DAKAR FOR A DIME
Like the idea of racing the Dakar Rally but don’t have the budget or the balls? Yamaha’s new Tenere 700 experience might be just the thing for you. We sent Jack to check it out
When I was told the ‘boys in blue’ had been in touch I quickly packed a bag and scrambled my passport ready to hide in the far east corners of Kazakhstan, having recently been testing a multitude of mind-bendingly fast litre sportsbikes. Fortunately it turned out the reference was a nod to Yamaha’s Tenere 700 experience day over in Wales. I know what you’re thinking; off-road, big heavy bike, sex appeal akin to Susan Boyle clad in Bridget Jones’ granny pants winking at you from worryingly close quarters in the pub you frequent... and on the face of it I would have to agree with you. However bear with me, because it turns out SuBo has some functional tricks up her sleeve which may just have a stronger effect than the beer goggles you would ordinarily need!
As I drove through the world’s tightest roads where riding a supermoto would feel like driving an artic through a congested high street, I began to consider what I may be in for throughout the day ahead. To give a bit of context to my two-wheeled endeavours, I took to riding on the slippery brown stuff after spending plenty of years on the tarmac, which in turn incurred a pretty steep learning curve consisting of pulling grass out of my teeth, gravel from my arms and predominantly, the bike off the floor, many, many times. Unfortunately, riding a sportsbike on the road or track does not in any way, shape or form correlate to competence off-road; it’s a whole new skill set and even a 250cc will have you exuding brown smoke at the first twist of the throttle. Off-road riding didn’t come naturally to me; I felt I had started too late and gained too many bad habits already. This, and an innate determination to go at things full tilt following the old ‘If in doubt, flat out’ advice always seemed to result in a sloppy encounter, and not the type you would brag to your mates about. However, with a bit of perseverance and some awesome coaching from guys similar to the Yamaha off-road experience, my confidence grew and now my holidays are spent in the
Isle of Man, Wales and the Yorkshire Moors, ripping across the natural landscapes on my Johnson extension of a KTM 450 EXC. So with that in mind, a reasonable amount of anticipation set in as to what a big, 204kg 700cc bruiser would be like across the tight, technical rocky trails and rock gardens I’m used to making an absolute hash of on my usual competition bike of literally half that weight, or rather whether we would even be attempting such harsh terrain?
All I could envisage was a bigger, nastier, more painful crash combined with a considerably larger amount of effort to get to that inevitable compound fracture. Still, if there’s anywhere to barrel roll yourself and a bike down to an early grave, the amazing views within the Welsh forests we were set to rip up offered the perfect place to do it!
The Yamaha off-road experience was originally known as the Geraint Jones Enduro School, founded in 1994 by Geraint Jones himself, who was a 10-times-over British enduro champion and holds eight ISDE gold medals, a pretty impressive accolade. It is now predominantly run by his two sons Dylan and Rowan, who are also ex-top level championship-winning racers and predictably lightning fast on a bike, while making it look frustratingly easy... If it wasn’t for the fact they were such nice chaps, their riding would have made me instantly dislike them through sheer jealousy! The school runs from their farm in Llanidloes and as far as back garden playgrounds go, you won’t win a game of top trumps against the Joneses as they have full exclusive access to the 10,000 acres of Hafren Forest for you to play in; this is off-limits to the general public so unless you’re on their day, you aren’t getting in legally. The school offers five experience packages for you to choose from, ranging from complete beginner level tuition on either the Yamaha TTR/WR range or the Tenere 700, right up to bespoke tuition for hardened enduro riders looking to fine-tune their skills with knowledge from the guys right at the top of their game. It’s worth noting that due to the private land on the off-road experience, you don’t actually need a licence but you will have to demonstrate you can ride a bike, or at least advise them you’re a total newbie! I was invited along to specifically do the Tenere 700 experience which you do need a licence for and is priced at £260 for the day or £460 for two days. For this, you’re equipped with the latest Yamaha enduro clothing, body armour, helmet, boots and gloves, a fully fuelled and prepped Tenere, and full instruction for the day including a pub lunch where, depressingly, alcohol wasn’t an option, and they won’t accept: “It calms my nerves!” as an excuse. If your parents didn’t slip any Miracle-Gro into your baby milk, the school do have several lowered bikes using a Yamaha genuine parts linkage kit and seat, which turns the Tenere into a mere BMX in comparison, so you’ve no need to worry about dealing with a tall bike through the tough stuff, as well as trying to keep your vital organs in the same place as they started the day.
With the first obstacle being squeezing my post-lockdown junk into an older, wider pair of riding pants overcome, our morning briefing explained how the day would unfold. We were reminded that the purpose of this bike and this experience is adventure riding, in other words being able to cover large distances in comfort while tackling some reasonable off-road obstacles. To that end, the guys had made some slight modifications to the standard Tenere; from the Yamaha genuine parts catalogue, they had fitted a bigger bash plate/sump guard and crash bars, and binned the dual purpose standard Pirelli Scorpion STRs, replacing them with Dunlop’s D908 Rally Raids which are a much more off-road-biased tyre. With all that in mind, I expected some loose fire roads at best and some long miles in the saddle... how wrong I
was. Where this school excels is by catering for the group it has at the time, there’s no ‘one size fits all’ approach which ensures everyone gets the best out of their day. Everyone attending had reasonably good off-road experience so there was no need for any chat about the basics of off-road riding in terms of body position, clutch control, braking etc. However on a normal day full tuition would be given where relevant and the levels gradually increased to suit, aided by a vast array of experienced instructors. The Tenere is equipped with a small functional dash, which allows you to put it into ‘off-road mode’ with the press of a button. This disengages the traction control and turns the ABS off which is vital for when things get a bit loose underfoot, plus you need to be able to lock the rear wheel in certain scenarios. For example – to get turned around, to save yourself down a steep descent, or even more crucially... if there’s a camera in the near vicinity and you’re in need of that all-important sideways picture to show your mates who the real rider of the group is. So with the bike in full unaided “You’re on your own, mate!” mode, we headed straight up a steep gravel bank directly out the back of their farm into the heaven of the Welsh forests, where we basked in rare and surprising Welsh sunshine and were greeted by the most endless stunning scenery I’ve seen for quite some time. It didn’t take long to feel like I was on an all-inclusive adventure holiday across Spain, yet within driving distance from home, for a more than reasonable cost.
Initially I felt the bike to be a bit numb