Motorcycles

Yamaha's Tenere 700: A middleweight adventure bike for serious off-road shenanigans

Yamaha's Tenere 700: A middleweight adventure bike for serious off-road shenanigans
Yamaha's Ténéré 700 is a middleweight adventure machine for people who really want to go off-road
Yamaha's Ténéré 700 is a middleweight adventure machine for people who really want to go off-road
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Yamaha Ténéré 700: a relatively basic – and thus hopefully affordable – rally-style middleweight adventure machine
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Yamaha Ténéré 700: a relatively basic – and thus hopefully affordable – rally-style middleweight adventure machine
Yamaha Ténéré 700: makes no bones about its Dakar inspirations
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Yamaha Ténéré 700: makes no bones about its Dakar inspirations
Yamaha Ténéré 700: 21/18-inch spoked wheels
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Yamaha Ténéré 700: 21/18-inch spoked wheels
Yamaha Ténéré 700: 689cc parallel twin from the MT-07
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Yamaha Ténéré 700: 689cc parallel twin from the MT-07
Yamaha Ténéré 700: weighs 205 kg (450 lb) in its Euro configuration
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Yamaha Ténéré 700: weighs 205 kg (450 lb) in its Euro configuration
Yamaha Ténéré 700: cute rectangular dash makes you feel even more like you're on a Dakar bike
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Yamaha Ténéré 700: cute rectangular dash makes you feel even more like you're on a Dakar bike
Yamaha Ténéré 700: standard barkbusters
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Yamaha Ténéré 700: standard barkbusters
Yamaha Ténéré 700: fairly inoffensive exhaust
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Yamaha Ténéré 700: fairly inoffensive exhaust
Yamaha Ténéré 700: 200 mm of suspension travel at either end
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Yamaha Ténéré 700: 200 mm of suspension travel at either end
Yamaha Ténéré 700: twin-stack LED headlights behind a protection plate
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Yamaha Ténéré 700: twin-stack LED headlights behind a protection plate
Yamaha Ténéré 700: Yamaha is finally (almost) ready to launch the middleweight adventurer eveyone's been waiting for
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Yamaha Ténéré 700: Yamaha is finally (almost) ready to launch the middleweight adventurer eveyone's been waiting for
Yamaha Ténéré 700: a marked increase in off-road capability compared to its 1200cc Super Ténéré stablemate
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Yamaha Ténéré 700: a marked increase in off-road capability compared to its 1200cc Super Ténéré stablemate
Yamaha Ténéré 700: BYO spectacular views
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Yamaha Ténéré 700: BYO spectacular views
Yamaha Ténéré 700: four LED headlights
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Yamaha Ténéré 700: four LED headlights
Yamaha Ténéré 700: road-friendly tires
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Yamaha Ténéré 700: road-friendly tires
Yamaha Ténéré 700: hand-adjustable shock preload
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Yamaha Ténéré 700: hand-adjustable shock preload
Yamaha Ténéré 700: slim tank still enables long-range riding
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Yamaha Ténéré 700: slim tank still enables long-range riding
Yamaha Ténéré 700: wild drifting skills not included
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Yamaha Ténéré 700: wild drifting skills not included
Yamaha Ténéré 700: you can ride one here
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Yamaha Ténéré 700: you can ride one here
Yamaha Ténéré 700: yeeeeeha!
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Yamaha Ténéré 700: yeeeeeha!
Yamaha Ténéré 700: dirt-friendly ergonomics
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Yamaha Ténéré 700: dirt-friendly ergonomics
Yamaha Ténéré 700: either there's a very strong breeze, or that guy's going very sideways
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Yamaha Ténéré 700: either there's a very strong breeze, or that guy's going very sideways
Yamaha Ténéré 700: can be ridden up slight inclines
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Yamaha Ténéré 700: can be ridden up slight inclines
Yamaha Ténéré 700: the rider in these promo shots really likes hanging it out, doesn't he?
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Yamaha Ténéré 700: the rider in these promo shots really likes hanging it out, doesn't he?
Yamaha's Ténéré 700 is a middleweight adventure machine for people who really want to go off-road
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Yamaha's Ténéré 700 is a middleweight adventure machine for people who really want to go off-road
Yamaha Ténéré 700: carving some sand
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Yamaha Ténéré 700: carving some sand
Yamaha Ténéré 700: that torquey MT-07 motor should fare well in a big chook chaser
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Yamaha Ténéré 700: that torquey MT-07 motor should fare well in a big chook chaser
Yamaha Ténéré 700: standard bashplate
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Yamaha Ténéré 700: standard bashplate
Yamaha Ténéré 700: thin enduro seat still has a bit of meat on it for the freeway sections
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Yamaha Ténéré 700: thin enduro seat still has a bit of meat on it for the freeway sections
View gallery - 29 images

Yamaha is finally giving seriously dirt-oriented adventure riders what they've been asking for: a road-legal, long-range dirt squirtin' middleweight that looks a bit Dakar-ish and doesn't weigh as much as the giant Super Ténéré 1200.

After a lengthy soft launch process, the new Ténéré 700 is here, unveiled at EICMA and ready to take on the new KTM 790 Adventure R for middleweight adventure riding superiority.

Using the compact 689cc parallel twin platform that made the MT-07 such a successful middleweight machine, the new Ténéré 700 will make 72 horsepwer and 68 Nm (50 lb-ft) in a package that will weigh 205 kg (450 lb) in its European configuration, wet and full of 16 liters (4.2 gal) of fuel.

That weight should compare favorably with the KTMs, which weigh 189 kg (416 lb) dry – so you can probably assume they'll be significantly heavier than the Ténérés once you fill up the fuel, and add oil and coolant. The Ténéré looks a little narrower and more compact than the 790 Adventures, too.

Yamaha Ténéré 700: 21/18-inch spoked wheels
Yamaha Ténéré 700: 21/18-inch spoked wheels

Continuing to put the Ténéré side by side with the KTM, suspension tells an interesting tale. Where the KTM 790 Adventure R offers 240 mm of suspension travel at either end, the Yamaha goes for a "rally specification" setup with 210 mm of travel in the forks, and just 200 mm in the shock. KTM gets the jump here, likely due to its ownership of WP suspension.

The wheels, on the other hand, are much of a muchness: 21-in at the front, 18-in at the rear, spoked and shod with decent semi-knobbies. The front brakes use dual 282 mm discs, and the ABS is switchable. That 16-liter tank is said to give you a decent 350 km (~220 mi) range, which is great, but the KTMs hold more and go significantly further.

Yamaha Ténéré 700: yeeeeeha!
Yamaha Ténéré 700: yeeeeeha!

When it comes to looks, the Ténéré takes all the cred. Its four LED headlights behind a flattish thin screen look every bit the part of a Dakar machine, and indeed even the LCD dash is cheekily shaped to look a bit like the kind of GPS maps the Dakar guys use. It's a great looking bike – and a shout out to team Yamaha for killing it with the photos on this one, they look amazing – as does the promo video at the bottom of the page here.

The Ténéré 700 will launch in Europe and some other markets next year, but word on the street is it won't make it to the USA until 2020 – possibly even late 2020, as the US website is listing it as a 2021 model only. Pricing and dates are yet to be announced.

Source: Yamaha

New Yamaha Ténéré 700

View gallery - 29 images
4 comments
4 comments
guzmanchinky
And Yamaha reliability is LEGENDARY. KTM, not so much. I have a WR250R which has it's first service (besides oil changes) at TWENTY THOUSAND MILES. For a valve adjustment. And this is a crazy high revving super octane burning 1/4 of an R1 engine. Will the Yamaha have that amazing cornering ABS of the KTM? Every bike needs that.
PaleDale
It's a nice looking bike as per usual from Yamaha but 350k's is not enough for an adventure touring bike. You will need to carry extra fuel on your panniers taking up valuable space or buy an ugly, (stupidly over priced) after market tank. My Adventure bike did 600k's on a tank and that was not enough for outback Australia. Its a shame they couldn't have squeezed a bit more volume in that tank.
guzmanchinky
PaleDale you're right. Even the piddly 2 gallon tank on my WR wasn't enough, but I found a plastic aftermarket tank that looks perfect and hold 3.1 gallons, which is plenty with that little motor. But I could see how a true cross country adventure bike would need a huge tank.
notfromthisplanet
From the pics it looks like Rabbit Valley on Colorado's western slope - could also be Moab. In either case I notice the pics are from the flats (beginner type stuff, nothing challenging). In both those places there is serious gnar but at 450 lbs you wouldn't want to take this bike there. Add 100 pounds of gear (otherwise you would just use a proper dirtbike) and now you're tipping the scales at 550. That's too heavy. ABS? Its just another thing to go wrong. A twin? Really? For the road ok but not for offroad unless its dirt roads and nothing else.