History Of The Yamaha Ténéré: From Dakar Rally To Adventure Touring

Summary

• BMW has long dominated the adventure bike market, but Yamaha has quietly established its own ADV legacy with the Ténéré.
• Yamaha’s Ténéré has a racing pedigree dating back to the Paris-Dakar rally and has seen success as a powerful and versatile adventure bike.
• The recent reimagining of the Ténéré as the T7 has been a huge success, offering a modern look, advanced technology, and lightweight design.

These days, when we think of modern adventure bikes, and where they come from, we tend to look at BMW’s line-up of GS bikes as the gold standard. From the original R 80 G/S to the modern R 1300 GS, the Bavarians got it just about right all those decades ago, and have been sitting on top of the hill ever since. And though other brands like Honda, Triumph, Harley-Davidson, and Royal Enfield have been steadily chipping away at the ADV market, many believe it’s still BMW’s to lose.

But there has always been another player in the touring dual-sport game. Yamaha has been quietly establishing an ADV legacy of their own. And in the process, the Japanese manufacturer created one of the best adventure bikes on the market, with a racing pedigree that reaches all the way back to the sandy dunes of the infamous Paris-Dakar rally. And having tasted sweet victory and success at the ultimate desert race, Yamaha named their new thoroughbred, the Ténéré, after a Dakar Rally stage.

In order to give you the most up-to-date and accurate information possible, the data used to compile this article was sourced from various manufacturer websites and other authoritative sources, including Cycle World, MotorCycle News, and Motorcyclist Magazine.

The Paris-Dakar Rally Influence

What is it about off-roading, and the desert in particular, that calls out to the adventurer in our hearts? Is it the alien-like landscapes? Or the thrill of a challenge? For Thierry Sabine, the founder of the Paris-Dakar Rally, it may be all of the above. After getting lost on his bike in the deserts of Libya, Sabine returned a changed man, and the Rally was born.

The French (Adventure) Revolution

Concurrently, a French rider, by the name of Jean-Claude Olivier, was working for a French Yamaha subsidiary, Sonauto. His participation in desert races, especially in the Dakar Rally, would propel him into the ADV spotlight. Having lost to BMW’s boxer twins, Olivier continually pushed Yamaha to produce a more competitive bike. And though the XT500 dual-sports that Yamaha riders were using were more than capable, they were outmatched by BMW’s R 80 G/S bikes. After witnessing Olivier’s continued passion and enthusiasm, developers in Japan engineered a bike that would soon take over the imagination of the adventuring world.

Early Years As A Dual-Sport

Though the XT600 Ténéré may have been born because of desert racing, it’s not the only thing that it was meant for. Yamaha completely redesigned the XT500, tossing in a new chassis, suspension, and engine. It was still a single (the twin won’t turn up until a bit later), but it was now bigger and more powerful. Subsequent early generations leaned into the rally aspects of design, with bigger gas tanks, upgrades in fairings, and dual headlights. Some of the other intuitive components included removable passenger pegs, tank-mounted cooling shrouds, a rear fender tool bag, a comfortable seat, and a sturdy skid plate to protect the bottom part of the engine.

Yamaha XT600 Ténéré Engine Specifications

The XT600 Ténéré had one other thing going for it. Unlike the more traditional looking BMW R 80 G/S, which didn’t stray too far from what the brand was doing with all of their bikes, the new Ténéré looked thoroughly modern, with its blue and yellow color scheme. This was the 1980s, after all, and wild neon colors were in style. There were more traditional, white and red color schemes as well, and along with the blue and yellow, these schemes would prove to be classic enough to be resurrected in modern times.

Dawn Of The Super Ténéré

The Ténéré proved to be sufficiently successful for Yamaha, but there was a limit to what a single-cylinder engine could do, on the streets or in a race. And in 1989, Yamaha unleashed the evolved, twin-cylinder Super Ténéré. Sure, it wasn’t as light as the single, but what it lost in weight, it gained in power, comfort, dual front disc brakes, and a massive, 6.9-gallon gas tank. This was a machine built to be the ultimate adventure bike. It was powerful, and comfortable enough for touring. And it could also readily handle any off-roading you could throw at it. This version of the Super Ténéré would eventually go through multiple updates, making it lighter, faster, more streamlined, and liquid-cooled.

Continued Dakar Success

Racers would continue to use modified and upgraded versions of the Super Ténéré in off-road races. The bike brought home multiple victories for its riders, winning the Dakar Rally six times during its production run. This Super Ténéré’s era finally ended in 1998. But that wasn’t the end for the Ténéré name. Perhaps the best version of the Yamaha ADV was yet to come. And when it finally returned, it took the world by storm, all over again.

A Modern Resurgence

The Yamaha Ténéré was revived once more in 2008, as the XT660Z. However, it has never made it to the States, officially. Featuring a 659cc single-cylinder engine, it was a minor success for the company in other markets, and was discontinued in 2016 to make way for something a little more special. In parallel with the XT660Z, the Super Ténéré also made a return in 2010 and continues to be in production to this day.

The Epitome Of Middle-Weight ADVs

But perhaps the Ténéré was meant to be a much bigger deal than it ever was in the past. In 2018, those in the motorcycle industry began hearing whispers that Yamaha was getting ready to unveil a new version of the Ténéré. In 2019 Europe was the beneficiary of the new Ténéré 700. And in the second half of 2022, the US got it as well.

A total re-imagining, the new bike had a modern look, advanced technology, and an affordable price. It was also a liquid-cooled parallel twin, much to the surprise of every rider. Once people got their hands on it, it became crystal clear that this was how you did middle-weight adventure bikes. In a world full of BMW R 1250 GS behemoths, the new T7 was light, at only 450 pounds wet. That lightweight, in conjunction with the new parallel-twin engine, made the T7 much more powerful than ever before.

Yamaha Ténéré 700 Engine Specifications

The T7 was an instant success, selling out in some cities before it ever got to the dealerships. Success also breeds competition, and soon the likes of KTM, BMW, Aprilia, and Triumph were molding their mid-capacity ADV models to be just as lightweight and capable as the Ténéré 700. After a few years on the market, the T7 remains a massive hit for Yamaha, who have been building to this point ever since the humble debut of the XT600, all those decades ago.