Yamaha Ténéré World Raid – making short work of hard roads with a 500km range

We were already in love with the existing model and its real-world ability to pretty much take everything that’s thrown at it - and throw itself at everything.

All the way back before the beginning of time, in the early 1980s, Yamaha launched a really cool bike that started a revolution in the world of motorcycling. The original Ténéré, or XT600, came with a big tank, a rugged engine and a versatile chassis – perfect for long-distance adventurers looking to discover new landscapes and different ways to get to them.

A number of years ago, Yamaha re-introduced us to the idea of a tall, four-stroke, road-legal off-roader using the parallel twin motor from the Tracer and MT-07 machines. The resulting Ténéré 700, or T7, was a masterclass in how to build a real-world adventure bike. Now we have the Ténéré 700 World Raid, the bike I most want this year.

The first thing of note is the really cool 23-litre capacity dual side-mounted fuel tank set-up. The side-by-side filler caps just give the bike a very intense look and highlight the World Raid’s intentions, as does the old-school flat rally-inspired one-piece seat and the off-road-style bodywork.

What is anything but old school is the technology. A 5” colour TFT display comes with mobile connectivity, allowing you to read your phone off the clocks of your bike. The T7 does, of course, come with ABS and there are three different rider modes to choose from depending on where and how the bike is being ridden. The whole thing sits quite tall with an 890mm seat height while it weighs in at 220kg wet.

Making short work of hard roads is what the new T7 World Raid is all about. To that end it ‘floats’ on a set of high specification 43mm KYB front forks. These have a healthy 230mm of travel and the front end stays polite thanks to it being fitted with a fully adjustable Öhlins steering damper. Down the back there is an aluminium piggyback rear shock. This, in turn, has a longer travel than the original T7 at a nice 220mm.

Powering the whole event is a state-of-the-art, high-torque, EU5-compliant Cross Plane 2 engine. It’s the latest CP2 block from Yamaha and at 689cc it puts out a little under 73bhp at 9,000rpm. This, in turn, is fed by a newly designed air cleaner box.

I’ve got to be honest, I really want one of these machines, largely because of the dual tank, with a range of up to 500 kilometres. That’s 500 kilometres without carrying extra cans of fuel or having pre-arranged fuel dumps organised. And that, in turn, is a whole lot of freedom for those of us who like to ride off the beaten track.

Prices haven’t been confirmed just yet, but we’re expecting them to land at €13,899. The great news is that the new bikes are on the way to your local dealer as I write this. Get yours ordered now.