Dream Machine
We set the alarm for 7am but were so excited we woke up at 6! Today was the day we at last got to test ride the Yamaha Ténéré 700 - or T7 as it is affectionately known.
We have watched many, many YouTube reviews about this bike and everybody has been raving about it. It seemed too good to be true; a bike that is off road orientated but they say will still sit quite comfortably on the motorway. The first big thing to decide upon for our RTW trip is - what bike? We're not convinced our current bikes are the right ones for us for this trip. Carl's Tracer 900 is not an off road bike at all and I find my Tiger a little bit heavy. The T7 appeared to tick every single box.
It was a lovely sunny morning, albeit a little bit cold and foggy in places, setting off from home the temperature was just 2°C. We had arranged to take the bike out at 10am but because we were up early we arrived, got the paperwork sorted and were on the road by 9:30am!
We took it in turns doing stretches of A roads and motorway as we wound our way towards Hamstreet and the byways. There has been quite a bit of rain lately but these two green lanes are hard based and so there is only a few really muddy bits. The tracks were thickly covered in leaves though and the Tiger was slipping about all over the place. It didn't instil any confidence at all. A big part of that to be fair, is the tyres as they are road orientated but the bike also felt heavy.
In comparison the T7 gave confidence in its capabilities and handling and took it all in its stride. It's a much lighter bike and that was really noticeable, giving us confidence in our handling of it. It's also a high bike. We can both touch the floor but when off road it would have been nice to have had slightly more reach. You can lower the bike and so that's something we might consider.
Road handling was just as good. We didn't encounter any issues at all. It hugged the corners well and was perfectly comfortable cruising on the motorway.
The seat has had a fairly bad press so far but we went with an open mind and the only issue really was that it is a bit hard. It's wide enough and shaped comfortably, but it is hard. We would get used to it but back issues mean it might need to have a bit of comfy bum covering and that's readily available.
We could have spent all day riding it but alas we only had it booked out until midday. We arrived back at noon on the dot.
So, is it too good to be true? We think so. It ticked every box we asked of it. We believe we have found the bike that is going to take us round the world in three years time.
