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!

uscincpac - Welcome to the forum, normally folk just say "hello", not write a dissertation, well done you.

I've got 14,000 miles on mine, it really has had a hard life, but I keep up with the maintenance stuff, and your point about a bit of pre-maintenance being better that 5 warrenty repairs is a rather good one. to set the picture, I'm still on the 1st chain'n sprocket set and only on the second mark for adjustment.

I'd be carefull about covering the connectors, do it wrong and you could actually trap moisture in there, with no way of drying. Grease is a better way forward IMHO. Or, I've just got some muc-off water displacement spray, 'post wash spray' they call it, got it free with some cleaner so I'll be interested to see how that stuff goes.

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Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups.

top tips, yeah it does seem yamaha cut some corners but its a great bike and most are proving reliable

I think the guys who used to do Ducati's wiring are now working down the road at the Tenere factory...

xxx

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"Where we're going, we don't need roads..."

JennyDakar.com

Ooh.... Don't say that Jenny ........ I really am worried now!

Barry.

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Great post uscincpac, i use ACF50 which will protect anything from electrics to metalwork and providing you don't use an aggresive cleaner will last for months. **** sticks to it though so if you do the whole bike it does tend to look dirty but under the ACF it will be as new.

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ex :tenere:1200 now 660 +

Thanks guys!

The Ten just had its first fill-up after picking it up from the dealer, averaged:

44.1 (Imperial) MPG, or 15.6 km/l

This is excellent, as operating conditions are harsh - runs to work in heavy London traffic + the engine is just starting to break in, and I've put in 15/40 mineral oil after first 20 miles. (I am using the 'mototune' break in method after experience proved it to be effective)

Given this, a couple of months down the line on decent oil I would realistically expect 55+ mpg.

Tyres - came with Michelin Siracs. Excellent on road so far, and get really hot very quickly. Hope they can put up with the heat cycles : !

I did 8700 km on the original Sirac so far, including 4600km ireland to Italy and temperatures were high (30C +).
No problem whatsoever whether on motorways, small roads, city busy traffic.

Had the fan coming on twice only.

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former Red owner !

Yesterday popped the cover off and had a good look for exposed wiring behind & around the front sprocket. Not much luck to be honest - everything looks wrapped up, including the sidestand switch.

Gave everything the good news with WD40 just in case! Anyway, may not be an issue for '09s then.

Half way to 1st service, engine is bedding in nicely. Lovely powerplant, huge torque from literally tickover (low-speed torque wheelies possible ), and revvy and lively for a big single. Fuel injection is spot-on.

Will go against popular opinion on here and say that the seat is the most comfortable I've experienced on any bike, and I could endure the Ten's massive tank range without a leg-stretch. Mind you, I've been exclusively riding sportsbikes before! Also the passenger seat 'hump' is quite high and ends up supporting my rucksack, so no weight on the shoulders - quite nice!

Last week's 1000mile trip round Scottish Highlands soon found the Achilles Heel.....rain-soaked reg/rectifier connector behind front wheel enforced a breakdown recovery to a dry garage where a telephone tutorial from my home Yam agent soon had fault 'isolated'. Borrowed voltmeter & starter battery & was able to clear the management warning lights & re-start. Fault recurred 3 times later but was cleared by gently 'working' the reg. connector at roadside. The grease & WD40 permanent fix is next, with a waterproof boot of my own design. Begs the question, though, why a bike intended for use in UK should be so susceptible to a little bit of Scottish rain. Lots of it,actually but it was only an inch deep.
Thanks to:-
Road&Track for phone workshop tutorial
Stag Garage Lochgilphead for use of facilities and recovery
Norwich Union/Aviva for arranging recovery

And another thing................................

No thanks to YamahaAssist for being absolutely no use at all. Whatsoever. Chocolate fireguards all. Refused to get the bike any further than the garage who recovered it.

(Because the Stag Garage can not fix Yamaha engine management, they should not be a 'place of repair' according to YamAssist's terms & conditions. YamAssist should have offered recovery to a Yam agent instead of expecting me to borrow Stag's facilities while phoning home to my local agent for advice on how to fix my own bike. But then I suppose I didn't need the 'assistance' because I'd been provident & bought Europe-wide recovery. I'd been clever enough & resourceful enough to arrange recovery through the insurance company, phone for instructions from a dealer & convince a commercial garage that I was ok to fix my bike using their workshop & their tools. Which is ok for me because all I lost was my time. Had I been mechanically inept &/or reliant on the 'assistance' which came with my new bike I would have had a bill for �700+. I know this because I asked how much it would've cost.)