Yamaha T700 Tenere owners thread

My T7 arrived at the dealer today (UK). I am going to see it tomorrow, but not picking it up until after the weekend as I’m about to head up to Scotland. Dealer is happy as he gets to stick it in the window for a few days.

It’s a blue one, not black as I was originally told. This is excellent as I wanted a blue one. I would have been happy with black but I think blue is nicer.

Pics tomorrow

She's mine. I could collect today but due to a combination of personal commitments I have to wait until Monday.

In the meantime, it's lurking in Woking Yamaha if you want to take a look (but don't touch or sit on it dammit!)

Congratulations and enjoy your new bike. I am so jealous.

@Tobers I'm so gonna sit on it. (Congrats, btw!)

I can't see a production date on the VIN that is visible (the VIN appears as a sticker on the frame - there may be a stamped one somewhere hidden). Not sure how to tell if it is Euro 5 certified. The frame number is 403 so I guess it's the 403rd bike made.

It also says "e13*168/2013" and "L3e-A2" on the sticker. I think that's what you're looking for but what it means I don't know.

Nonononononononononononononononooooooooooooooooooooooooooo I'm watching....

Very motivational, Congratulations....must have, must have, must have

Nice. Not jealous at all!
Needs to get dirty.

Congrats! Looking forward to some more pics after collection.

My dealer told me mine has been put back a few weeks, even though I was given a July delivery :-/
He also told me the first deliveries were all black!

He-hum.

Yes, these are the two bikes I am deciding between.

Are you going to make Tobinators for it?

I saw a bike in the flesh last night at the Oakley Bike meet near Bedford.
Looked good in the Blue / Black Ceramic Ice colour, especially the wheels.

No sitting allowed tho!

Good question! And I saw a couple of 1150GSs with Tobinators on today up in Scotland. But it doesn’t look like the windscreen fixings will be cooperative. I have yet to ride the danged thing though so it’ll be interesting to see how they’ve handled airflow - the big gap under the front of the screen should help.

I had them on my 1100gs, huge improvement.

OK - here we go...picked it up today from Woking Yamaha and put 70 miles on. Initial impression....love it. Seriously. It's what the testers said. Some pics then more details...



As you can see, they match nicely - very colour coordinated

Back to the T7.

Appearance

It looks stunning in the sunshine. The black paint sparkles slightly. What I thought was silver on the sides is a sort of matt white. The number plate hanger is hideous and needs to be replaced by something MUCH smaller, which might be tricky as it's a large moulding which extends under the seat and has hidden integral handholds (for pulling the bike upright) made into it. Someone will figure it out though. Side reflectors needs to come off the forks. The blue wheels look GREAT. The overall look really is exceptional. Seems to have good road presence with cars in front making way a lot more than when I'm on my MT10.

Comfort

I'm 6'2" with a 34" inseam and can just about flat foot it. Seat is comfy so far (only done 2 hours) but I have a Rally seat coming. The riding position is very good for sitting, but the bars need to be raised a bit for standing when offroad (I have to hunch a bit). My legs aren't cramped - distance to the pegs seems fine. I was conscious about the clutch cover on my right leg, but it's not an issue for me so far. Bars could do with turning slightly upward for me. The gearshift lever is too high and I need to rotate it down a spline or two.

Ride

Count me as being very impressed. It's a very smooth, plush ride. I am surprised how lovely it is. I haven't done anything aside from wind up the rear preload (I'm 95kg). Love it. It's a lovely bike to be on. I did a small amount of off-tarmac riding (about 5 miles) on some dry gravelly tracks - no problems at all but needs more miles. Definitely far far superior to my XT660Z Tenere.

No buffeting at 70mph. Pretty quiet actually and not much wind blast. That's with an offroad helmet with peak and a non-peaked AGV helmet.

It has fantastic steering lock, and is really manoeuvrable. It doesn't feel heavy - it feels a lot lighter than my heavily offroad modified and lightened XT660Z did. On tarmac it handles surprisingly beautifully.

Engine

Again, very impressed. Smooth as a smooth thing, and very tractable. I'm only running in, so limiting RPM to 5-6k with lots of variation so bear that in mind, but initial feeling is very good indeed. I can see why the journos liked it on the press tests. I didn't really feel the throttle jerkiness that others have reported tbh. It is geared quite short though, and I often found myself looking for 7th. Maybe it's just getting the feel of the engine characteristics. 5k rpm is 70mph in 6th. Pulls pretty well (bearing in mind running in mode).

Other things

The instrument display thingy vibrates on anything other than smooth surfaces. I suspect Yamaha will have to fix this. The dashboard plastic that it is mounted to does not appear to be well braced which means it flexes resulting in the display wobbling.

Conclusion

So there you have it after 70 miles. I'm sure I've got some "new bike love", but it's just superb. I'm sure it will suit my mix of on-road riding with ability to go offroad in a fairly amateurish way on what I hope is a much more regular basis.

Yamaha will sell bucketloads. I don't think the MT10 will get much action for a while - it's going to get me sent to jail. The T7 is just ace - simple really is better. Highly impressive. More reporting to come as I get the miles on it.

Just what I wanted to read in the owner's thread! Thanks! @Tobers

Thank you for your feedback Tobers.
This will surely be my next bike.

Awesome brother! Thank you for that. Could you tell us some readings of mpg on different speeds?

I went for a quick spin in a mountain pass to try another helmet and see if it was the new helmet that I bought (Shoei Hornet Adv) or the wind buffeting that was giving me a headache. After just a 1h ride in the twisties with a 3/4 open helmet I got again the headache so it's bike related.

Anyone can give me advice on it? I have seen that Africa Twin users install wind deflectors in the space between the forks and the tank. Also have seen people mounting spacers in the windshield to make a gap.

Or wait for an air flow or something similar. The laminar lip attached to the screen might help a bit too.

Yep will do as I get more miles on it. Bear in mind early mileage will be below 6k rpm so not necessarily realistic.

Strange - I found the airflow to be really quite smooth for a vertical screen bike. What you might want to look at is some spacers to move the screen forward (outward) a bit and get more airflow running up behind it. It’s the air pressure differential between the front and back of the screen that causes buffeting so if you can direct more air up behind the screen it equalises the pressure differential somewhat and reduces the problem.