At Eicma 2021 – the Milan motorcycle show, Yamaha showed a new and exciting version of its popular medium-size adventure bike – the Yamaha Tenere 700 Raid Prototype.
It is an offroad-focused machine, and it uses the great base of the Tenere 700 and making it even better for off-road riders.
The Tenere 700 has become so popular around the world, even more since Yamaha presenter, professional enduro rider Pol Tarrés started doing things on it which you’ve never thought can be done on an adventure machine – including taking it to the notorious Red Bull Romaniacs race.
With Tarrés on board, Yamaha wanted to take the opportunity and make a version of the Tenere that will address all issues that the regular version has – so the first thing that they did was upgrade the suspension. The Yamaha Tenere 700 is almost perfect – the only thing that stops it from getting an A in every aspect was the suspension.
The Raid Prototype comes with KYB suspension both in the front and rear – with more options to adjust and more travel – 60 mm more which brings the front travel to 270 mm and the rear to 260 mm of travel.
New suspension for the Tenere 700 is good news, but it’s also bad news – one thing that made the Tenere so popular was its attractive price tag – but with this KYB set there’s no way we will see it remain in the 10,000 $ range.
More upgrades came on the engine section – with a new airbox and filter, a bigger radiator with twin fans for improved cooling, and added an oil cooler. More mechanical upgrades include a Rekluse heavy-duty clutch and a new cover for the air pump.
And if you make such a good-looking machine, you have to make sure it sounds right – Yamaha also addressed that and equipped the Raid Prototype with a GYTR ECU and a full titanium Akrapovic pipe.
Better off-road machine
Yamaha made a lot of small changes to make the Tenere Raid Prototype a better off-road machine –
Upfront, there is only one disc brake instead of two like the original machine – but it’s also bigger and the rim is thinner to be more so you have more options to fit pure off-road tires. The gearing has been lowered with a 48 T rear sprocket.
Additional changes include two fuel tanks front and rear – for more range and stability, a rally screen, carbon fiber skid plate, rally seat, Scott’s steering damper, and a navigation set made by RNS.
So when will you be able to buy this Raid Prototype? And how much more expensive than the regular version of the Tenere 700 it will be? We still don’t know – keep in mind this is a PROTOTYPE and Yamaha didn’t give any details about if and when they are going to actually produce this machine and sell it to the public – but we have a feeling (wish?) this will actually happen.
2022 Yamaha Tenere 700
For 2022, the Yamaha Tenere 700 gets new graphics and 3 new color schemes: Icon Blue, Midnight Black, and the most exciting – heritage White hark back to the period when Yamaha dominated the Dakar with riders like Stéphane Peterhansel.
