XT660Z Tenere

[racehunter]

Evet İCEBOYTR kardeşim nuri abinin tenere
Ünal abim doğru söylemiş plakadan anlamam çünkü benim makinanın plakası yok

[Sponsor Linkler]

[mert3406]

Merhaba dostlar 93 660 tenere buldum temiz gibi 2500 lira istiyor sahibi. İstanbul trafiğinde kullanacağım arada Ankaraya gideceğim ve bazende hafif dağlık alanlarda gezinti yapacağım. Tavsiyelerinizi acilen bekliyorum. Teşekkür ederim

[hoca]

kardeşim 660 yolda kalmaz .

[iceboyTR]

Ünal abim söylemiş söyleceğini zaten, o fiyata temizini bulmuşsan hiç kaçırma.
_________________
Her yolun motorcusu.
Tenere binicisi.

[lacivert]

Merhaba Tenereci arkadaşlar,

Yabancı sişteleri gezerken Tenere hakkında çok kapsamlı bir izlenim raporu buldum.
Sizlerin de ilgisi çekebilir.
Chris Scott adlı motorcu 2008-2009 da yazmış.5000 mil kullandıktan sonraki izlenimleri :
(İnglizce olması için özür, ama sanırım anlaşılır bir ingilizce)

YAMAHA XTZ660 TENERE ~ 5000 mile report

These are my impressions of the XTZ 660 Tenere after riding from London to Morocco and halfway back in November 2008.

I'd only owned the bike a couple of weeks before I set off and happened to sell it a couple of weeks after I got back.


For my detailed review of the Touratech Zega Flex panniers I used, click this.

For my detailed review of the Airoh TR1 helmet I wore, click this.

To read about my experiment with tubeless tyres, click this.

To check what's happening in Eastenders, click this.


Comfort

Seat
All things considered I found the seat OK for days of up to 300 miles or more when you simply sit on the thing for hours. On the dirt it’s not so relevant as you stop and move around more. I agree with some that the scoop/two level is a bad thing and a fully flat seat would be better, but it seems the back of the seat has to be raised to get over the cat which is over the back tyre. Because of this scoop you can’t slide back and move around to reduce the aches or crouch down easily behind the screen. I also found that pushed forward like this, my ankles point down too much to use the foot controls. If I could slide back, my feet would be more horizontal and line up with the foot brake, already adjusted as low as it can go. But you get used to it.

The foam I think is OK buy may have softened by now. I like the neat and quick way the seat comes off. I’ve never had a pillion on it long enough to get an opinion on the back’s comfort. Usually on these sorts of bikes it’s not so good.

Screen
IMO some sort of screen is essential for long range travels and it’s great that the new XTZ came with a good one fitted. Unfortunately for me at 6’ 1”/185cm, it’s still too low and buffets my head worse than if it wasn’t there. A q/d Touratech extension fixed that well enough. On the dirt I found it got in the way for good visibility, especially if a bit dirty, but I could quickly clip it on the side of the screen.

Height
Even at my height (or maybe my age!) I find the bike too high. Too high to get on and off easily, and too tall on the dirt. Of course this can be fixed by lowering the suspension of which there is more than enough. I do also wonder if the suspension is too firm from stock. I didn’t meddle enough with that, other than cranking up the back 2 or 4 clicks to take my luggage.

Vibration and noise
I can’t say it was any more vibey than any other big single I’ve had, and taking the bar end weights off at 500 miles to fit the Barkbusters didn't make it any worse. As with all singles, I find some days at some speeds/temperature/load/fuel/whatever it vibrates a bit – and at other times at the same conditions it’s smooth. Is that called ‘character’? For a modern, water-cooled bike the engine does seem quite noisy. Maybe it’s just a big thumping single.



Economy

I’ve never had such a variable results from a bike but overall it’s very good and getting better all the time – and about time too. For overlanding mpg is more important than mph. On previous Teneres I’ve once got up to 80+ mpg in ideal conditions (backwind @ 50mph) but generally under 60mpg was normal as I recall. My new XTZ has been averaging just under 72mpg or 25kpl for the last 10 fill ups.

The worst figure was an as-expected riding all day into a gale force dust storm headwind at around 50mph, result: 52mpg or 18.3kpl. The best was interestingly, a necessarily slow ride over the Atlas mountains one bend-swinging night which resulted in 86mpg or 30kpl: nice. For my full records, released under the Freedom of Fuel Consumption Information Act, click this.

Low quality fuel
Once of twice I had to resort to leaded, low-octane fuel in Morocco (‘essence’) but didn’t notice any difference in performance. I imagine this is a benefit of having a low compression ratio. I’ve also read that after a spell of leaded fuel, the Tenere’s catalytic converter ‘self-cleans’ when running on unleaded againso technically no need to change the pipe to spare the cat, though you’d think several months on leaded would take some cleaning to return the cat to full low-emission efficiency. I never noticed any pinking or over-heating.

Oil and water consumption; drive chain
In 5000 miles no oil was used, apart from a few drips out of the engine crack when it fell over at 2mph. What was interesting was that the semi-synthetic Petronas they put in at the first service still has some good colour in it after 4500 miles; ie: it wasn’t black. Along with the 6000-mile service intervals, this would convert me to semi-synthetic, despite the price. I wonder if efi helps in this regard: clean emissions = clean oil for longer. Water consumption was zero and once or twice the fan came on, but only in conditions you’d expect it too.

I tried to keep on top of the chain with oiling but it still needed adjusting 3 or 4 times so it does not seem to be as good as the best DIDs I've used in the past. There are still several 1000 miles left in it.



Performance


It doesn’t feel that much more powerful than previous big singles I’ve had, but on the trip I never felt I needed more. Very rarely do I rev it over 4000 rpm. IMO a low-tuned, 600 single is just the right size for a loaded all roads travel bike and I’m happy to give up KTM levels of power for a long-lasting and fuel-efficient engine.

Inevitably I’m sure I’d have got round to tuning it a bit (while also trying to save weight), but only if the great mpg was not compromised

Brakes
The front brakes feel pretty ordinary to me and surely one good disc up here would be adequate and save a lot of sprung weight. Were Brembo doing a 2-for-1 deal? For a trail bike, the front wheel weighs a ton but it wouldn’t be hard to remove one disc and carrier, put a block in that side’s caliper and see how it stops on one brake. Most probably the other caliper is designed to work as one of two small units and may get over-worked so it'd be best replaced with a larger, 4 piston unit. Is it worth it? Not really.

Lights
I have to say the flashy-looking twin bulb front end is not that brilliant in terms of spread, compared to less impressive-looking set ups on what I’ve run before.

Suspension
From first impressions it felt firm front and back which makes a nice change from older Teneres and would give good road manners. When I loaded up with 25kg of baggage I turned the the back up 2 full- or 4 half-clicks. Hard to tell exactly, but neither end ever got near bottoming out on the piste. I wish I’d experimented more with backing off both ends on the dirt.

The front I left as it was but one evening after a very rough rocky climb that punctured the front tyre and all the rest, to add to my woes the front forks collapsed. I could squash them right down. There were no leaks. I’ve never had this before on a bike and though an air or oil damping valve may have burst or a spring broken from the hammering - or possibly the fork oil had become aerated. But I wasn’t exactly ripping across corrugations at MX speeds in 35°C.


Next day I turned the fork up 5 turns (5 x 360°) to compensate but soon regretted it. The bike got even slower to turn on the dirt and on the road. In fact the forks self recovered and I wonder if I was making it all up as the shit had hit the fan at that stage and some of it may have lodged in my brain. Anyway, fork was back to normal next day.

Road riding
Generally on the road I sit at an indicated 60mph or so – not so fast. At this speed riding is less tiring and unsafe and economy is good. With the screen extension this could be sustained all day with only the usual discomfort.


Many road testers used to brilliant GSXR's and the like don’t get on with the handling of 21”-wheeled trail bikes and in response many manufacturers chose 19” fronts for their bigger adventure bikes. They have a point: a 21”shod bike never feels stable in the bends and adding a semi-knobbly tyre doesn’t help matters. FWIW, I felt the bike handled pretty well on the TKCs I ran. On the highway they didn’t feel any worse than the original Tourance’s used for running in, though I don’t exactly throw the XT around like a super moto.


Loaded up, I found the bike was sometimes hard to turn on tight bends and hairpins, both on or off road, as if the front was raked out too much or the weight was too high. Short of getting your weight over the front end, MX-style, the usual way to tune this out is to soften the front- or jack up the back end. I don’t recall having this impression on previous bikes like this; they’re usually too softly sprung so it may have a higher than average CoG (centre of gravity) and the cat stuck way high out the back may not help, along with my high luggage set up, and the firm suspension. If I’d kept the bike I’d have experimented with softening the springs and even lowering the bike (and possibly getting rid of the heavy cat for a lighter pipe).


To be fair, some of the roads and tracks in Morocco are very narrow and very tight, with thought-provoking drops. Even some tarmac mountain back roads have strips of gravel down the middle from uncleared landslides where any bike would struggle to progress smoothly.

Cross winds
One early owner’s impression I read said how great the bike was in high winds. Head winds maybe, but coming back over the edge of the Pyrenees from Barcelona towards Perpignan there were very violent gusts coming from the west and I don’t recall ever feeling so unsafe on a bike and being on the verge of crashing. All the other road users were giving me a wide berth as I tried to predict the gusts and control the wildly bucking bike from running over the hard shoulder and off the edge.


It may have been the same for all bikes that day, but keeping down to 50mph, a 600cc UJM passed me without too much drama. Again I feel my high baggage set up would not have helped, but do wonder if the a high CoG is partly to blame. We are talking exceptionally high winds here but I must have ridden in those sorts of conditions before and not noticed.

Off road riding
Off roading in Morocco is mostly on rocky or gravel tracks and of course the TKCs made this much more predictable and so easier and safer. The good thing with semi-knobbly road tyres like these is that you can keep the pressure high to avoid rock punctures while still benefiting from the aggressive tread pattern on loose surfaces. The idea of riding the trails on the OE Tourances does not bear thinking about.


I’ve never had a Jap trail bike with too firm suspension and I think I was a bit slow to recognise this. Although I take it fairly easy riding alone on the piste, the bike did not really respond to off roading well enough to give the confidence to gas it up towards the limits –and with all that weight they can’t be that far off. Maybe just as well.


Not surprisingly I found the handlebars were too low when standing up off road, causing me to crouch unsustainably. Most bikes are like this at my height and handlebar raisers would have easily fixed it.

I also found the gearing too high for slow off-roading - again, as expected. I'm not sure what the standard gearing is, but the bike does 8mph at the 1500rpm tick over speed which was too fast for some steep hairpins or loose descents. With a heavy load the clutch would have got hot from slipping on the hairpins but the only time this happened - a bit of slack at the lever - was when the front mudguard jammed with mud for a couple of kms near Jebel Sirwa.



Loading


Along with the economy and low-stressed engine, the seriously strong subframe is one of the best things about the new XTZ. It has to be twice as thick and much stiffer than the steel straws which held up the back of my XR650L or indeed previous Teneres I’ve owned. This is one part of the bike I don’t mind being over weight.


Adding the simple, functional and tough Off The Road rack only made this better and is all the metalwork you need to pile it up with the heaviest alu boxes.



Equipment


Dashboard
I like the near eye-level dashboard and digi speedo, even if it is a bit basic. I would have liked an oil or water temp gauge. I didn’t discover till I got back that the Yam handbook and not the bike is at fault about changing from mph to kph. Click this for how to make this very useful feature work (as well as all the 660 chat that's fit to print). I wired up my own 12 volt PTO plug directly from the battery onto the handlebars for the GPS, etc.

Fuel gauge accuracy
Everyone complains how way out (pessimistic) it is but at least it’s consistent! IMO once you get used to this you’ll know that if it re-zeros itself at around say 230 miles, you’re doing a good 70mpg and have at least 100 miles left in the tank. The tank is plastic by the way and so notably warm on the leg.

Speedo accuracy
Checked against a GPS over 100 miles I found the odometre (distance recorder) to be accurate to within 1%. This means that the mpg readings are also virtually true.
The same cannot be said for the speedo which, at an indicated:
70mph = 64mph true = 8.5% over.
According to the speedo then, the bikes feels faster than it is.



Durability


If you think about it, it’s asking a lot to take a nearly new untried bike just 500 miles old out for a 4500-mile off road hammering with no prep to speak of and expect nothing to break. Nothing did and to this end I feel the Yam is well screwed together. The only things that came loose and fell out were a couple of screws holding on the Yam screen, but this was almost certainly due to the extra leverage put on them by the TTech screen extension.

Obviously I could have done with engine bars or a proper bash plate, as would any bike of this kind (they are available for the XTZ now but weren't then in a hurry). The tank/radiator protectors are a nice touch and of course the barkbusters are a no-brainer to the mods list.

So, I still like everything I liked at 500 miles, only more so. Not so keen that it's higher than it needs to be – but it can be easily lowered. Plus it feels heavy for what it is – a CoG not helped with my high luggage set up, but that usually comes with the territory.

Bikes like this will always be a compromise but for the Morocco job, when you think of the cost of the machine and the minimal 'front garden' levels of preparation required, the XTZ offers an ideal balance of continent-crossing comfort with adequate fully loaded off-road ability. Just like it always did in fact, only more so.


early impressions & mods .... •. .. . tubeless.. ..•. . ..5000 mile report

© Chris Scott, 1998-2009. My other website is Sahara Overland
Important Notice: These websites operate on Fijian Standard Time (FST)
_________________
Transalp Oleyyyy!
Ufuk Özışık Siyah Transalp 2008 (XL 650)
"Bana mutluluğun resmini çizebilir misin Abidin?"
Çizebilirdim ben, Abidin olsam:
"Siyah TRANSALP'imde kıvrılarak giden uzun ince bir yolda resmederek beni . &