I don't know if you're allowed to bolt on such a mod or if Yamaha will get pissy about it, but LSK Electronics do a plug & play dongle which enables the bike to remember your ABS settings when switched off. Game changer. 👍🏼
Just installed on mine . Game changer it is. No idea how they do it but switching on and off abs is now a doddle with the big switch and it holds the memory when switching off. Plug and play too. Took literally 20s to install.
I like imagining the neighbors wondering what Chris is all about on a cold morning when he leaves his house and stalls it - "I thought that guy worked at a bike factory or something? Is he new to bikes?"
I finally figured it out. These reviews are actually about whether the bikes can withstand Chris or not. Simple as that, and if I were a manufacturer, I’d be holding my breath when these vids come out. Serious dude. 👍🤪🏳️🌈
Glad you're liking the t7 I love mine. Wee tip for abs. While in gear. Flick out the side stand. It kills the engine and when you start the bike abs settings are still the same.
The ABS issue has a fix already. Pretty sure well be seeing the LSK ABS dongle kit soon in a future mod video. Cant wait to see what more You'll be doing to it.
Chris, you capture the point of riding so perfectly. Does it make you smile and encourage you to do the things you like doing. Also, excellent use of 'hooning around', my favourite riding verb 🤘😁
So many aspects about this bike stand out. Smaller than these SUV sized ADV bikes. It is like a big dirt bike. But also the old-skool simplicity or otherwise lack of nonsense electronics like rider modes, traction control. I want to ride my bikes not my AMD PC's. The ABS function is a hassle. But I am sure someone will discover a work around.
Yeah, i think the most important electronic gadghets for a bike is ABS (with cornering ABS) and digital display (no TFT display) and slipper clutch, and for bigger cc bikes, traction control and power modes.
At least take out the spark arrestor if you haven't or put on a slip-on. Definitely recommend a full exhaust and a tune. Wakes the bike up. Fixes the power loss at high rpm, revs out much faster, gains about 6hp, loses 12+ pounds. Lithium battery to lose 4.5lbs.
Can't wait to see more from this long term review! For the ABS, for a more "OEM like" solution, you have the LSK ABS Dongle (has a memory feature for whatever ABS setting you select even if you turn the bike off - but it's 150 € or something). Or for a Much cheaper alternative, you can make a switch to intersect the rear ABS sensor plug under the panel where your right knee sits to make the ABS go into Fault Mode and deactivate while still keeping your speed and ODO (FuelDongle makes one for 25 € or thereabouts). Hope this helps :) Life's better when you're riding ;P
The only thing stopping me from buying a tenere 700 today is the suspension. I am in the US and we only get one configuration, the base model... it stinks. If they offer this version in the us it will be sold out. Please YAMAHA, give this to the US market, please.
Excellent video as usual Chris , I’ve had a KTM 690 usual problems, F800 GS which I took Morocco . I come from an off-road background. I bought the world raid last year. I also thought it would be a bit underpowered but as you said every time I get on that bike it puts a smile on my face. it’s bulletproof. It looks fantastic and it’s reliable. I have changed the front sprocket to 16 tooth. Which the bike still performs fantastic off-road and on road it’s a different beast giving you that longer first gear. I often do distance work down to my brothers in Dorset no problem at all on the motorways
I’ve had a 22’ 890 Adventure for a year and a half, just picked up a 24’ T7. Still in the break-in but I’m thoroughly enjoying the T7. I think the bike is a good fit for me even though it is a bit taller than the 890, with me being only 5’8” and a 30.5” inseam.
I’m the same size as you and find the T7 just too tall, it’s fine when everything is going to plan but the moment you need to take an unplanned tab etc I’m in trouble 😮
@@iangriffiths9930 Yeah, it takes some maneuvering of the body, for sure. I had a KLR 650 2nd Gen, Pan America and a 1290 SA-R before the 890. The 890 is nice with the shorter seat height but I was after the extra off-road clearance along with a less intrusive bike.
Chris always love your reviews , a man with your knowledge of motorcycles i trust blindly ( which is rare for me ) . I was getting excited about this Tenere extreme for a minute and then i realized i live in the states which means we won't be getting this version ......I guess Yamaha doesn't like us to much
Exhaust, remap, tail tidy of some sort and enjoy. Oh and apparently the abs is easy to sort but since I've never had a situation where it helped but plenty where it got in the way I think I would just pull the whole system off, lose the extra weight and have brakes that do as they're told when they're told.
Mostly like riding twin cylinder bikes on enduro trails. IMHO T7 is not the best off-road twin bike, Center of Gravity way too high for technical terrain. I Had a tricked out T7 with Andreani Cartriges and Ohlins shock, but found it just too much work offroad. Now have a 890R and super happy with the geometry/handling/CoG for my kind of riding That said the T7's engine is a peach
Adding 2 (or more) teeth to the rear sprocket might spice it up a little for you. I've done it and at first I thought it didn't make much of a difference, until I put the original back on. That lasted for about 500 meters.
I hope this leads to a “Best off-road bike” series and you test the Aprilia and the Desert X. You happen to be the best Bike World presenter. Others have ridden bikes for launches that were underwhelming.
Yamaha needs to make an 850 Tenere with cruise control, premium off-road suspension (manually adjustable), with no weight penalty, and upgraded electronics (TC, and fix the ABS issue). I'd buy that bike in a heartbeat.
I’m really interested on a comparison to the 890R As a fun bike Whealy skid and all other sort of shannanigans Your opinion matters, you have a lot of experience with KTM’s
Enjoy riding kinda fast on road as much as I like riding it off road”…I’m looking for the same and can’t decide between the extreme and the World Raid. I was really impressed at how light the extreme feels. Can’t get a test ride on a WR unfortunately. Tough one. Thanks for the vid and I’m looking forward to an update!
The bike you are after doesn’t exist, I ended up with two bikes for this reason the best on road bike(ktm 690 smc r I need performance not luxury) and the best off road bike available(ktm 300 exc 2stroke lightest bang for your buck) long story short I sold them both for the tenere it does everything at half the cost, but you won’t get the best of both worlds but what it does off road is better than anything else. Not bothered about road riding now as almost every ride on the supermoto I nearly died
When I test road it a couple of years ago on a 160 mile dirt loop, I couldn’t get over how clunky the gear box was. It already had 3,000 miles on it due to it being a tour rental. That was the only negative at the time.
There's nothing by way of hardware on these bikes that shouldn't enable these engines to run absolutely perfect. It's the tuning, to please bureaucracies.
@@nhardy2480 And not all tuners are equally reputable or know what they are doing. Tuning is an art, requires good grasp of combustion engines and electronic controls.
I don't know how it would fit, but putting the rally gytr fuel tanks on that bike would make it perfect. Expensive yes, but still doable if you compare it to bikes like the 890, desert x, etc. Someone will do it.
For abs just buy a switch from Fuel Dongles quick install simple abs turn of on fly and if you restart the bike it remembers it being off and is dead cheap as well.
Becoming a fan of this channel as i discovered recently. It would be nice to have a comparison to the Aprilia Tuareg, since the opinions on the channel seem to be independent. Because i lost count to the versions of the T7. Is it enough a unique version of the Tuareg for the four, or give, versions of the T7? Cheers
It's such an amazing bike, if not very much too top heavy :P had the old xt 600 tenere, which had the same curse. To me it's a great 2nd place behind the ktm 790/890 r platform. But i do prefer the tenere for touring (wish it had cruise control tho)
All the reviews so focus on off road, but reality most guys owning it ride 80% on road..... that would be a good review...highway... long travel, abuse it on road :)
@@chrishart8548 The T7 is not lighter weight like the Husky 701/ KTM 690. T7 is plenty stable on road with the long wheelbase. Only when you mount really aggressive offroad tires does the T7 have problems at high speed, as would most other adv bikes with knobbies that aren't made for that.
@@chrishart8548 One thing I see with the 690/701 Enduros is defaulting to more aggressive tires. They both have the same front stock tire size (90/90/21) but the 690/701 has a 140/80/18 rear vs 150/70/18. Less tire contact is great for offroad breaking traction but bad for pavement. A high front fender can contribute to weird wind deflection (stock for 690/701 but aftermarket for the T7). Stock form for both, the 690/701 Enduros are not designed for high speed pavement while the Tenere is. The Tenere can be made worse for road use and the 690/701 Enduros better. Folks rip around on a 690/701 supermoto knows the engine or the overall design is not the limiting factor for road worthiness.
My big problem with the T7 is its AGE, and Yamaha has done little to improve it since the T660, BUT Yamaha have increased the price. It’s just not competitive anymore with what you can buy for £10k+. No matter how you rag it around a field its competitors can do the same plus kick its ass on long motorway journeys. No heated grips or seat on UK roads 😮. No cruise control the list goes on. I just feel Yamaha are milking their loyal following, but even they will dry up
This isn't about heated grips or seats though Pete, so ragging it around a field is very relevant to the subject of this video, the clue is in the title!
I tested the tenere and 890, money went on the 890. Tenere was to tall and lacked power for the weight, top heavy. Ducati didn't have a demo desert x at the time.
I have to say after reading the comments that the tenere is the most misunderstood bike on the planet, stay tuned I will upload my opinion of this bike.
The normal T7 is too tall and too top heavy for me, I think this extreme version must be worse. A little disappointed we are not seeing the Suzuki 800 project bike as there isn’t much UK off road content with this bike.
How does it handle at 120kph (75mph) right now? All of the highways around me (midwest America) to get to any ADV areas are 75 to 80mph to keep up with traffic. With the way people drive, it’s dangerous not to keep up with them.
@@kriskinsey64 most 75hp bikes I’ve ridden get pretty vibey and high strung at the 80mph mark. I know they will do 100mph, but they sure don’t feel good at 100mph.
@@cowmath77 I know a few guys here locally in Michigan riding the Tenere and they swear by them. The more I ride the more apparent it is that there is always a compromise to be made. Whether it be on or off road manners, or budget. Maybe the KTM would suit your needs better.
It's a little higher in the revs when running at freeway speed with stock gearing. Bumping the front 15T to a 16T doesn't need a new chain and will make it run smoother at high speeds while not compromising too much low speed power.
As much as I love the looks of the tenere, the best middle weight bike at this moment is for sure the tuareg 660. I think people tend to forget her cause of its looks
There must be a tariff or tax that Yamaha is unwilling to pay to import multiple models of the T7 to the United States. We here have more adventure ready terrain to ride than the entirety of Europe yet you in the United Kingdom get all the various Tenere models. Whats up Yamaha?
@@BikeWorldTVshow Tuareg 660, more suspension travel, better ground clearance, tubeless wheels, more fuel capacity and situated lower down, cruise control, rider aids -Traction Control, more wind protection, better engine for low speed and all round traction... I could go on......🙏
Make your own - high level mudguard, world raid suspension (including rocker arm and dogbones), a set of GYTR pegs, a radiator guard (if you really have to), good bash plate, a rally seat (perhaps) and a longer side stand. You have the Extreme in function if not name.
