looks a little bit more advanced technologically then xt although more expensive as well. Wonder how reliability compares to yamaha.

Read this post a while back on "another" forum. Tiggs sums it up quite sensibly IMHO.

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ive ridden a tiger off road ...or should i say pointed it ...the standing ergos is awful ..the front end wants to push on soft ground and the engine delivery is far to savage ..it also wants to run away downhill
i keep hearing how good the engine is and it is sprightly but its very linier there is no top end rush ..its quit revvy and at the end of my two hour stint the dash petrol thingy said 42.6 mpg average
if i was going off road the tenere is head and shoulders the better bike IMHO

Hi,
I own a Tiger XC and a 2013 Tenere at the moment and have ridden them both today.
The Tiger is a 90:10 road /off road bike and is very solid on the road with good handling and performance, cabable of carrying two people and a load of gear long distances quite quickly. Weve recently been to Pyrenees and last year the Isle of man and the Tiger gobbled up every thing thrown at it with ease.
The Tenere is a 60:40 road / off road bike that has fair handling and fair performance. It will carry similar loads but wont cover the ground so easily
and relaxed.
The Tiger is not easy to ride off road and should you drop it it would suffer and cost I fear.
The Yamaha is for a fairly big bike easier to ride off road and inspires confidence if dropped I think it would still look much the same and not suffer too much.
Yamaha is simpler ,easier to work on , more modible if you like tinkering and should be cheaper to run.
I swear there is more than 10kgs difference in their weights though as pushing it round the yard and riding it it feels loads lighter.
The Tenere also has a undefinable quality that makes it good fun to ride I cant put my finger on why it just does.
I cant keep both bikes, so in the next few months I have to decide going to be difficult.
Spyke.

thanks for your comparison, looks like the xt660z is more for me after all
since I like to choose roads less traveled usually

Check out our ride report from earlier this year.
800 tiger and xt660z. Worth it just to see Baz's video at the very end with his Tiger.
I would pick the xt660z for off road any day.

http://advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=972753