Just test rode the Yamaha XTZ660 Tenere in my lunch hour and thought I'd share my thoughts.

Impressive wee (massive) beastie. But sadly not a goer for me. :|

Its Very Tall, I could just do tippy toes or the ball of one foot (I'm 5'9 / 177cm, 30" inside leg). I got used to the height surprisingly quickly and it didn't bother me after an hour. The hardest bit was either getting off (high back seat!) or trying to push myself backwards when fiddling about when stopped. There was no chance of that happening on even a mild slope with just toe-power.

Riding was very civilised. Similar to the KTM 990 Adventure but much less aggressive in town. Definitely happier at low speeds than the speed freaky adventure, except for when stopping due to it being so statuesque. On B roads it was less positive than the KTM, but it did have shiny new tyres and 1 mile on the clock, so that probably accounted for the front washing out a bit. The KTM made me ride faster than I ever do on my 600 sports bike, the Tenere didn't have the power on tap like that, so it felt more like it was pushing it, which I find more rewarding than being on a bike with seemingly limitless potential to go and go. It also made a lot of nice pops as I closed the throttle. Definite plus points there!! With some aftermarket cans it would probably sound rather nice.

It cruised fine at 70ish (I didn't want to rev it over 4.5k on 0 miles, even though it wasn't mine), somehow the little screen directs just about all of the wind around you. That really got my hopes up for its long-distance potential. But the real pain, probably the clincher for me, was that my head got an annoying vibrating buffet at between 60 and 70mph and it was enough to make me feel a bit ill after a minute or two. That meant I got the effect on the motorway and on A/B roads. I found it quite weird because otherwise I didn't seem to get any obvious wind-blast at all and it was very gusty while I was riding it, so that was a good test environment.

Its a bargain of a bike which a heap of good character and supposed to return superb fuel economy, but I don't think I could spend a day on it with that buzzing helmet effect. Big shame for me there.

The seat was a bit of a banana shape which I found bearable but not especially comfy. Definitely better than the BMW 800GS which I found murderous on the family jewels due to the back end being higher than the front. It wasn't nearly as nice to sit on as the KTM adventure though.

Looks like I'll carry on looking, unless someone here knows of some kind of solution for my vibra-head issue!