Photo By Joe McKimmy
Powered with a 1199cc, parallel twin engine, the particular Super T is no slouch in the power department.
1 . Is the Super T the dirt bike?
No . It is a bicycle that can go off-road, but that will isn’t the ST’s focus. All of us don’t mean to be harsh or mean, but we don’t believe that even Yamaha would disagree. Actually, in the tech presentation that Yamaha gave, on the scale of off-road to street use, and on the particular scale of aggressive riding to touring, the Tenere skewed towards the latter in both. While the rider compartment is very upright and neutral just like a dirt bike, the bar flex is just a little too swept returning to feel completely normal when standing up. But , what is really cool is that there are devoted ankle grip plates that let you squeeze with your boots like a moto bike, just a much thicker moto bike. Given that the tank holds 6. 1 gallons of gas, the bike isn’t as bulbous as you’d guess and position and squeezing with your knees feels pretty OK.
Photo By Later on McKimmy
The bike has a balanced weight feel - something that is essential on a bike with so much of it.
2 . Will be the Super T a street bike?
Yes and no. If you bought this bicycle to commute on, you’d end up being plenty happy, but since you are reading through Dirt Rider, I don’t think a person care much about that. The reason all of us say also no is that will be severely limiting this motorcycle. What makes it not a street-only bike could be the usual adventure bike goodies like KYB, fully adjustable, 7. 5-inch travel suspension in front and exterior. The suspension is very comfort oriented which is good and bad. The bad side is that you simply cannot slam into things like the dirt bike or even some dual-sport bikes. You have to be cognizant of your rate and ground clearance when coming up on rocks, ledges, or big holes. But the good side to this suspension is that it eats up small chop and bumps like nobody’s business. This comfortable ride means that you can luxury cruise down dirt roads and mellow two-track all day long without getting beat up or worn out. Also, compared to many other large adventure motorcycles whose bodyweight seems to be carried far toward front side of the bike, the Tenere felt really balanced front to back. This lends to a planted, confidence inspiring personality, especially at slow speeds.
Photo By Joe McKimmy
A few easy controls make the Super Tenere's electronic devices easy to change and understand.
3. Are the electronic devices confusing or distracting?
Not at all. The beauty of the Tenere’s electronics package is it is simple and doesn’t have an overwhelming quantity of options. It has ABS front and rear that can be turned off in the rear, it has three levels of traction manage (aggressive, mellow, and off) plus two drive modes (S just for sport and T for touring). ABS has come a long way over the last few years and it helps a great deal in stress situations – even with the rear turned off in the dirt, having front ABDOMINAL MUSCLES was a nice safety net that we used a number of times. As off-road guys, we used the traction control the following: Level 1 (most aggressive) has been just for the street. Level 2 (mellow) was good for really fast gravel roads where the back end wanted to get away from us. Off is preferred designed for normal off-road riding and any kind of sand.
There is a huge difference between the two drive modes, which is good because so many bikes, dirt and street, have different maps that seem to be not that different. The T setting has a much mellower hit and overall smoother throttle response as the S mode is much punchier and has a quick response to the throttle. As the S mode was preferred in many situations because of the full, hearty personality, the T mode made several sketchy descents easier since the accelerator wasn’t so responsive. The 1199cc, parallel-twin engine makes most of its power mid to top, but , as you would expect from this kind of large powerplant, there is gobs torque capacity as well allowing you to use the bottom end to chug through tighter areas.
Photo By Joe McKimmy
There is 7. 5 inches of steering wheel travel in the front and rear, just be careful not to carry excessive speed over obstacles.
4. How gnarly are you able to get with the Tenere?
Well, that depends on your level of gnarly-ness, but if you happen to be picturing off-camber, sloppy single-track through the tight woods, think again. But , to be fair, no ADV bikes can perform that. The Super T can be happy and fun on not-too-rocky jeep trails, mellow two-track, and dirt service roads. We stepped a little astride of this intended use within our testing and tried to utilized dirt bike technique to get through a brief uphill rocky section. On an rough-road bike, the proper way to get over this particular barrier would be to carry momentum and “float” over the rocks. Well, with a nearly 600-pound bike with soft suspension, there is no float. Charging with more velocity than we should’ve the bicycle hit a pointy rock and preceded to spew forth its bowels of oil like a newly tapped well. After some Quicksteel and humble pie, we used the proper ADV technique to get out of the rocks. That is, trust in the substantial power of the engine and muscle slowly up the rocks rather than counting on speed and bounce.
Photo Simply by Joe McKimmy
Traction control enables you to slide with reckless throttle input.
5. Ultimately, who is this bike for?
This particular bike is made to cover massive ranges of both highway and grime and that is basically the definition of adventure operating. Load it down with camping gear, forget the map, and just find where those dirt roads you’ve always wanted to explore take a person. Once you get into the mindset of getting a 1200cc motor in your bicycle and that you are not going to pop more than, glide through, or wheelie upward any obstacles, with some patience and the proper speed, the Super Tenere can get you through those short sections of sketch so you can enjoy those lengthy sections of comfort.
MSRP: $15, 090
Seat Hight: 34. 3 within.
Wheel Travel: 7. five in. front and rear
Fuel Capacity: 6. 1 gal.
Claimed Weight (tank full): 575
yamaha-motor. com