DAILY NEWS, Motoring News 27 May 2010
NEW TENERE 1200 REALLY IS SUPER !
Yamaha?s big new dualie is perfect for adventure riders a new kid in town and BMW and KTM have some real competition on their hands in the form of Yamaha’s new XT1200 Z Super Tenere.
Japans new adventure motorcycle exceeded my expectations both on and off road when I rode it at the media launch earlier this week, and seems to have taken the best points of its long-established rivals and rolled them up into one very competent dual-purpose machine. My sentiments were shared by other journalists on the launch, some of whom personally own a BMW GS or KTM 990.
Launched here just a month after making its European debut, the Super Tenere is the larger, more powerful cousin to the XT66OZ Tenere that went on sale last year It has all the right stuff for continent-crossing expeditions: a gutsy 1 200cc inline twin cylinder engine with fuel injection and outputs of 80.9kW and ll4Nm; a broad and comfortable seat with a large and effective windscreen to ease those long spells in the saddle; a big 23-litre fuel tank that wifi get a range of over 350km between fills; and a no-maintenance shaft drive.
Our ride took us through over 600km of dirt and tar roads in South Africa and Swaziland and the machine left me highly impressed with its abilities in all kinds of conditions. I’d feared that the 19-inch front wheel (instead of the 21-incher used by “real” off roaders) would limit its ground clearance too much in the dirt, but it didn’t.
More than two-thirds of our ride was on gravel roads, some of them quite rocky and technical mountain sections that gave the ride height a good test, and the bike didn’t once scrape its belly.
The advantage of the smaller front wheel back on the tar was that at high speed the bike didn’t develop any head shake (the gyroscopic effect, exacerbated by a larger wheel, that shakes the handlebars from side to side).
The 1200cc engine is gutsy performer with good lowdown grunt. It can cruise at 180km/h all day and can reach 220km/h-plus if you whack its arse. The bike’s best feature on any road was its suspension, and Yamaha’s really done its homework on this front. It smooths out bumps impressively without being too soft, and even on some whoops and jumps it remained rigid enough to avoid bottoming out.
Standard on the Super Tenere is traction control with two settings: setting one is a nanny mode for newbie riders and setting two is a limited-intervention mode. Or it can be switched off altogether if you feel you’re Alfie Cox. I found setting two to be the best compromise as it offered some of the tail-sliding wheelspin you need in off road riding but still saved your butt if you pushed things too far There are also two electronic mappings, Sport and Touring, which vary throttle sensitivity The bike’s most controversial feature is its ABS brakes, or rather the fact that they can’t be switched off Anti-lock brakes are great on slippery tar but can get terribly confused in certain off road conditions and in fact increase your stopping distance.
While the Yamahas ABS system is tuned for off roading and I found it better than the BMW GS’s, I still feel riders should be given the option to easily switch it off (it can only be overridden by using a tool).
That aside, I have very little complaint about the Super Teneres abilities. For a large and heavy machine (it weighs 261kg with full oil and fuel tank) it’s remarkably agile and sure-footed.
Though it weighs more than a GS it feels lighter somehow, and I think that’s to do with the weight distribution and geometry The Super Tenere’s nimbleness was put to the test on some snaking tar (if you ever head out to Mpumalanga make a point of riding the gloriously twisty road between Barberton and Badplaas), and once again it was an unexpected surprise, with the bike being far more flickable and well-mannered than such a heavy bike has any right to be.
Its off road effectiveness is enhanced by good ergonomics that allow you to easily ride in the required standing-on-footpegs position. The wire-spoked wheels are hardier than alloy mags and they stood up very well to the rocks I hit. The windscreen and seat are both adjustable to two positions.
The standard Super Tenere sells for R129 999 while the limited-edition Adventure Pack ~version (with headlight protector, bash plate and panniers which would normally cost R16 000 extra) sells for R138 999. There are various other options available including heated handgrips and engine guards.
Yamaha’s Super Tenere is tough competition for BMWs GS and KTM’s 990.
NEW TENERE 1200 REALLY IS SUPER !
Yamaha?s big new dualie is perfect for adventure riders a new kid in town and BMW and KTM have some real competition on their hands in the form of Yamaha’s new XT1200 Z Super Tenere.
Japans new adventure motorcycle exceeded my expectations both on and off road when I rode it at the media launch earlier this week, and seems to have taken the best points of its long-established rivals and rolled them up into one very competent dual-purpose machine. My sentiments were shared by other journalists on the launch, some of whom personally own a BMW GS or KTM 990.
Launched here just a month after making its European debut, the Super Tenere is the larger, more powerful cousin to the XT66OZ Tenere that went on sale last year It has all the right stuff for continent-crossing expeditions: a gutsy 1 200cc inline twin cylinder engine with fuel injection and outputs of 80.9kW and ll4Nm; a broad and comfortable seat with a large and effective windscreen to ease those long spells in the saddle; a big 23-litre fuel tank that wifi get a range of over 350km between fills; and a no-maintenance shaft drive.
Our ride took us through over 600km of dirt and tar roads in South Africa and Swaziland and the machine left me highly impressed with its abilities in all kinds of conditions. I’d feared that the 19-inch front wheel (instead of the 21-incher used by “real” off roaders) would limit its ground clearance too much in the dirt, but it didn’t.
More than two-thirds of our ride was on gravel roads, some of them quite rocky and technical mountain sections that gave the ride height a good test, and the bike didn’t once scrape its belly.
The advantage of the smaller front wheel back on the tar was that at high speed the bike didn’t develop any head shake (the gyroscopic effect, exacerbated by a larger wheel, that shakes the handlebars from side to side).
The 1200cc engine is gutsy performer with good lowdown grunt. It can cruise at 180km/h all day and can reach 220km/h-plus if you whack its arse. The bike’s best feature on any road was its suspension, and Yamaha’s really done its homework on this front. It smooths out bumps impressively without being too soft, and even on some whoops and jumps it remained rigid enough to avoid bottoming out.
Standard on the Super Tenere is traction control with two settings: setting one is a nanny mode for newbie riders and setting two is a limited-intervention mode. Or it can be switched off altogether if you feel you’re Alfie Cox. I found setting two to be the best compromise as it offered some of the tail-sliding wheelspin you need in off road riding but still saved your butt if you pushed things too far There are also two electronic mappings, Sport and Touring, which vary throttle sensitivity The bike’s most controversial feature is its ABS brakes, or rather the fact that they can’t be switched off Anti-lock brakes are great on slippery tar but can get terribly confused in certain off road conditions and in fact increase your stopping distance.
While the Yamahas ABS system is tuned for off roading and I found it better than the BMW GS’s, I still feel riders should be given the option to easily switch it off (it can only be overridden by using a tool).
That aside, I have very little complaint about the Super Teneres abilities. For a large and heavy machine (it weighs 261kg with full oil and fuel tank) it’s remarkably agile and sure-footed.
Though it weighs more than a GS it feels lighter somehow, and I think that’s to do with the weight distribution and geometry The Super Tenere’s nimbleness was put to the test on some snaking tar (if you ever head out to Mpumalanga make a point of riding the gloriously twisty road between Barberton and Badplaas), and once again it was an unexpected surprise, with the bike being far more flickable and well-mannered than such a heavy bike has any right to be.
Its off road effectiveness is enhanced by good ergonomics that allow you to easily ride in the required standing-on-footpegs position. The wire-spoked wheels are hardier than alloy mags and they stood up very well to the rocks I hit. The windscreen and seat are both adjustable to two positions.
The standard Super Tenere sells for R129 999 while the limited-edition Adventure Pack ~version (with headlight protector, bash plate and panniers which would normally cost R16 000 extra) sells for R138 999. There are various other options available including heated handgrips and engine guards.
Yamaha’s Super Tenere is tough competition for BMWs GS and KTM’s 990.
