Yamaha FZ-07 Ténéré Adventure Bike

Every now and then our prayers are answered, and this is one of those moments. These spy photos show Yamaha testing a mid-sized Ténéré adventure bike (to supplement the venerable Super Ténéré) being ridden in Europe. In many ways this is exactly what we were expecting. A tall FZ-07, equipped with off-road-ready suspension, a 21-inch front wheel, and Dakar-inspired bodywork. This Yamaha adventure bike looks pretty slapped together here, but the concept is mouth watering.

The number of ways this test mule differs from a standard FZ-07 are too many to count, but we can hope that the FZ-07's punchy engine remains largely unchanged. Yamaha will likely (have to) retune the 689cc parallel twin to meet the new Euro 4 standards and for the new exhaust system. Speaking of which, this test bike's exhaust runs under the bike and then up to a new muffler, but we think it's a safe bet that Yamaha will route the production pipe around the side of the engine, a la Honda's Honda's Africa Twin.

The tall, desert-racing bodywork will give this bike an off-road look, and is surely aimed to attract middleweight enduro/ADV riders away from more conventionally styled bikes like Kawasaki's KLR. It's hard to say what the production bodywork will look like exactly, but the direction Yamaha wants to take is clear.

We're surprised to see the front brake system use dual rotors, even if they are small (part of that is probably the big front wheel), but it bodes well for stopping power. We assume Yamaha will apply ABS to this Ténéré, as well as some kind of basic traction control. A large rear sprocket suggests that testers are experimenting with different gearing, not to mention a different (and more off-road oriented) swingarm.

This is good news for a lot of reasons, not least of which is that we expect this middle Ténéré to be priced much more aggressively than any other ADV. With the FZ-07 ringing in just under $7,000 we expect an adventure version of that bike to be around $10,000, in order to undercut (or compete with) the price of Triumph’s Tiger 800 and BMW’s smaller GS models.

That being said, as easy as it is to gush over how amazing we want this bike to be, it remains to be seen if Yamaha can hit this nail as squarely on the head as it did with the naked FZ-07. Consider our fingers crossed that the suspension is ready for adventure, the dash is cutting edge, and the ergonomics are good.