Yamaha’s new Tenere 700 World Raid machine will debut this fall after a round-the-world promotion tour through some of the globe’s most famous adventure riding areas.
Originally brought to the public as the T7 concept, the Tenere 700 is Yamaha’s entry into the middleweight adventure bike market. It’s powered by the same liquid-cooled 689 cc parallel twin that Yamaha uses in the MT-07 naked bike and XSR700 neo-retro. Yamaha hasn’t had a machine in this category for some time in North America, although it had the XT660Z in Europe until very recently. With that machine discontinued a couple years back, the new Tenere model will give Yamaha a re-entry option into the middleweight market, with a machine that appears to be somewhere between the Suzuki V-Strom and the Honda Africa Twin in its capability.
There are high hopes for this bike, as Yamaha fans have been asking for it ever since the MT-07 appeared. With that in mind, Yamaha is throwing together a round-the-world ride to show the Tenere 700’s capabilities. Yamaha has already started the journey, taking the bike on a 1200-km ride in Australia, from Hervey Bay to Dubbo, with Dakar star Rodney Fagotter behind the handlebars. Next up, Yamaha’s planning to take the machine on a 600-km ride on the original Paris-Dakar rally route. Another Dakar legend, Stephane Peterhansel (best-known for his car heroics these days, but a champion Yamaha pilot in the past) will ride the bike through this stage.
From there, the Yamaha travels to South America, where Yamaha factory rider Adrien Van Beveren will ride it along a route that travels the same country as the current iteration of the Dakar rally. Finally, the bike will head over to Europe to ride from Great Britain to Italy, with five different prominent off-roaders/ADVers in the saddle.
At the end of it all, Yamaha should have a pretty good idea of any bugs that need to be worked out, we’d think. Of course, Yamaha will be doing social media updates along the way.
For more information the Tenere 700 and the planned adventure, check out www.world-raid.com.
I don’t get it. What’s the point of marketing the hell out of a bike if they don’t actually release it to the market?
Yamaha is a great company that makes fantastic products, but trying to understand it’s marketing strategies is an exercise in futility 😉
I’m sure the specs on this bike are finished already but it would be nice if it beats the 650 Strom in all aspects. Back in the 80s, almost all bikes were switching to shaft drive, Honda even had a 500cc bike with a shaft. I would like to see a mid sized adventure bike with a shaft drive.
i’d like to see that as well, having owned a few shaft drive bikes in my time. (’82 Yamaha Vision 550, ’79 Suzuki GS 850, ’98 BMW R1100RT)
Given the time they took putting it out this thing is better be good.
I can’t wait for this bike. Yamaha, please release it already! Hopefully, the delay in bringing it to the market is them getting it right.