YAMAHA’S BRAND NEW ADVENTURE
Yamaha’s experience in adventure bikes and Dakar racing comes together for the next generation Ténéré. Bike rides the T7 concept
FIZZED UP FOR weeks knowing I’ll be the only person in the UK and one of a handful in the world to ride the only Yamaha T7 concept bike on Earth, I don’t know what to do with myself. Waiting was like waiting for my first born. When the T7 finally rolls up at our secret test location in an unmarked van, just for us, it’s a mad rush to get the doors open. I grab the bars, bursting to hold the grips and squeeze the clutch lever I know has been touched by Dakar and Yamaha’s greatest rally racer, Stephane Peterhansel. With the striking bike out and ready I face a dilemma, however. This is a one-off, a full working prototype of a Yamaha concept for a new middleweight adventurer. So do I treat the T7 with kid gloves, or give it the full beans? What if I crash it? Not for the first time I go with my instinct and say balls to it. I’ve only got one chance to ride this thing so I’m going to ride it properly. And I’m glad I do, because the T7 experience is fantastic...
Instantly I’m in rally mode, standing up instinctively and finding the T7’s positive riding position seriously encouraging. High bars, flat ’pegs and a neutral position on top of the bike to move around lets me take charge. In no time I’m happily throwing the T7 around like it’s a rally bike. I’m used to chucking weighty adventure bikes around for fun, however the T7 proves to be more fun than most because it is lighter and more responsive. It looks like a rally bike and does a damn good job of behaving like one too. The best adventure bikes don’t always have remarkable engines, just reliably torquey ones. Yamaha’s twin-cylinder motor fits that philosophy perfectly. It’s the ‘CP2’ engine used in the MT-07, XSR700 and Tracer, without any modification except for meaningfully lower final ratio gearing. Our recent Big Test of the Tracer (last issue) describes ‘a fine serving of torque’ with a textbook flat line of force tanking through the rev-range. It’s soft and friendly at the very bottom, rising quickly from 3000rpm to be always exactly right and always there. Useful? Hell yes – I can’t imagine how you could make it more so as I enjoy tight turns, steep banks and piles of rocks, with control and feel for rear wheel grip as the supple long-stroke suspension soaks up everything. For an adventure engine to work off-road for all-comers it needs a gentle character, and the T7 really works. The clutch is light too, and if riding adventure bikes off road is all about finding control and surprising yourself with how much you really can achieve on a big bike, the flexible power of the 689cc inline twin is a strong choice. Critics of the T7 – yes, there are some already – ask why use this engine if it makes only 75bhp? In my view it’s precisely what makes it the perfect adventure bike engine, and our ride proves it. You can have 125 or even 160bhp in an adventure bike, but doing so creates a heavy and increasingly electronically-managed bike, and so an expensive bike. It’s not that there isn’t a place for large adventurers. Of course there is. But this isn’t where the T7 concept is aiming. I can’t help dreaming of crossing deserts, testing the durability of myself and machine against epic terrain as I ride the Yamaha. You can’t help but sense that Dakar-influenced thread that runs through the concept, just as it has through many of Yamaha’s previous Ténéré models. And with such an incredible family tree it takes no great work of genius to assume the production version of the T7 will see the word Ténéré on the sides. If adventure bikes grew from anywhere then it was surely from rally bikes and the most iconic of off-road events, the Dakar. It’s hard to think of the Dakar without the name Stephane Peterhansel and his six legendary wins on Yamaha’s YZE750T and XTZ850R models. The XT and Ténéré production machines they inspired have become cult heroes among adventure and overland riders, with production and rally machines always feeding off each other. The T7 is strongly grounded in this history, yet a modern concept born of engineers, designers and product planners from Yamaha’s official rally team in France, the R&D team in Italy and the project collaborators, GK Design in the Netherlands. ‘The adventure world needs a new kind of motorcycle,’ says Yamaha of its concept. One that can ‘offer the genuine long distance versatility and pure durability of the original Ténéré, combined with contemporary design plus cutting edge engine and chassis technology.’ With strong design cues from the current WR450F Rally bikes which took stage wins in Dakar 2017, the T7’s saucy rally fairing and navigation tower turn out to be no fakes – it’s a genuine, working console with handlebar switchgear to match. The bespoke aluminium tank looks beautiful, and baffles Bike’s photographer with angles and glare in the sunshine. The high, slender seat and spot-on ’bars deliver a rally-like riding position, standing or sitting. These rally components are here to show-off Yamaha’s thinking behind the model and nothing more. Behind the rally mask lies the bike we are fundamentally likely to see from Yamaha: a dedicated cradle-type chassis not shared with any other existing model, real long-travel suspension, proper trail-ready wheel and tyre sizes, plus the twin-cylinder 689cc engine. I expect the rally tyres, nav tower, off-road bars and top clamps, alloy tank
and off-road seat to likely be replaced by more production-friendly road parts, to give the bike a broader appeal and allow it to succeed as a tourer as well. I have an inbuilt bias towards off-road and the T7 concept is clearly of the same mindset, but Yam know the reality is most riders will spend most time on the road. It’ll need a comfier seat for a start… though if it gets one I’ll be disappointed. Unavoidably the muffler will have to change, and that’ll be a big shame. The twin has a docile fluffiness to its exhaust note on other models, quiet enough to lull babies to sleep. But the T7’s Akrapovic can makes the kind of glorious sound you expect from a rally bike blasting off into the Chilean desert. It’d better be an accessory part. ‘At Yamaha we feel that the adventure motorcycle trend of recent years – ever-growing engine size, power, weight – is not representative of the whole spectrum of customers,’ says Guglielmo Fontana-rava, of Yamaha’s product planning division. It’s the pitch of the T7, aiming at the middle ground where engines are smaller and lighter, components less sophisticated and dual-sport capability is stronger. There’s a prevalent school of thought in adventure riding, maybe biking in general, that too much electronic intervention on a bike is a bad thing, and Yam are pushing this philosophy with the T7. It’s debatable of course, but many riders in the rally and adventure world follow what Yamaha describe as ‘the less-is-more paradigm that’s still extremely valuable to reduce weight, reduce damage risk and allow quick repairs.’ They have clever electronics on existing models, but took a fundamental decision to use a simple twin in a conventional chassis, keeping things uncomplicated. ‘Accessibility should be swift and complicated electronic systems are more of a worry than a solution,’ adds Fontana-rava. The best adventure bikes should be capable of taking on a proper off-road event without modifications,
except maybe different tyres. Its 21-inch front wheel gives the T7 genuine skills and so the production bike should have too, like the defunct XT660Z Ténéré did. The 660 had an outdated engine for the adventure market, but was a very good trail bike. With the T7 as our guide we assume Yamaha will pitch the production version in the middle ground handily well below Super Ténéré territory. It’s a place where weight, size and softer performance are meaningful, and where dual-sport, go-anywhere credentials make off-road riding a very realistic proposition. Trading on former glories is a trick Honda used with their Africa Twin, and there are many parallels you could draw between it and how the T7 has been presented. But Yamaha are continuing a strong Ténéré blood line here; a line that needs the credibility of the T7 concept and rally race bike heritage to be a true Ténéré. Though Yamaha say the T7 sits alone we’re clearly in Triumph Tiger 800, BMW F800GS, Africa Twin and KTM 1090 R territory; however, if this concept translates anywhere close to a production bike then, as a true adventurer, the Yamaha will be laughing. The T7 looks inspiring, has a chassis that’s definitely as up for it as I am, and its reliably versatile engine is the key to a very capable adventure bike. If the production version can keep the design cues and dirt ability of the rally bikes and this T7 concept, while offering real touring potential, it has to be a hit. We await the showroomready realities with baited breath and fingers crossed…
‘If the production bike keeps the design cues and dirt ability, while offering real touring potential, it’ll be a hit’