Yamaha Super Ténéré
It lives in the shadow of BMW’S GS, but a 1200-mile ride through France on Yamaha’s Super Ténéré reminds us why it deserves its loyal following
“In a sea of BMWS, the Yamaha is the exclusive adventure bike”
ANOTHER GROUP OF bikes goes past, riders nodding or waving as they spot me parked up by the side of the gleaming blue Lac de Castillon. I raise a hand in return, counting as they pass. This pod has two BMW R1200GSS and one GS Adventure: that takes today’s GS tally into double figures and it’s not even 11am yet.
It’s the first week of June in the French Alps and the early tourists are out. The roads are pretty quiet – in the next few minutes only two cars go past before I hear the purr of another bike engine. I cock my head to the side, listening: it’s a flat note, deep but without the off-beat rasp of the BMW. I look round and, sure enough, sailing round the corner comes a Yamaha XT1200Z Super Ténéré like the one I’m riding – the first other one I’ve seen on all three days of this trip so far.
The Super Ténéré name has been with us for a good while – the original was a 750cc twin that ran through the early ’90s (1989 to 1996 in fact) but the name was revived in 2010 when Yamaha built a bike to take sales from the GS. The adventurebike ticklist was all present and correct: two-cylinder engine; spoked wheels; shaftdrive; long-travel suspension; upright riding position that worked sitting or standing; plus rugged luggage and a killer paint scheme. It was all backed up by the promise of Japanese reliability and build quality in an entirely new bike.
This reborn Super Ten’s all-new 1199cc parallel twin was making 108bhp – which probably seemed about right when the Japanese engineers were developing the bike, as the German boxer engine had only just increased in power from 98bhp to 103bhp for the 2008 model year. The new Yamaha should have had a slight advantage… but BMW then moved the goalposts, giving the GS a 110bhp double-overhead-cam engine for 2010.
Then there was a flurry of new adventure-bike activity. In 2012 the Triumph Explorer and Honda Crosstourer arrived, then in 2013 KTM produced the 150bhp 1190 Adventure and the Bavarians unleashed the 123bhp water-cooled GS. Even when the Ténéré was updated for 2015, with a slight power boost to 110bhp and the addition of a model variant with electronically adjusted suspension - the
XT1200ZE - the focus seemed to be on the other adventure bikes, particularly the GS.
The bike I’m on is the 2017 XT1200ZE Super Ténéré, effectively the same as that 2015 update – the process of getting it through the Euro4 tests simply involved changes to the fuel maps but it’s been managed without affecting the headline power figure or the engine’s character.
The Super Ten gobbled up the 900-odd miles from Peterborough to Castellane in two long but comfortable days. It’s a superb machine for covering big distances. The riding position’s roomy, even for a big rider like me (6ft 5in) with plenty of leg room, a relaxed reach to the bars, a wide and plushbut-supportive seat and a deceptively effective, manually adjustable screen. All I had to do was snick sixth gear, set the cruise control on the left-hand bar, sit back and watch the miles roll past on the péage.
There are two modes on the Super Ténéré: T for touring or S for sport. Power is the same but the response is different, with S delivering greater urgency. Even on the motorway, where the occasional roll-on overtake or brisk return to speed was needed after filling up every 160-ish miles, I found S the better choice – T didn’t feel smoother so much as simply sluggish.
Anyway, there’s only so much motorway a body can take, even when you’re in a hurry to get to the mountains. At Grenoble I left the A51 for the famous charms of Route Napoléon. As the N85 started to climb – two lanes up, one lane down – I went down one gear and opened it up.
It was as if, somewhere on the short Vizille bypass, the bike had been swapped without my noticing. It didn’t feel like the mild-mannered mile muncher but something entirely more purposeful. A determined big handful of throttle had it sitting back, digging in and leaping forwards, blitzing past the dawdling traffic… at which point I remembered: there were still proper corners on this bit of road.
Cue the brakes: a firm handful and the Super Ten rocked forward on the forks. There’s 190mm of suspension travel at both ends and it felt as if I was using 185mm of it, scrubbing off speed rapidly. The ABS didn’t panic, but it’s not a bank-anglesensitive system so I quickly but gently eased-off the brakes before throwing the bike into a left-hander, with the merest hint of a hero blob (or idiot blob, in this case) grazing the tarmac mid-corner.
Having been caught out, I took two sensible steps: first, told myself to calm down a bit; second, firmed up the electronically adjusted suspension. This is done with the rockers on the left-hand bar; damping can be adjusted on the move but the bike has to be stationary for preload.
To say that Route Napoléon suited the Super Ténéré is selling it short. The cocktail of flowing turns, short-ish straights and the occasional tighter turn or hairpin drew the best out of the bike. That parallel twin has a 270° crank giving the engine character all its own: smooth but with low-down urgency driving out of turns. Speed built without trying, it turned into a fast ride.
I’ve ridden the N84 many times, but rarely so quickly or so effortlessly. Everything came together just right. The bike seemed to be floating on air, always with
just the right amount of drive on tap. There was hardly any traffic but what was out there was overtaken as fast as sneezing. Even the final run of hairpins dropping to Castellane flowed beautifully – down to second, with a little pressure on the inside footpeg and the wide handlebars to get the big Yamaha turning with ease that belied its 265kg weight. It was a fabulous ride.
That was yesterday, though. Today I’m heading into the higher peaks. Roads get narrower, surfaces get bumpier. I brim the 23-litre tank before setting off, as I’m not sure where the next fuel station will be. If I’m honest, as I set off after the lakeside break, I’m half expecting the more challenging roads to reveal the faults the Super Ténéré has so far failed to show. After all, there must be a reason I’ve seen ten times as many BMWS as Yamahas so far…
And yet, it’s pinpoint accurate through the demanding Gorges de Daluis and reassuring on the rough and broken road between Valberg and St Sauveur-sur-tinée. Even the gravel-strewn sections don’t faze it. Sure, the traction control light flashes once, but that’s the only sign it’s intervening – there’s no lurch or sense of narrowly averted disaster. There are two stages for the traction (as well as off) so I dial it back to the more playful level, but even then I can’t provoke either misbehaviour or intervention – just the occasional orange wink from the dash. The route carries on; I’m increasingly desperate to find something to criticise about the bike and failing. There are plenty of bikes on the road – it’s no exaggeration to say about a third of them are GSS, but I still haven’t seen another Super Ten since the one this morning. Why?
I get to the evening stop in Briançon (car park count: GS, three; Super Ten, one – mine) feeling baffled. I’ve had a vintage ride and a lot of that was down to the way the Super Ténéré rose to the challenge of every kind of road. There’s nothing it can’t do – and do well. So why am I practically the only bloke riding one here, in one of
“I’m desperate to find something to criticise and failing”
Europe’s adventure-bike touring hotspots?
It’s not the numbers. Okay, on paper the Super Ten does give away a little power to its rivals, but on the road you’d never notice that unless riding them back to back. More to the point, on the road you never miss those few top-end horsepower anyway. It can’t be price: at £13,539 this ZE, with the electronically adjusted suspension, is a handsome saving over the BMW R1200GS Exclusive (£15,930) even before you factor in the luggage.
Of course, the Yamaha isn’t equipped with semiactive suspension or mid-corner ABS or lean-anglesensitive traction control, like the BMW. But it isn’t lacking in ability or personality. It’s well finished, comfortable and has a great range. I set off thinking I was riding an unfairly overlooked adventure bike. But I realise now what the Super Ténéré is: in a sea of BMWS, the Yamaha is the exclusive adventure bike.