Tenere T7 Bust!

By now the dust from EICMA 2018 has settled with some exciting launches and surprising disappointments. In the latter category, it's rare to see a marketing bungle like the fiasco that Yamaha has orchestrated with its development and launch of the Tenere T7 World Raid.

After first announcing the Tenere T700 concept two years ago with a tantalizing prototype, Yamaha stirred some legitimate excitement about the prospect of a dirt-oriented middleweight ADV bike powered by the bulletproof and highly-rated cross-plane twin ("CP2") engine developed for the popular MT-07 street bike. How hard could it be? Take the durable and decently-spec'ed WR250R chassis and suspension concept (upgrading the miserable rear shock), stretch it to fit the CP2, add a larger tank, update the visuals, bolt on a rally-style tower with LED lights, and add luggage mounts. The result would be a reliable and reasonably lightweight platform for the dual-sport end of the ADV market--with a proven engine, where all the development has already been done and paid for.

However, EICMA 2017 proved to be just the first disappointment for Tenere fans. Rather than reveal a production-ready model, Yamaha instead announced a new "World Raid" iteration of the Tenere concept and launched a plan to test the bike around the world, presumably to tune the design for production. Thus began a bizarrely protracted marketing campaign of videos showing professional riders flogging the Tenere in exotic locations. North America--with its superb ADV riding--was inexplicably struck from the list of tour destinations. Few details emerged about the bike itself: weight, suspension, or any other facts that would help to position it against the more technically-appointed competitive offerings of KTM, BMW, and Triumph. Meanwhile, KTM was letting the public ride its pre-production 790 Adventure! But the market seemed prepared to wait for Yamaha's unique proposal, cranking up expectations for a big announcement by Yamaha at EICMA 2018.

And it was a bust. All Yamaha did was add insult to injury. As we learned with stunned bewilderment, the European market will receive the Tenere sometime in 2019, those bikes being built in Europe. But North Americans must wait until late 2020, presumably so bikes for that market can be built in Japan. For North Americans, it means waiting four years for a bike that, when it's finally released, is likely to be well behind other offerings available at that time. Understandably, Yamaha's plans were met with derision by potential customers--and probable delight from the likes of KTM and BMW.

Someone done goofed. Yamaha had a sure winner, but dumbed it down and delayed it well past the point of being competitive. The Tenere could've owned the middleweight market left by the demise of the KLR650---moreso given Kawasaki's lack of a replacement model, and Suzuki's DR650 being long in the tooth. Instead of seizing this opportunity, Yamaha diverted resources into the three-wheeled Niken--a concept that may work great in practice, but has attracted precisely zero interest from any motorcyclist I've met. Classic blunder of building a technology solution to a market problem that no one cares about.

Needless to say, I got a refund on the deposit I'd optimistically put down on a Tenere just prior to EICMA 2018. As I told the dealer, I had four potential buyers for the model, but now I don't know anyone who is prepared to wait another three riding seasons for this bike. So now I'm looking at either the BMW F850GS or the KTM 790 Adventure R--both high-spec bikes that aren't quite what I originally wanted, but may end up being more realistic options if I keep my WR250R for use at the off-road end of the ADV spectrum.

Yamaha, you let us down. If the Tenere ever reaches Canadian shores, it'll have to be substantially better than anything on the market at that time, because you'll be trying to displace the bikes we're actually buying next season instead of the Tenere we'd all hoped for.