VOL. 51 ISSUE 15 APRIL 15, 2014 P77
nere does it for you, settling the
rear mid-corner when you find
yourself in a bit deep and still
trail braking.
The Super Tenere is heavy,
with the standard model tip-
ping the scales at a claimed
575 pounds with its 6.1-gallon
gas tank filled to the brim (at a
claimed 43 MPG, that's 260-
plus miles of range on a tank);
the ES is nine pounds heavier
at 584 pounds. On the street,
the bike doesn't feel that heavy
as Yamaha has done a good
job of keeping the weight down
low and you really only notice it
when stopped – especially on
the dirt. I ended up dropping
the bike when I got the wheels
a bit high on a stop and tipped
the wrong way… but being only
5' 8" didn't help matters.
Our bikes also came
equipped with some acces-
sories, the most notable being
the aluminum side cases. The
cases look like they belong and
they easily held a backpack full
of clothes for my overnight stay
in Lake Arrowhead. Too bad
they don't come standard.
The seat height on the Super
Tenere is adjustable from 33.2
inches to 34.2 inches. I rode
mine with it at its lowest, but
I was in full tippy-toe mode at
stops and it's a bit of a handful
for shorter riders to park, back
up, etc. But, again, once you
get it rolling that all goes out the
window.
The Super Tenere is a com-
fortable motorcycle to ride and
if we were headed out on a
long trek, I'd arm wrestle you
for it no matter what else was
in the stable. You sit up nice
and high, the two-level seat is
plenty plush, there's minimal vi-
bration and the Tenere cruises
along at 75 mph while spinning
just 4000 rpm. You can also
hustle it through the twisties
like a… well, like a comfortable
sportbike.
Yamaha looks to the BMW
R1200GS as the leader of the
big adventure bikes and com-
pares itself favorably. For ex-
ample, the press kit includes
the fact that while the Super
Tenere ES sells for $90 more
than the GS, it includes the
electronic suspension, spoke
wheels, cruise control, heated
grips and hand guards as stan-
dard equipment while those
items total some $2150 in op-
tions on the BMW, according to
Yamaha.
So there you have it – four
years removed from my Italian
outing on the Super Tenere,
I'm even more impressed than
I was back then. In 2010 I was
hoping to get the chance to
take it off-road, but never did.
Now I know that the bike works
as well there as it does on the
road, making it a true adventure
bike. Again, if you're only going
to have one motorcycle in your
garage, you'd be hard pressed
to find a better choice than a
big adventure bike and the Ya-
maha ranks right up there with
the best of them. CN
(Top) The instrument panel
on the Tenere is all-new for
2014 and there's plenty of
information to be found there.
(Middle) Almost everything
is controlled from the left
handlebar.
(Bottom) The Super Tenere
is still powered by the 1199cc
parallel twin with some
revisions to change the engine
characteristics.
