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Well gentlemen. Time to wrap up my initial 4.544 kms on my Tenere. As I have already mentioned, I broke in my Ten during our vacation. I loaded it with my daughter (11), soft panniers and a roll-up bag and set out together with my wife on her Guzzi Breva 750.
The short summary is: The bike is freakin' great! It's a keeper, by far!
These are the upsides:
- Enough grunt for me
- Very nimble, even when loaded up
- Very stable at the occasional highway speed stretches
- Easy to stand on the pegs when your bottom starts to complain
- Have bad roads, gravel roads and sandy stretches for breakfast - even two-up!
- Long range: I did some 420-450 km's between fill-ups. But then I was in the process of breaking it in taking it very easy on the throttle.
- Surprisingly good wind protection for someone of my height (178 cm)
- Not too sharp knee angle - I like that
- I leave most sportbikes in my wakedust when the roads are somewhat bad, narrow and bendy. Which they tend to be where I live :-)
- Instrument panel is top notch!
- All controls (brakes, clutch) are light, easy and predictable. Enough stopping power even when fully loaded.
- Springs and dampers are better than I expected
Not soo good:
- I have to do something with that seat, even though I can manage long miles by standing up once in a while
- Fuel gauge is somewhat misleading, but I got used to it.
- The speedo is off by at least 10 percent.
- Not roomy enough for my pillion passenger. May be better when I have the proper alu panniers and top box mounted though.
- Not comfy enough for my pillion passenger. May be better when new/reupholstered seat is introduced
- Why on earth doesn't this kind of bike come with center stand as standard?? My dealer didn't get it to his shop before I left for my holiday so I had to leave without it. Awkward when it was time to grease the chain etc.
- The standard tyres are ok for asphalt but not to my taste for gravel stuff. Need to change them to something more knobbly I think.
Mods that will be done:
- New/modified seat
- Centre stand (done)
- Hand protectors and wind deflectors (done)
- Proper alu panniers and top box
- Proper bash plate
- Handlebar risers for better standing position
I'm not in the market for more power, so I'll leave those mods for later.
All in all: My objections to the bike are few and minor. I'm very pleased with the bike and I'm looking forward to years and years of fun with it. Although for two-up serious touring, my trusty Guzzi Quota will be called into actoin.
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