New Yamaha T7 Explore Review
Now look, I think we’ve already established that the Yamaha Tenere 700 is one of the best, if not the best, adventure bikes to ride off road.
But the thing is, what about the other side of adventure riding, which is more the motorway work and the weekends away? Well, that’s exactly what this Explorer Edition, which is new for 2024, sets out to do.
It’s got a few choice modifications that are meant to extend its long distance capabilities. So is it any good? And is it worth the extra money over the standard T7.
Now, there are pretty much five key things that separate this bike from the standard T7. Yamaha Tenere 700
So let’s go through each of them, and I’ll tell I don’t know whether I think they’re any good.
Yamaha Tenere 700 Seat Height
The first one is the seat height. they’ve taken out 20 millimeter of travel from the fork, so that brings it down to 190, I believe, versus the 210 of the standard bike.
And then there’s 20 mil out of the shock as well, so that’s 180 now as opposed to 200.
Naturally, you’re going to sacrifice a little bit of ground clearance and also some off-road ability.
But the positive side of it is the seat height now comes down by 15 millimeter to 860.
875 millimeter is really on the tall side, and for a lot of riders, that’s pretty I’m just going to roll out the T7.
But for someone whose height is 5’8, 5’9 or 175 centimeters, 860 is durable, and it does mean with this very narrow, rally-style, slender off-road-looking seat that you can get both feet down on tiptoes without without having to move across the saddle.
If you want to firmly plant a foot, then you’re still going to have to get your bum over to one side. Yamaha Tenere 700
But like I say, it’s such a narrow seat that it really does make it quite easy.
875 for the standard bike as well, that’s pretty much the lowest they used to offer.
And bikes like the World Rade or the Xtreme, with that extra travel in the suspension, sat still taller than that.
So this is a great option if you’re on the shorter side, or I guess you could fit the low accessory seat or the lowering linkages for the shock on the rear on the standard bike, but both have their drawbacks.
The low seat is going to, of course, bring the seat closer to the pegs and close up that knee angle.
And I guess if you just do the linkage on the shock, you’re going to have to drop the forks through the yokes to get the bike to sit level again. This, however, it’s all done for you straight from Yamaha.
Windscreen
Now, another one is the windscreen. This is the Tall Touring Windscreen, which is part of the Accessories catalog for the standard bike, but it normally costs you an extra 120 quid.
Now, it’s 50% bigger in terms of surface area than the standard screen on the normal T7.Yamaha Tenere 700
And so as you can imagine out on the motorway, it is significantly improved. Combined with the handguards, which are standard fit as well.
It’s a reasonable wind protection package, although I wouldn’t say it’s got a particularly wide body this bike, so you don’t get a great deal of protection on the knees.
And also it is worth flagging up that this screen isn’t and adjustable, which you will see on some competitor bikes.
That means you can get it dialed in for your exact height and also push it down to get it out of the way if you’re riding off road and standing up, or if it’s dirty and you want to look straight in the road ahead.
But still, all things considered, this is much better on the motorway. And like I say, it’s included as standard as opposed to having to pay 120 quid.
Now, down here, we’ve got the same CP2 parallel twin as the standard bike, so it makes about 72 horsepower. Yamaha Tenere 700
It’s a dependable workhorse, very It’s super subtle, talky in the low revs, so it’s good for the off-road side of things as well.
And also it’s got a great note at the exhaust.
QuickShifter
But the thing that’s specifically different about the Explorer Edition is that it does get their quick shifter, which I think is 184 quid as standard.
And so it means you can experience a little bit more sportiness and fun under those aggressive accelerations.
And I should point out it only works on the upshift as opposed to both the upshift and the downshift where it would auto blip.
Now, perhaps that is reflected in the price.
I think 184 quid is a little cheaper than something like the quick shifter from Triumph for their 660 lineup, but that one does work up and down the box.
And so I guess it’s a case of you get what you pay for. Either way, on this particular bike, as I say, it’s standard.
And while I wouldn’t say it’s an absolute necessity for a touring bike or an adventure bike, it is a nice little thing to play with, an extra fun feature which is bundled in as standard in this Explore package. Yamaha Tenere 700
Luggage
Now, something I would consider more or less an essential for a touring bike anyway is luggage.
And while this bike, you don’t get the hard luggage as standard, that’s about £900, you do get the racks, which are about £350, And so that helps with some of the costs of fitting it out with this setup.
There is also the option of some soft Yamaha luggage, which you can get through the dealer.
But I think when I looked on the configurator on their website, that came in at over 700 quid.
Then you had another 30 or so quid for an adapter kit to fit the soft luggage.
And so really for just over £100 more, personally, I’ll be taking the hard luggage, especially if you’re just riding on the road where you’re not going to care so much about the extra weight. Yamaha Tenere 700
Finish
The other one with the Tenere Explorer is the paint job and the graphics. So there isn’t a blue version of this bike.
You can only get the tech camo, which is a very dark khaki green. But what you do get is the specific graphics.
So where is the tech camo version of the standard bike? It gets an orange stripe.
This one gets a bright yellow stripe and also the little Explore logo at the top there.
Now, probably not a massive consideration for a lot of people thinking about buying this bike, but for me, I think it does look quite nice.
This is still a brilliant-looking bike despite not having been visually updated for quite a while now. Yamaha Tenere 700
And personally, I really do like adventure bikes in a khaki green color. And also with the hard luggage, I think it looks the complete package.
Yamaha Tenere 700 Pricing
So with regards to whether it’s worth it versus the standard bike, well, this one starts at £10,806, and that’s 690 more than the standard T7 at £10,116.
Now, I’ve added up what I think it would cost to do all these Mods from the Accessories catalog. So £357 for the seat stays.
You could fit a low seat accessory at £1.90. The high windscreen is £120, as I’ve mentioned.
And then also you’ve got £184 for the quick shifter so that’s £851 in total.
And given that it’s 690 more than the standard bike, that represents a saving of around 161 pounds.Yamaha Tenere 700
Final Word
So purely from a numerical perspective, if you are already thinking of fitting all these Mods to the standard bike, then this is absolutely worth it.
It’s not a huge difference, admittedly, but it all helps, especially when you’re buying a new bike.So that’s the is it worth it question ticked off.
But the other one I asked was whether it turns it into a bit of an adventure tourer. And what I will say is this is still very much an off-road focus spec.
You’ve got that big 21-inch wheel at the front, spoked, it runs inner tubes, you’ve got semi-nobly tires.
It’s still pretty tall as well, despite having that slightly lower suspension. And so for me, handle, in the majority, like an off-road bias bike.
Then you’ve got the comfort levels, which are decent. It’s spacious enough but like I said, you don’t have an adjustable screen. Yamaha Tenere 700
The grips are quite thin and have that dirt bike feel to them and also the seat is very narrow.
It almost looks like a rally style or dirt bike seat. And so you have to shuffle back a bit to get a reasonable amount of Cushioning.
It’s certainly not as wide and tract-alike as something like a big adventure bike or even some of the middle weights like V-Strom 800, KTM 790.
I think they all have slightly more cushy seats.