A New Tenere 700 Already
In North America, we’re just not getting our dirty little hands on the Yamaha Tenere 700 that was available already in markets outside of our immediate area. We were jealous, but we have it now. However, Yamaha is already making new version of the Tenere 700. It recently revealed the Tenere 700 Rally Edition.
There were some rumors of a new version of the bike out there, but nobody really knew what the deal was. Now we know what Yamaha has been working on and it looks pretty awesome.
The new bike features an old-school Ténéré-inspired livery that comes from the 1983 Yamaha XT600 Ténéré. That bike was the predecessor to the wildly popular XT500. The new Tenere 700 gets Rally Edition gets a new seat that bumps the seat height to 35.2 inches from 34.4 inches, some grip pads on the sides of the gas tank, fancy new off-road handgrips, an Akrapovič slip-on muffler, and beefier skid plate, radiator, and chain guards. Oh, it also gets LED turn signals.
So, essentially, the bike is exactly the same but looks better and the engine and powertrain are better protected. These are good things. No price was announced, but I do know it will hit Europe first, so us North Americans will just have to look at it from afar for a while. Yamaha loves to tease us!
Dear Yamaha: Please don’t call it a rally edition unless you put rally suspension on it. You can call it the rally graphics addition. Plus, that Akro muffler is a waste of money that SHOULD have gone into the suspension.
The KTM 790 Adventure R already has excellent suspension and what do they do with their rally edition? Put the awesome Pro bits on it to make it a true rally version.
Please don’t compare the KTM790 to the Tenere 700. The 790 is a failure, one of the most unreliable bikes ever released from the orange Ready to Recall brigade. The T7 is well sorted right from the factory, will be running 20 years after that orange POS 790. The factory suspension, while soft, will be adequate for most riders off road.
Plus, excellent suspension and White Power shouldn’t be used. They’ve been known for decades as a substandard producer of suspension components.
Yamaha, please bring the Rally Edition to the USA.
I love the retro design and the led blinkers that replace the terrible 1990’s versions that come on the standard Ténéré 700. PLEASE BRING THIS TO THE US!!!