Is the Super Ténéré really Super?

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Metaljockey

Race Dog
Joined
Aug 10, 2006
Messages
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Location
Eastern Cape
Bike
KTM 640 Adventure
As most of you know, Yamaha gave an opportunity to one of the Wilddogs to attend the media launch of the new XT1200Z Super Ténéré.

I turned out to be the lucky guy and Yamaha kindly paid for flights and accomodation even though that was not included in the original offer.

I would like to thank them for taking this unprecedented step, it says a lot about their confidence in the product.

Keep in mind here that I am not a journalist and will not attend any further launches, so I am free to give my opinion be it good or bad. In fact, quoting from the original invite “he/she must be prepared to write an objective as possible ride impression on the forum for the benefit of the forum members”.

Well, I'll do just that. Let's get to it.

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Beauty is in the eye of the beholder but beauty was not the first thing I thought of when I saw the bikes lined up. From the pictures I also got the impression that it is a huge bike, but in the flesh, it did not look so daunting.

Some of the design that grates on the eye is the exhaust and the plastic heatshield that covers it.

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If I had one of these I would swop that exhaust can out for something more streamlined asap. Currently there are no after market cans available, because we are only the second country to launch the Super Ten. The USA do not even know yet whether they will be getting the Super Ten.



Positioning

With a 1200 twin motor, the Super Ten joins the ranks in the Big Traillie class. With the  KTM 990 leading the pack in the sporting traillies and the GS Adventure in a class of it's own in the super tanker division, the Super Ten is aimed squarely at the BMW R1200GS, the king of the touring traillies.

When I originally bought my GS the main motivating factors for me was 1- tubeless and 2- shaft drive.

Now both the GS and the Super Ten share these features as well as more;
 1200 twin cylinder engine
 shaft drive
 tubeless spoked rims
 ABS
 similar suspension travel
 same wheel sizes.



Details

Browsing around the bike, checking out the details, it's immediately clear that Yamaha used the GS as a benchmark and tried to improve on it.

The Super Ten comes with wide pegs and removable rubber inserts standard. That's how it should be, if you make a bike that is going to be applied off sealed roads, then it should have wide pegs to stand on.

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The shaft drive have the more conventional double sided swingarm, with the control arm at the top, out of harms way.

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This allows for carrier bearings to be fitted both sides of the wheel. I expect this design to be more reliable than BMW's single sided swingarm. On a single sided swingarm the bearing has to deal not only with the normal stresses but also the directional stress, by having to keep the wheel straight. Time will tell I suppose.

The tubeless, spoked rim is designed differently to the BM's. Even the front and rear is different to each other.

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I do believe that the BM design makes for a rim that is more resistant to dents, as it has a very thick leading edge.

The seat is clearly copied from the BM. The rear seat is the same height as the carrier which allows for a large surface for luggage. There is also ample places to hook straps and tiedowns onto, nice.

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The seats also have a light grey insert on the sides that tend to get dirty quickly.

To remove the rear seat, you need a screwdriver.

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The carrier rack looks dodgy though. It is secured by three bolts which are situated close together, leaving a large unsupported overhang. I don't think it will be able to support much weight.

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The panniers and top box are matched to the bike's key and are interchangeable between the 660 and 1200 Ténéré models.

The tank is made of steel; that was not very well thought through. These kind of bikes take many knocks, and plastic can absorb and shrug off most small impacts. Steel deforms and stays that way, so expect to visit the panel beaters now and then. It is also edged with unpretty rubber edging, very 1974. It lets down the premium product image a little.

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The tank cowls are also going to need protector bars. This one was dropped at walking speed and there is already damage to the cowls.

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More importantly, behind that cowl is the radiator fan and the radiator. The vast majority of big traillie drops happens at dead slow and in loose terrain such as rocks and the like. This makes the radiator very vulnerable, situated on the side of the tank. A radiator situated in front of the engine, behind the front wheel, is more protected.

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Positioning the radiator on the side does have a certain advantage though, damage by flying rocks and caking of mud flung up by the front wheel is not an issue anymore. Also the heat dispensed by the radiator is passed out the side past the rider, so less heat flowing over the motor and rider.

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The bash-plate is not standard equipment, it is optional. One is sorely needed though because the oil filter is in such an unfortunate position.

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I do not think that this plate will take more than one hit without damage. The bash-plate is fitted with two thin retainers at the front (check arrow), which is probably designed as crumple zones. Other than that there is a single bolt underneath that holds it on.

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The air intake sits right on top of the motor above the spark plugs. So, you can expect to cruise through water while your mates drown their GS's. Getting to the filter involves quite a couple of bolts, but the tank swivels up very niftily on a hinge to give you access.

Another thing that is optional is heated grips.

The blue version has a yellow spring on the rear shock and the silver version has a red one.

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Both headlights are used in dim and bright mode.



Ok, enough with the small talk, let's get to the important part, what's it like to ride?



Weight

This has to be the most talked about aspect when the specs were released. Weight with full tank – 261kg.

I can give you finality on that. No need to argue or discuss anymore, write it down, roll it up in a ball and chuck it in the rubbish bin. There is no weight problem to talk about. Not in relation to it's peers.

I rode it, I put it down, I picked it up, there is no issue.

The weight feels exactly the same as the GS when picking it up, and riding and moving it about at slow speed, it borders on feeling lighter than the GS.

The only time I ever noticed the weight was when trying to steer with the pegs at over 100km/h, then it was noticeably reluctant to change it's line. Jan du Toit reckons the BMW moves easier because of the boxer lay out. The Super Ten's side by side layout has the spinning motor creating a centrifugal force that resists rapid direction changes. It makes sense to some extent.

So there you have it, we can move on, nothing to see here.



Ergonomics

Although the bike does not look that large when viewed from the side, it feels quite high when seated. It is more of a seated on, than a sitting in kind of feeling.

The screen can be adjusted (with tools) to be high or low, like this.

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I found the screen to be quite adequate, just a little buffeting as the airstream came right at my peak. An extra inch would have been good. Yamaha does have an optional extended screen available.

The seat also has a low and a high setting, and I found it very comfortable. It is more flat than the GS which does allow you to move around a little bit to get rid of pressure points.

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Standing is comfortable due to the wide pegs and the bars are very close to being at the right hight, I would lift it maybe 2cm to make for a perfect fit for me. I like that the bars are nice and wide, giving good leverage and making you look strong.

When standing, your knees are clamping the tank in a very comfortable fashion. Just make sure to stick some protection on the sides of the tank, the paint job will be damaged pretty quickly from wear.



Performance

The bike pulls very lekker with a raspy engine note when you wind it. It pulls a bit stronger than the GS but the big difference lies in the upper reaches of the speed range.

My GS can run to well over 200km/h but starts feeling rough at 180km/h. Accordingly I do most of my long distance travel at 170km/h.

The Super Ten pulls very strongly from 160 – 180km/h and is ultra smooth at 180km/h. It only starts to feel rough at about 196km/h, from where the grunt is gone too. I took it to an indicated 209km/h but it is really academic as there is no power left then. I know some of the other guys took it to 235km/h by using slipstreaming and downhills, no point to that really.

Fuel economy is not on par with the BM though. Well, nobody expected it to be, BMW is the undisputed leader when it comes to fuel economy. Over the two days of riding of which about 500km was dirt and 200km tar, the Super Ten averaged 16km to a litre, sometimes dipping into the 15's when steeking it on tar.

One further benefit of this inline twin, is that you do not have the cylinders sticking out the sides of the bike, looking to get damaged at the first drop. Let's be honest here, for a bike that is going to be dropped repeatedly, the boxer motor was a silly idea.



Gadgets


Dashboard

The dash has all kinds of things to play with, but it does get a little crowded with information. Also, the cables hide some of the display.

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It can display your consumption in litres/100km or km/litre.

The power socket is unfortunately one of the standard types that you find in cars. This is not suitable for bikes because the sockets that fit in there are prone to slipping out quite easily. It may a bit of a schlepp to replace it with the Hella type because the hole in the dash is bigger than needed.


Fuel mapping

There are two settings that are toggled by a switch on the handle bars, S for sport and T for touring. The touring setting I found to be pretty useless on the road, maybe it is supposed to reassure pillions or something but I will not be happy with the slow pull aways.

On loose rocky climbs and technical surfaces the touring setting comes into it's own however. It takes the snappiness out of the throttle and makes it easy to control the rear wheelspin. Not too far from how the GS puts it's power out so controllably. It makes technical riding a lot easier than the sport setting. Incidentally, in order to toggle between the two, the bike needs to be stationary. [edit - Kurt tells me you just need a closed throttle]

I like this gadget a lot, it is in use on the KTM 690 (and if it was not, I would not have wanted one) and a variety of other bikes. It surely is the future, it is like having two bikes in one.


Traction control

There are three traction control settings that are set by a button on the side of the dash. Setting 1 is the default that activates every time the ignition is switched on, setting 2 is like an off road setting, it still works but is more reluctant to interfere and then finally, it can be switched off altogether.

I have never been a fan of interfering with wheelspin, but over the two days I spent using all the settings, no 2 grew on me. It still allows enough power through for the back wheel to step out, but it brings it back without you having to do anything. Unless you are intent on pulling long slides all day long, this setting does not interfere with your riding at all.

Off road, setting no 1 is probably usefull on very slippery surfaces, but I did not really get the chance to use it on such. When I did use it off road, I did not like it, it interferes too quickly, like for instance when you need a quick squirt of power to unload the front suspension.

I did not have the opportunity to try these settings in deep sand, but I suspect that the traction control will have to be switched off in sand.



To be continued......
 
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