THE GOLDEN MOMENT
With their 70-ish bhp, all three feel perfectly at home round the MCN250 – it’s more than enough for the route’s towns, dual carriageways, 50mph limits and coach-lined Cotswold tourist hotspots. But right at the end of the lap, on the wide, open, reasonably remote run of B660 north of Bedford, there’s a brief chance to unleash every last rev and hold those twistgrips as far open as they’ll go.
And what a joy it is to open a bike up, all the way, in 2019.
Without a terrifying excess of performance that needs to be reined in by traction control, ride-by-wire throttles and leansensitive techno-gubbins, these three Yamahas offer purity handin-hand with responsibility. You open the throttle; you deal with the consequences; you reap the rewards.
The buzz here comes not from sitting back and letting a bike’s prodigious performance entertain, but from getting stuck in and working with the bike to get the most from it. A different airbox and exhaust means the Ténéré is a fraction down on power, while it’s carrying the most mass too. Large wheels and knobbly tyres don’t lend themselves to quick steering and high-fidelity feel either. But even if the Tracer and MT give a more direct connection to the ground and are more lively, responsive dynamic, we’re talking fine graduations here. It’s an absolute riot to let all three of these bikes off the leash, and feel like you’re an essential part of making a bike shift along at speed once again.