Yamaha XT 1200Z Super Ténéré

Features

• Shaft drive inline 2-cyl engine - 270-degree crank
• Mass kept low and central for agile handling
• Intelligent Unified Brake System and ABS
• YCC-T with 3-stage traction control plus Yamaha D-mode
• First edition adventure pack
• Tough spoked, tubeless aluminium rims
• Adjustable front and rear suspension
• Adjustable seat height

Adventure travelling takes skill, courage and endurance – as well as faith in your machine. Faith that it’ll love rocky river crossings and dirt roads as much as you do. Faith that it’s going to be comfortable on a long freeway haul. Faith that it’s got what it takes to carve up twisty mountain roads.
The all-new Yamaha Super Ténéré is built from the ground up to be the most exciting next-generation adventure tourer, combining Yamaha’s Dakar-bred toughness and reliability with light, easy handling and advanced rider assist technology.

Calling the 2010 Yamaha XT1200Z Super Tènèrè "the R1 of adventure tourers" isn't just hyperbole, it shares important technology with the superbike, most evidently in the crossplane crankshaft. In the R1, that innovation eliminates inertial torque and alters the power delivery to make the most of available traction. In the Super Tènèrè, that should help get the 110bhp and 84lb/ft the 1199cc parallel-twin makes to the ground, whether that ground be asphalt, dirt or sand. Helping that along is a three mode traction control system that measures relative speeds of the front and rear wheels, then adjusts power to suit the riders demands. The traction control system is fully defeatable, but the ABS brakes are not.

The Super Tenere's interesting mechanical spec doesn't stop there. There's one radiator, mounted on the left side of the engine and final drive is shaft to reduce maintenance. The parallel-twin engine is mounted as far forward in the chassis as possible and relative to opposed- or v-twin competitors is relatively short, allowing for an exceptionally long swingarm, which should, in turn, help traction. The battery and electrical components are mounted to the right of the engine, mirroring the radiator.

Despite the lack of an ABS "off" switch, Yamaha is serious about the Super Tenere's off-road ability, fitting it with a 19-inch front wheel and a 17-inch rear. Both wheels are spoked, but tubeless. The riding position has been optimized for both seated and standing positions and brush guards are standard. Stand up on the pegs and the vibration-reducing rubber insert will compress, allowing your boots to grip the spiked metal pegs. Side engine protectors and a sump guard are also standard and the rear subframe is reinforced to survive impacts even while the panniers are fitted and fully loaded. At 6.07 gallons, the oversized fuel tank should allow some serious distance between fill ups. A 12-volt power socket mounted in the is also standard, the seat adjusts between 33.3 and 34.3 inches in height and the screen is also adjustable.

Fully-fueled, the Super Tènèrè weighs 261kg/575lbs.

Giant adventure tourer showdown

With the release of the 2010 Yamaha Super Tènèrè and the Ducati Multistrada 1200, there's now five serious adventure tourers competing for your round-the-world budget. We've broken them down by their performance figures to help you decide which one's best.

All these numbers come straight from the manufacturers. We've chosen to use dry instead of wet weights since the relatively large difference in tank sizes would artificially skew the comparisons. While these aren't the weights you'll experience as you try to navigate across a sandy slope, they do lead to the fairest comparison possible. We've italicized what we feel is the winner in each category; in the case of rider aids, this is a bit subjective, feel free to decide which setup works best for you. We've thrown the originator of the current adventure tourer archetype, the 1980 BMW R80G/S into the mix just to give you an idea how far things have come.
 

As you can see, the new Multistrada comes out on top in terms of performance, but its 17" front wheel, street-biased tires and lack of engine or frame protection means its off-road capability is extremely limited. This comparison is very unflattering for Super Tenere; it's the heaviest bike here by 77lbs and, thanks to the strong Yen, it'll likely be the most expensive too. That weight, combined with the 19" front wheel and non-defeatable ABS is also going to limit its ability off-road.

All that means the BMW R1200GS and KTM 990 Adventure are, in our minds at least, still the leaders in this category. Both are genuinely capable off-road, fast on it and comfortable over long distances. If the high prices put you off, the Suzuki V-Strom looks like a bargain. Sure it'd need a couple grand in modifications before it could hit the dirt, but even with the add-ons, it'd still be the cheapest of this group.

Source Hell For Leather