The Yamaha Super Tenere XT1200Z Big Thread

[Old Git Ray]

Originally Posted by simmons1

You haven't lived until you have owned a KLR

Jeez...I must have just teleported straight to age 56.

[Old Git Ray]

Originally Posted by Dallara

..............

So the question is this...

Have any of you folks out there, anywhere in the world, heard of any major failures of a Super Tenere?

..............

I love to ask the same question now and again so I can listen to the sound of silence.

I usually do it after a BMW troll makes an appearance.

[Old Git Ray]

Originally Posted by Goldie05

.............
I think Nick Sanders is the only rider I know doing something big with Yamaha.
............

Funny thing is, I had a chat with Nick at a UK bike show just before he went. He was promoting the trip at the time using a Yamaha supplied bike. IIRC, there were no mods done to the bike at all.
I asked him what he thought of the bike.
His answer: "Dunno, haven't sat on one yet".

Nut case !!!

Originally Posted by Goldie05

.............
I just read a few bloggers that arrived in Ushuaia and all the posted pictures are all BMW's
........

I'll see if I can help you out with that in April....

[jaumev]

Originally Posted by GrahamD

YAMAHA official response...


------------------------
Dear Mr Jaumev,

Please find below our official response to your complaints...

1) Loosing Spokes. This is generally the result of crazy owners and people not reading the owners manual.
2) Bending Wheels, Again we refer you to the above with reference to crazy owners.
3) Hard Starting... Please accept our apologies. We were unaware of this until last week because we don't read forums. However we wish to inform you we are working hard to match the competition in every way. Next model we have already developed better start system, exploding shaft drives, cracked frames, "service required" light, DES errors, faulty fuel caps, rear brakes that don't work, swelling gas tanks and 40% higher price
. I hope all our hard work will be to you satisfaction.

With humblest regards
YAMAHA design team.

-------------------

Very funny but...

Price is not an excuse. This is s 15.000€ bike!!

[MariusD]

Originally Posted by Goldie05

What disappoints me is Yamaha could be using this for publicity but they don't do anything, nothing, zilts

You don't see any adds on TV I subscribe to a few mags, never see and add from Yamaha (about the Tenere) do see other adds for quads and snowmobiles but nothing for adventure bikes.

Mean time we have guys going around the world on BMWs and there's links to them on Facebook, websites, they visit all the BMW dealers along the way and they advertise how great BMW is

Originally Posted by hayfarmer

Same thing here in Australia.....Yamaha do no promotional work on the S10. It pisses me right off that they have a top product and wont sell it.

Brian

Advertising is expensive, so companies don't do it unless:

1) They want to assure a successful launch of a new product
or
2) There is excess inventory building up that needs to be cleared.

So what does that tell us about the tenere? The market was probably hungry for a bike the the tenere, so it sold well during it's iniital launch and probably inventories have not gotten anywhere near the levels where "extra encouragement" is needed to move them. Companies don't waste money when they don't have to, and the fact that they are moving these bikes without flashy adds is nothing but good news in my book!

And what does that say about the bmw then? I'm not going to comment.

[Goldie05]

Originally Posted by MariusD

Advertising is expensive, so companies don't do it unless:

1) They want to assure a successful launch of a new product
or
2) There is excess inventory building up that needs to be cleared.

So what does that tell us about the tenere? The market was probably hungry for a bike the the tenere, so it sold well during it's iniital launch and probably inventories have not gotten anywhere near the levels where "extra encouragement" is needed to move them. Companies don't waste money when they don't have to, and the fact that they are moving these bikes without flashy adds is nothing but good news in my book!

And what does that say about the bmw then? I'm not going to comment.

I don't agree, BMW sells so many and they still advertise

On the other hand, my dealer has had one sitting on the floor for a long time :

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy II

[Dallara]

Originally Posted by MariusD

Advertising is expensive, so companies don't do it unless:

1) They want to assure a successful launch of a new product
or
2) There is excess inventory building up that needs to be cleared.

So what does that tell us about the tenere? The market was probably hungry for a bike the the tenere, so it sold well during it's iniital launch and probably inventories have not gotten anywhere near the levels where "extra encouragement" is needed to move them. Companies don't waste money when they don't have to, and the fact that they are moving these bikes without flashy adds is nothing but good news in my book!

And what does that say about the bmw then? I'm not going to comment.

OK, let's see...

- Ford's # 1 selling vehicle in the USA is their F-150 truck (in fact, it's the best selling vehicle in the country, period), and they spend a ton advertising it.
- GM's # 1 selling vehicle in the USA is their Chevy Silverado truck, and it has the highest advertising dollar percentage of all their vehicles
- Toyota's # 1 selling vehicle in the USA is their Camry, and what do they spend the most money advertising? Why, their Camry.
- Jeep's # 1 selling vehicle is the Grand Cherokee, and what do they spend their money advertising the most?
- Honda's # 1 selling car in the USA is their Accord, and it gets the majority of their advertising dollar spent.
- Honda's # 1 selling motorcycle in the USA is their Gold Wing, and they advertise it heavily.
- BMW's #1 selling car worldwide is their 3-series, and guess what?
- BMW's # 1 selling motorcycle worldwide is their big G/S, and it gets the majority of their advertising budget...

- Apple's # 1 selling product is the iPhone, and what do they advertise the most?


I could go on, but can you see a pattern here?

And my local Yamaha dealer has had a nice, brand new 2012 Yamaha Super Tenere sitting on his floor for 9 months, heavily discounted.

Dallara



~

[MariusD]

Originally Posted by Dallara

OK, let's see...

- Ford's # 1 selling vehicle in the USA is their F-150 truck (in fact, it's the best selling vehicle, period, in the country), and they spend a ton advertising it.
- GM's # 1 selling vehicle in the USA is their Chevy Silverado truck, and it has the highest advertising dollar percentage of all their vehicles
- Toyota's # 1 selling vehicle in the USA is their Camry, and what do they spend the most money advertising? Why, their Camry.
- Jeep's # 1 selling vehicle is the Grand Cherokee, and what do they spend their money advertising the most?
- Honda's # 1 selling car in the USA is their Accord, and it gets the majority of their advertising dollar spent.
- Honda's # 1 selling motorcycle in the USA is their Gold Wing, and they advertise it heavily.
- BMW's #1 selling car worldwide is their 3-series, and guess what?
- BMW's # 1 selling motorcycle worldwide is their big G/S, and it gets the majority of their advertising budget...

And my local Yamaha dealer has had a nice, brand new 2012 Yamaha Super Tenere sitting on his floor for 9 months, heavily discounted.

I could go on, but can you see a pattern here?

Dallara



~

You're not comparing apples to apples.

Advertising does come into play when you have a high volume product in a very highly competetive undustry (fast food, beer, banking, autos). But that doesn't apply to a market like the adv bikes.

It's possible that bmw produces many more bikes than yamaha in this class, so they have to make sure they move them all in a timely fashion, thus they advertise.

My point wasn't that if a product is being advertised it isn't a best seller. I'm just impressed that the tenere has not NEEDED advertising so far to be successful.

[Goldie05]

Originally Posted by MariusD

You're not comparing apples to apples.

Advertising does come into play when you have a high volume product in a very highly competetive undustry (fast food, beer, banking, autos). But that doesn't apply to a market like the adv bikes.

It's possible that bmw produces many more bikes than yamaha in this class, so they have to make sure they move them all in a timely fashion, thus they advertise.

My point wasn't that if a product is being advertised it isn't a best seller. I'm just impressed that the tenere has not NEEDED advertising so far to be successful.

Now imagine what Yamaha could do if they really advertised, maybe the Tenere would become the new adventure bike for someone looking to do a round the world trip or a trip to Alaska ;)

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy II

[Dallara]

Originally Posted by MariusD

You're not comparing apples to apples.

Advertising does come into play is when you have a high volume product in a very highly competetive undustry (fast food, beer, banking, autos). But that doesn't apply to a market like the adv bikes.

It's possible that bmw produces many more bikes than yamaha in this class, so they have to make sure they move them all in a timely fashion, thus they advertise.

My point wasn't that if a product is being advertised it isn't a best seller. I'm just impressed that the tenere has not NEEDED advertising so far to be successful.

Nice dance move... And we're not talking fruit here. We're talking motorcycles, which are motor vehicles last i checked, just like the BMW G/S and the Honda Gold Wing.

I think it's safe to that Yamaha's FJR1300 sells in an equally small market niche as the Super Tenere, yet it gets more advertising dollars than the Tenere.

Using your logic, the Super Tenere was truly a "new product", and one I'm sure they wanted a "successful launch" of, yet advertising for the Super Tenere was almost non-existent in the USA, and certainly not as much as a simple rehash of the FJR has gotten.

Further, Yamaha was launching the Super Tenere into a market dominated by one brand/model - the BMW G/S. There were literally no other competitors. One would think Yamaha would have wanted as many potential *adventure* buyers as possible to know they were entering that market niche.

And now there is even another relatively major player entering that market niche - Triumph with it's new Explorer 1200 - and what is Triumph advertising the most heavily right now? Why, the 1200 Explorer!

Meanwhile there are numerous Yamaha dealers all over the USA with 2012 Super Tenere's sitting on the floor (I personally know of at 3 or 4 in South Texas, and you can see plenty more on Cycle Trader, eBay, etc.), yet no advertising gets spent on the Super Tenere. Have you seen even one ad showing the new colors for 2013?

All this reminds me of an interesting story I heard back when I was in the car business...

William Wrigley, Jr., of Wrigley chewing gum fame, was giving an interview while riding on a train. The journalist interviewing him commented that Wrigley's products were the best selling in the world yet Wrigley still spent massive amounts of money advertising. So then he asked him "If your chewing gum is the best selling in the world why do you spend so much more than your competitors on advertising?" Wrigley simply smiled and said, "Here we are, traveling on a train going over 60 MPH... Do you now suggest we unhook the engine?"

Advertising *drives* product. You can have the best product in the world, but if not enough potential buyers know about then it is destined to fail...

See Yamaha TDM850 for just one example.

Dallara



~

[Rick West]

Originally Posted by Dallara

And my local Yamaha dealer has had a nice, brand new 2012 Yamaha Super Tenere sitting on his floor for 9 months, heavily discounted.

Dallara



~

It's even worse in Canada where the Tenere has not had much sales success. Most dealers up here are stuck with them sitting on the sales floor too and yet the GS continues to sell well at a much higher price.

I'm not sure if advertising will be much help.

[Dallara]

Originally Posted by Rick West

It's even worse in Canada where the Tenere has not had much sales success. Most dealers up here are stuck with them sitting on the sales floor too and yet the GS continues to sell well at a much higher price.

I'm not sure if advertising will be much help.

Well, it's pretty safe to say that both of them - the G/S and the Super Tenere - both sell better than the KTM 990 and its brethren...

Of course, both are more reliable than the Katoom... even the BMW!

Dallara



~

[Deuce]

Originally Posted by Dallara

Well, it's pretty safe to say that both of them - the G/S and the Super Tenere - both sell better than the KTM 990 and its brethren... Of course, both are more reliable than the Katoom... even the BMW!
Dallara ~

Our local KTM/Yamaha dealer has sold out all his 990's & Tenere's. GS's are like arseholes, everybody has one. All my BMW's were garage whores. Always at the dealer for recalls or warranty work. My 3 KTM's never saw the dealer after I bought them. (two 950's & 990)

[WARRIORPRINCEJJ]

I have no idea what y'all are goin' back-and-forth about. However, from my skimming of the posts, it brought something to mind that has always stayed with me (in regard to the ST).

When the H-D execs pooled their cash, and bought H-D from AMF (thereby resurrecting The Motor Company), they focused (aggressively) on three major things...

-R&D,

-QA/QC, and

-Advertising

And, when I post "advertising", I'm not talkin' the run-of-the-mill stuff that we see on a daily basis. Their marketing folks set-out to sell the "lifestyle". Their main focus was to make you believe that your life was shit...and that an H-D was the only thing that could change all that.

No matter what you feel about H-D (Personally, I love 'em, and bleed Orange&Black.), their marketing was PURE FUKKIN' GENIUS.




Now, getting back to the ST...

I have travelled the world (maybe not as much as some, but quite a bit, nonetheless). And, if there's one thing I have noticed, it's that we Americans are (many times) looked at as the big, dumb jock: not very smart, but can lift heavy things.

So, bearing that view in mind, we miss a lot of the cool stuff/designs that are offered in many countries. In fact, when I heard about the ST coming to the States, I was quite surprised, and thought, "That shit will never sell, here: not because it's junk, but because most folks don't know what the hell it is, and don't realize that they want (need) one."

After having that epiphany, I saw the below commercial. In my very humble opinion, if Yamaha woulda' advertised like this in the States, and sold the "lifestyle" instead of just the bike, the dealers woulda' been in the same spot as all the gun dealers, right now: sold-out, cash-rich, and frustrated...

[Dallara]

Originally Posted by WARRIORPRINCEJJ

I have no idea what y'all are goin' back-and-forth about. However, from my skimming of the posts, it brought something to mind that has always stayed with me (in regard to the ST).

When the H-D execs pooled their cash, and bought H-D from AMF (thereby resurrecting The Motor Company), they focused (aggressively) on three major things...

-R&D,

-QA/QC, and

-Advertising

And, when I post "advertising", I'm not talkin' the run-of-the-mill stuff that we see on a daily basis. Their marketing folks set-out to sell the "lifestyle". Their main focus was to make you believe that your life was shit...and that an H-D was the only thing that could change all that.

No matter what you feel about H-D (Personally, I love 'em, and bleed Orange&Black.), their marketing was PURE FUKKIN' GENIUS.




Now, getting back to the ST...

I have travelled the world (maybe not as much as some, but quite a bit, nonetheless). And, if there's one thing I have noticed, it's that we American are (many times) looked at as the big, dumb jock: not very smart, but can lift heavy things.

So, bearing that view in mind, we miss a lot of the cool stuff/designs that are offered in many countries. In fact, when I heard about the ST coming to the States, I was quite surprised, and thought, "That shit will never sell, here: not because it's junk, but because most folks don't know what the hell it is, and don't realize that they want (need) one."

After having that epiphany, I saw the below commercial. In my very humble opinion, if Yamaha woulda' advertised like this in the States, and sold the "lifestyle" instead of just the bike, the dealers woulda' been in the same spot as all the gun dealers, right now: sold-out, cash-rich, and frustrated...

Amen to that, Bruddah! Amen!

One thing, though... Don't let Pluric see those shots of that Super Tenere in the sand. He'll crash his office chair just watchin' it!

Dallara



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