The Yamaha Super Tenere XT1200Z Big Thread

Have you had one on the back?

My front tires always wear like iron. But, I can smoke through some rear tires pretty quick...


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I'm on my second rear, still first front. I got about 5K miles out of the back, looks like one front will last for two rears for me. They're decent off road and pretty good on road.

I'm lucky enough to be renting a newer Super Tenere for a month of touring in Europe this summer. Some of the countries I'm going through have spotty fuel availability. I'm wondering what the average real mileage guys are getting out of their bikes? In my case, there will be no offroad riding, mostly backroads, perhaps a mountain pass or 20 [Transfagaien in Romania ].

Cheers

Gracias, 20v...


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That's good to hear, I ran those exclusively on my Strom but the Tenere is a much heavier bike and has a lot more horsepower. I was worried the rear would be roasted in 2k.

My long-term touring average doing mostly backroads is 42 mpg (US) and this is more/less at the centroid of the data I've seen. You might check fuelly.com too. Several of us have measured 5.75 gallons to fumes although you can pulse in another 0.3 gallons if you really work at it and have a cooperative fuel pump. Euro bikes may, of course, be slightly different and you'll need to do the appropriate conversions of units.

- Mark

I average about 4.5L/100Km (a theoretical 450Km to fumes) at a steady 110Km/h on 95RON on road.

So if you need to you can get pretty good range. The last time I did a run with a mix of gravel roads, track and B roads I averaged about 5.5L/100.

Graham ... you must have a slighter lighter wrist than me

I use RON 98 and usually get a tad under 19 kms / litre for general slab running (I prefer kms / litre rather than litres / 100 km ).

In essence the fuel gauge is broken down into 1/6 capacity graduations (of course the first is 2 x 1/6 = 1/3 ... Hmmm, yes I was good at maths ).

I generally count of getting approximately 70 kms for each mark ie (very roughly) 420 kms per tank ...

Hope this helps with the mental monitoring ...

Have not used a rear yet.

Steve sounds like a great trip. I average pretty much what markjenn does. To get decent fuel milage cruise below 4k rpm. I crossed South Dakota this summer riding into a strong head wind running 90mph and had a tank average of 29mpg. That was just one tankful once i got out of there i slowed down and mileage average went back up.

That is not that different from Graham's consumption. It's 5,3lit/100km. I can do that only on normal state road and keeping it below 100km/h with very gentle acceleration.


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I doubt too many owners are going to install a second battery to over come this defect. Yamaha is likely looking into all the no start problems the S10 is having and will fix it. These kinds of problems will show up.

Where are you going in Europe that you will have trouble finding fuel ?

We have recently visited every country in Europe bar Serbia, Belarus and Russia (if you include those as part of Europe) and have not experienced any fuel problems. This is not Africa

We also went over the Transfagarasen pass. http://raykarenhall.blogspot.co.uk/2011/10/caeusescus-folly.html
There are no problems in Europe at all and I was able to use my Visa card in every country (ATM) with the exception of Moldova but this may have been a bank connection problem. Nor were there any hotels that I could find (in Moldova) but as I was short of cash we soon got out of there.

In Romania you can visit Draculas Castle and his birth place. See my blog: http://raykarenhall.blogspot.co.uk/2011/10/normal-0-false-false-false-en-gb-x-none_1170.html and http://raykarenhall.blogspot.co.uk/2011/10/normal-0-false-false-false-en-gb-x-none_29.html

If you want some good places to visit PM me, or better still, read the blog from March to may 2011 and September to December 2011

A tip: Take Euros, they are taken in most places (that do not have Euro as a currency) and when you do get funny currency, find a petrol station before leaving the country and use it up as the new country is unlikely to take the previous one's.

My experience with the hard start has always been because of slightly low battery (playing with it in the shop, wiring accessories etc.). I also have the powered tank bag ring which draws all the time and if left without running or charging for some time it will drain the battery enough that it turns over good but will not start. Put the charger on it for a few mins. and it fires right up. Some people turn off their bikes with the kill switch and then walk away with the lights on etc. This may be enough to reduce what the battery has to start the bike. This bike seams to need a full charge to start the bike. I have 30,000 kms on the bike now and have never been stranded because of hard starting or any other reason. I used to own a 1968 HD so I understand what hard starting is all about. A second battery would not be for me.

Loved them on my Strom... tried them on the S10 and tore them up. But would be fine if you are gentle with them and dont expect too many miles out of them.

http://supertenere1200.com/2011/10/12/my-shinko-experience/

The one time I had the hard start problem, it was after the bike had been sitting for two weeks. Battery didn't seem weak so didnt think that was the cause of my problem. But reading this, it may have been. I don't have an explaination though, starter turned over just like usual.

I'm about as gentle as a sledgehammer. So, these might not be the tires for me.

My "AVG MPG" (never reset) has been creeping-down since Day 1. I'm just above 31 MPG (and dropping), right now. So, I have a feeling that the 705s would take a helluva' beating.


Thanks to all who took the time to reply...


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Hey DC...

Yep, just as I said with my FJR, your bike sounds like the same way........ I wounder if the "ignition system / ECM" needs to see a certain amount of current before it will fire off a spark... ?

The starter on the FJR will turn the motor over (what seemed) just fine..... But it was really hard starting, until I installed a new battery..... I also has the battery on a tender...

Just a FYI...... I have a customer with a Tenere.. He let me look at his Tenere for a custom part. While we where talking he was complaining that his volt meter was acting all screwy. When I went to go start it, the darn thing would turn over but not start. It would turn over fine but not start. I had to put it on a charger and hold the throttle wide open. It barely started after fifteen minutes of screwing with it... After I got the bike back to him, he found that he had some type of "wiring" issue with his fuse block and his volt meter. The battery had been on some type of slow discharge, and the battery was week. After he found the issue and fixed it, he has had no more issues with the battery or starting....... Don't know if this will help, but thought I would throw this out on the WWW.....

This makes sense since the consensus is that the bike is flooding. No spark and constant cranking would lead to a flooded condition. I'm not sure why wide open throttle would cause it to start....

Again, let's not confuse a contributor factor with a cause. It's not news that a weak battery makes a vehicle, any vehicle, harder to start. The fact remains that many S10's have failed to start with a completely charged/good battery - the fact many have reported cranking for minutes and minutes to finally get it going confirms that.

- Mark