This Might Be Your Last Chance To Buy A New FJR

By
CMG Staff
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The FJR was the descendant of the FJ series, a line of excellent sport tourers that goes way back to the 1980s. PHOTO CREDIT: Yamaha

Take a look at the Yamaha website for Canada—there it is, in all its four-cylinder shaft-driven glory. The 2025 Yamaha FJR1300ES. The bike of choice for the Iron Butt Rally and other long-haul competition. Perhaps the most successful LDR bike of all time—and this might be your last chance to buy it.

If you look at Yamaha’s American website, the 2025 FJR1300 is nowhere to be seen, and neither is the Super Tenere 1200. This is not really a surprise; both bikes have been on the chopping block forever, and both were rumored to be canceled during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Super Tenere has changed very little since its introduction in 2010 (in the Euro market), and the current-generation FJR was pretty much the same thing they brought out with the Gen III model in 2013.

Both machines only justified their premium pricing in 2024 by offering electronically-adjusted suspension, and the FJR also offered a cornering-sensitive headlight. Aside from that, their lack of leaning-sensitive TC or ABS systems put them behind two generations of adventure bikes and sport tourers. So the Super Tenere appears to be gone for good in North America (not listed on either Canadian or American websites as a 2025 Yamaha model) and the FJR is gone in the States, perhaps soon to follow in Canada.

Although the FJR and the Super Tenere like it were both dated, they would still have had some customers. But tightening emissions standards worldwide make it hard to keep bikes like this in production. PHOTO CREDIT: Yamaha

You could debate whether this is good, bad or inevitable. But with news this week that the 2025 Iron Butt Rally is on again, and news that the cross-continental Cannonball run was broken again in 2024 by an FJR1300, just as the previous record had been set on an FJR, you know that some people are going to miss these bikes—just as the hyper-specialized Harley-Davidson XR750 and other purpose-built machines are disappearing in favor of more bland, corporate models aimed at a broader market.

With that in mind, it seems likely the Tracer 9 GT will be Yamaha’s offering to the touring market in the years to come, unless we finally see a Tenere 900 as well. In neither case will we get a shaft drive, though—one of the most attractive features of the FJR and Super Tenere.

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