:..Would you still buy the T7..:

[Ray Ride4life]

1 minute ago, Tenerider said:

I personally don't count traction control etc an advantage

Charly Sinewan has a Ducatie Desert X now and would have been fine without it because he always complains about the electronic menace and goes for the Enduro mode which turns everything off.

[Prestone]

Yes

[Interceptor]

58 minutes ago, hANNAbONE said:

Actually I have even added the Norden 901 to the short list of contenders.

 

It also has all the bells and whistles, much like the Aprilia 660 Tuareg.

 

Why on earth didn't MommaYamaha add tubeless tires and cruise to the World Raid -- I would have been all over that.

 

Time is an Ally for me - so I am taking my time and devouring all the info I can in these long (*short*) days of winter.

 

Thanks for your reply.

Tubeless is nice but an outer-spoked tubeless rims like the Tuareg has (such as BMW DUCATI and more) are too weak and wide for serious offroading. There are Tuareg riders who rides them hard offroad and already managed to brake a rear rim. You can do a tubeless conversion on the T7 wheels for around 100$ if you do it yourself - so if that's holding you back that's not a big issue. 
Electronic cruise control is nice, but you can get a 10$ throttle device that holds it there and you have a brilliant manual cruise control - Youtube Go Cruise, i use it on every bike iv had and my current T7, so that's also a simple fix.
 

 

46 minutes ago, Tenerider said:

Time will tell which one is better.

On paper its only real advantages are its bigger suspension travel and cruise control.

 

I personally don't count traction control etc an advantage, that's rather a gimmick. At least on the T7 I can only confirm what countless more experienced riders said: your right hand is your traction control.

It might be that other bikes need it more than the T7.

 

But every direct comparison test seems to confirm that the CP2 engine is still king. And that's the heart of any bike.

 

One big factor a lot of people doesn't take into account is that besides the better suspension, the Tuareg has way lower center of gravity due to a lower fuel tank in the seat area which makes this bike act and feel very stable, balanced and easy to control. The T7 is much more top heavy for obvious reasons with all that comes with it.
I dont care for TC either, if i had one id ride offroad without it as with my ABS but on road (especially moist or wet conditions) its a safety bonus.

The CP2 is an amazing engine - and was the main reason iv sold my F800 and got the T7 - for the smoothness and torque it has. On the same token this engine is about 80% of the value you get when paying for a T7, and thats about it.
This bike is basically a grate engine with low end components around it,  and live to the phrase you get what you pay for. You can make it better - we all do, but it costs $$$.

Edited December 27, 2022 by Interceptor

[chadio]

Yes, two big disappointments, both having to do with the invoice:

 

- freight charge

- setup charge

 

I knew there was a potential for the charges to be high....  high enough to make me angry.   Wanted to do a "mock" invoice with the dealer ahead of time so there were no surprises and I may have been able to negotiate lower numbers.  Failed to do so.  Even made the comment to my friend who went with me to the dealer on NBD ....  I will try to keep my cool, but it won't be easy.  Buyer beware (applies to any new powersport product)

 

The only thing that I don't like about the T7 itself is the Achilles heel - the muffler hanger.  Should have been a sacrificial / replaceable part, or be spring - loaded, so it can flex rather than bend. 

 

FWIW - I have not even been able to ride my new bike yet, my neighborhood streets are solid ice.  I wouldn't make it to the end of the driveway before the bike ended up on top of me. Suffer through winter, keep my eyes on the prize...  

[Bete]

I would definitely buy again,  I  had a Africa twin and find the simplicity of the T7 much more to my liking, the less electronics and modes the better,  for me anyway. 

[Liquidape]

Bought mine sight unseen over two years ago. Never having sat on one, or even seeing one at a distance. Now have 12k miles on it and still love it.  It’s a much better bike for BDR type riding than my GS. The GS is a much better sport tourer than the T7. 

Would I buy it again today?  Probably. The market has gotten a bit more competitive with the Aprilla Touareg and new Transalp so it could end up one of those, but most likely would stick with the T7 unless the motor on either of the other ones blew me away. The CP2 is just so forgiving and tractable at low RPM while still being fun in the upper range that it’s a hard engine to beat. No need for fancy rider aids when the motor is so perfect for the intended purpose. 

[S.Ga.Rider]

In a heartbeat. Fantastic bike.

[Kiwi]

Absolutely  I would!

 

No car/ truck/ gun/ bike/ woman I have enjoyed has been perfect straight up. But the Tenere has come as close as anything ever has.

[PNGL]

100% yes.
The mushy suspension was a problem as much my fault as Yamaha's, as I'm 285lbs. Regardless, that was cheap and easy to remedy.
The torture device that they call a seat was, by far, my biggest gripe with the bike. It was fairly expensive to fix, but once done renders the bike a joy to ride, whether for an hour or for 10 hours.
The lack of LED lighting was a non-issue, because I can't think of many bikes with stalk-type signals that I wouldn't replace anyway because I hate them.

I only have three other real nitpicks with my T7:
First is that the fuel gauge is just goofy. My last bar starts flashing (AKA, reserve) at the prescribed 1/4 tank. I get that they want you to have enough advanced notice to make it to a gas station, but it gives me a weird anxiety like I'm about to be out of gas any second. IDK, that one is probably just me...
Second is the lack of some sort of front-only ABS mode. I often forget to turn ABS off when hitting the dirt, or back on when getting back onto the street. I live in the mountains of north Georgia, so most of the forestry roads are only so long and there's pretty much always some road riding to get to the next one. I usually end up just deciding to either hope for the best with ABS on while I'm off-road, with the rear flipping out most of the day, or just really hope there's no sort of emergency situation while I'm on the road. I don't really want to just delete the rear ABS because it's proven useful a few times on the road when I start chasing after my brother in the twisties. I'll probably end up deleting it anyway, but I wish it were just a non-issue.
There's only one thing that I don't like about my T7 and cannot change or fix; the lack of overdrive in 6th. I reached the 112mph that I managed coax out of it in 5th, so it doesn't need 6th for speed. While in 6th, I hate turning 7000 rpms while cruising on the highway to get to the dirt. I don't want to gear it up, because the 7mph idle speed is already a bit higher than I'd like for some tight areas. Ideally, I'd like to gear it down one tooth in the front, while having the 6th gear ratio high enough to turn about 5000 rpms at 75mph. Overdrive the hell out of it!

[sracer]

Yes, really enjoy riding it in various conditions. But I have spent some $$ making it work for me: seat, cruise, springs, protection parts.... In my dreams: make it weigh 50# less, and move the weight lower on the bike!

[eddylindenstein]

I think so.  I have put a lot of aftermarket stuff on it - probably about $2k worth - so it’s no longer a $10k bike, but a $12k bike.  With that being said, is the 2nd place bike (my opinion is the Tiger Rally 900) worth another $3k beyond what I’ve put into mine?  I don’t think so.

 

I have done long 10 hour days on it after getting a Seat Concepts Seat and a Madstad adjustable windscreen and I think it’s damn comfy for long stretches with just those two changes.
 

I love it. 

Edited December 30, 2022 by eddylindenstein

[eddylindenstein]

On 12/23/2022 at 4:35 PM, johnnygolucky said:

Would I buy another? Well, just did.

I was one of the lucky ones who got one in the early lottery in 2020. Rode it for 4k miles and ended up selling it as I was riding more and more dirt and with only 1 bike at the time because I didn't have the space for more, I sold it and bought a new 2021 Husqvarna FE501. LOVE that bike. She's a jack rabbit. But it is not a mile chaser by any means.

 

Just finished building a new shop on my property and now I have space for some wheels.

So, I have friends that are wanting to do some long trips this summer, and I have a few bucket list long distance trips as well in mind, so for the last 5 months I've been looking at used 990's for around $7-$8k but it's a 10 year old bike and got the price of the new KTM 890 out the door which was $18k when it arrives. Ouch. But was ready to put down a deposit. 

 

Thought long and hard about this, and ultimately I realized that the intent of my next bike purchase is for being far far away from home riding BDR's in different States, up to Jasper Canada and to Alaska and back and the more I thought about it, I realized that the very most important paramount thing to me with this adventure bike was reliability, and being away far from home with a broken bikes sucks. And as much as I love that 890, there are known issues. And the CP2 motor is regarded as one, if not THE most reliable and dependable motor ever made. And the low end torque of that thing is just awesome when standing and riding dirt. it feels so much like a WR450 when steering and drifting corners. 

 

So 2 weeks ago, found a basically brand new barely ridden 2022 Tenere 700 with only 900 miles and lots of upgrade for cheap and I couldn't pass it up. Drove 3 hours each way to grab it. 

 

As soon as I got home and rode it, I realized just how much I missed the one I sold the year previous, and wont be selling this one as it's my long distance purpose built bucket list bike. Wont be selling the FE501 either because Jesus, that thing is a freaking hooligan and lays down smiles for dirty miles. 

All this time I thought I was the only person on earth who was lucky enough to get a first launch T7, sell it, regret selling it, and then somehow land another one!

[katana]

Yes I would.  In fact I did...  I ordered a replacement when mine was delivered.  When the news comes through that they will be discontinued as the 660Z was.

 

It is the sexiest adv at the moment.  What are the Aprilia guys on??

[Yamablueridge]

Yep. Picked mine up in September, paid MSRP for the first time in my life due to the waiting list here on the east coast. Averaging around 1k miles a month until old man winter showed up, that and the over-budgeted salt trucks that keep the streets white with salt. 
 

I’ve added a few things to uncork the CP2 and it’s a sweet little mill. My main riding areas are street and gravel roads in the blue ridge. It’s more fun on carving on the street than one would expect. I’ve done a bit of single track and it’s a bit too much weight for my old soft-ass. 
 

what I dig: no electronic throttle, no TFT, decent suspension (I’m 175 pounds in gear), great motor, availability of maintenance and aftermarket parts. Not dealing with BMW, KTM, Ducati or Aprilia maintenance. The T7 will run dual lane highway at 70+mph, crawl thru streams and nasty logging roads and carve out some twisty pavement on the way back home. 

 

what I dis: stock seat is decent but I’m done at around 175 miles. Rally seat is a bit too tall for me even with the lowering link. ABS, don’t want it and haven’t had it do anything for me but soften the already super soft rear break. Stock clutch pull is a bit stiff. 
 

I’d like a slipper clutch and a quick shifter other than those minor dislikes this bike is a keeper. A bit overpriced at 12k OTD but still worth it. All of the nags can be easily corrected by the aftermarket. 

 

I don’t think we’ll find a better all-arounder; when the miles stack without maintenance headaches. 
 

 

 

[Dirtbandit]

I would absolutely buy one all over again. Great bike….