700
ENGINE
TYPE, Four-stroke, DOHC, four valve, two-cylinder
DISPLACEMENT 689cc
BORE & STROKE 80.0mm x 68.6mm
COOLING Liquid-cooled
COMPRESSION RATIO NA
FUEL METERING EFI
TANK CAPACITY 16L
TRANSMISSION Six-speed
CLUTCH Wet
DIMENSIONS
WHEELBASE 1590mm
SEAT HEIGHT 880mm
GROUND CLEARANCE 240mm
CLAIMED WEIGHT 206kg (wet)
SUSPENSION
FRONT 43mm upside down telescopic fork, adjustable, 210mm travel
REAR Monoshock with linkage, remote pre-load adjustment, 200mm travel
BRAKES
FRONT Hydraulic dual discs, 282mm, ABS
REAR Hydraulic single disc 245mm, ABS
RUNNING GEAR
HANDLEBAR NA
FRONT TYRE 90/90 R21 M/C 54V
REAR TYRE 150/70 R18 M/C 70V
PRICE & CONTACTS
RRP $20,349.00
BROWSER www.yamaha-motor.com.au/
BLOWER (02) 9827 7500
POST 489-493 VICTORIA ST, WETHERILL PARK NSW 2164
WORDS | WARREN JACK
PHOTOS | WARREN JACK AND
