UK firm Rally Raid turn Yamaha Ténéré 700 into serious raider
Rally Raid turn their attention to Yamaha’s latest creation
‘For many the bike is too soft in standard trim’
Rally Raid Products have once again made use of their engineering and off-road expertise to transform another machine.
We love the T7 and so do Rally Raid owners, but as with all bikes built to a price, the Northantsbased firm knew the suspension would need some work, so they partnered with Tractive in Holland to come up with plenty of options. For many riders the T7 feels undersprung, so RR are offering heavier springs for the rear shock with the stiffest ideal for a rider up to 100kg plus a passenger and luggage. They’ve also produced some fork preload caps that allow up to 23mm of preload at the front (using the included spacers) while still allowing access to the damping controls. Rear springs are £84 (and they’ll even swap it for you if you post your shock in), while the preload caps are £270.
If you want to get really fancy, or enjoy riding right on the limit, there are full cartridge kits and replacement rear shocks. The ‘Extreme’ closed cartridge kit replaces the entire innards of the fork with the Tractive set up, which is fully adjustable and has much larger piston for more precise and controlled damping. To go with this is a fully-adjustable rear shock, again with improved damping as well as saving weight on the standard unit. The fork kit costs £1199 while the rear shock is £923 and both maintain the standard 200mm of suspension travel. There is also a ‘Rally’ option for the same price with an extra 30mm of travel. Amongst the neatest additions are the anodised rims which don’t require you to bin a brand new pair of wheels. To match the style of the original machines from the 70s, Rally Raid are selling gold rimmed wheels but you can trade in your OEM ones.
The neat bit is that RR constantly hold a set in stock, so you’ll only be without your wheels for a day or two. They’re also able to fit a tubeless tyre conversion at the same time (although this takes a little longer). A new set of wheels costs £718 while a tubeless conversion is an extra £180. There are also no less sexy but equally practical items including 20 and 40mm lowering links, stainless steel wheel spacers, a handy multitool for adjusting the chain and removing the wheels, plus a billet alloy multimount that clamps onto the 12mm crossbar.