Greetings all - new to the board, picked up my 09 XT660Z on Saturday and spent the week-end riding and sorting it out. This post summarises a hundred others on this board, so new owners can just read this one!

Summary:

Lovely bike, excellent on-road manners and was superb on the (admittedly mild) trails I threw at it. Despite what follows, all is good and I'm very happy with the purchase - every bike has its glitches.

Potential Issues:

It seems apparent that Yamaha have 'run out money' in the last stages of design/manufacture of the Tenere. Whatever the original budget was, it must have been cut down to aggressively price the bike in the showrooms. Only that could explain a couple of real 'howlers' - which essentially amount to electrics exposed to the elements in a way I've never seen on any bike, let alone one with 'off-road' aspirations (if it has fork protectors, surely open wiring is a no-no? )

I found & resolved three items so far:

1. Connector box and wiring near the alternator - just behind the horn and wide open to all the cr*p coming off the front wheel. Amusingly, the alternator area is armoured with a metal plate. Now, Mr Yamaha, what is more likely in life of an average Tenere - an unfortunate rock going there or a bike going through a puddle? What happens when these wires rot is well documented on this board, but solution is simple - plenty of grease and a bicycle inner tube tightly wrapped and ziptied around there should keep things dry.

2. Brake light wiring on the handlebar - individual cables+contact plates exposed. Grease+inner tube, job done.

3.Tail light bulb assembly - as above.

4. Posts on here suggest a similar state of affairs behind the front sprocket - the side-stand switch circuitry. I haven't had the time to look, but from the rest of it is sounds very plausible. Will get it seen to asap.

Another generic top tip for any new bike owner - especially UK-based ones - when you collect it take 30 mins to go around the bike with a tub of engine oil/grease and a small paintbrush, and put oil on every nut, bolt, fitting, screw, spring, exposed bits of clutch cable etc. Exercise common sense of course and keep off the brake discs/rubber hoses.

This will save me reading another anguished post about 'build quality'. All bikes rust in our climate and 10 mins of prevention is better than 5 recalls under warranty.

Also next time you do your own servicing, you will 'round off' far fewer nuts!