Now over 1500 miles into life with the Ténéré World Raid , things are going well. So far it’s all been on the road, and it’s proving to be a comfortable mile-muncher. Its long-leggedness is massively boosted by the 23-litre fuel tank, and while I’m not a fan of its physical size (it measures 62cm across!), I love the fact that I can get over 200 miles on a tank before the fuel light even thinks about starting to flash.
The seat, which I had thought was too hard, has broken in a little bit, and with its extra height, it makes the bike a spacious place to be. Having got the bike with zero miles on the clock, it went back to Yamaha for its 600-mile service. While it was there, I was asked if I wanted any official aftermarket parts.
The configurator on the Yamaha website is a dangerous place… there are stacks of components available, and it’s easy to get carried away.
For transparency, I don’t have to pay for these parts, but my intention was not to go overboard in a bid to be as real-world as possible. The main motivation was to continue down the route of the bike’s touring/World Raid ethos. So my wish list included an add-on screen for motorway miles (£121); heated grips which are integrated into the dash menu (£235); and a rack (£317.50), which is a substantial piece of metal work that also connects to the rear footrest hangers, meaning it has a hefty 12kg payload – rather than the measly 5kg normally stamped on OE rear racks.
So with the boxes ticked for boosted carrying capacity and creature comforts, I sent a second – ‘nice to have, but not compulsory’ – wish list to Yamaha.
As I plan to take the bike off-road, I asked for a high-level front mudguard, which also has a low rear part to prevent dirt being sent into the radiator (£279.50). The standard bash plate offers good coverage but is pretty thin, whereas the heavy-duty skid plate (£356) is significantly more sturdy.
And now for the fun parts. An up-and-down quickshifter (£198) which works really nicely and, into the extravagant zone, an Akrapovic Ténéré can (£1085) which cuts weight but is heavy on the wallet.
In total the parts add up to £2592 although £1085 of that is the exhaust. I’ll let you know if it’s been worth it over the next few months.
While the new rack and skid plate are definitely fit for purpose, they add nearly 8kg to the already lardy 220kg kerb weight, which pushes the bike further down the road of tarmac-focused adventure riding .
Sports Editor - If you’re looking for sport insight that’s got its finger firmly on the pulse and gets to the very heart of the action with the fattest contacts book in bike sport (rather than simply relying on watching TV coverage and hoovering up what other people are saying on social media) – then Michael is your, erm, ‘guy’.