Test rode the bike at the Long Beach motorcycle show. Yamaha included a couple of Super Teneres in their sport bike test ride group, so I was riding with R1s, R6s, FJR1300s and even a VMax... and the ST ran with them like it was a sportbike! Ultra smooth engine with plenty of bottom end, great riding position, solid and stable feel at speed. And acceleration? Wow.
I rode the ST10 back in 2010. Having had the original ST750, I really wanted to like this bike. But honestly, it was a disappointment. Lacklustre engine, terrible seat and felt no better than the '05 12GS I had at the time. It handled nice, the shaft was better than the GS's and had good brakes, but overall, pretty ordinary. What it does have over the GS tho' is undoubted reliability.
I thought ST stood for Sport Touring. Acronyms Suck! Lead to much confusion and wrong assumptions. I deal with acronyms every day at work. When you ask what an acronym means you sometimes get different answers from different people.
Well, like "V", a lot of bikes have the "ST" as shorthand for the name. It works best in dedicated forums. I think of the big Honda V4's. My buddy thinks we're talking about his Sprint. I like S10 but a lotta folks might think we were talking about old pickups. No, this S10 is actually bigger, and more expensive!
If it's FUBAR..DILIGAF?
My concern is that the kids who hopefully take care of me can complete a thought more efficiently than they can communicate it.
I sat on one once at the dealership. It gave me the impression of having a lower center of gravity than the Versys. Wet weight is listed as 574lbs vs 450lb for the Versys, a difference of 120lbs.
There's a used Super Ten at a dealer near me. 500 miles, adjustable screen, crash bars, headlight protector screen, skid plate, LED turn signals. $11,500. Seems like a good price. I'm tempted.
A deal like that in CO and I would have picked it up in a heartbeat. Large displacement adv tourers in CO sell close to msrp. I got what I believe was a really good deal in a tiger explorer and it was a few thousands over that.
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I have to chuckle at the weight comments. The three bikes I tested before I got on the Super Ten were the Star Stratoliner Custom, the Victory Cross Country Ness, and the Harley Fat Bob! So the Yamaha was feeling pretty sprightly by the time it's turn rolled around!
For my typical mission... canyon dancing on the weekends, grocery-getting on the weekdays... the Super Tenere is fabulous. It's like a Versys big enough for me and a passenger and gear ('cause I'm pretty big myself)...!
And $11.5k for a used one with only 500 miles seems like a pretty good deal...
It is on the heavy side for a big Adv Bike. a GSA1200 weighs about 560lbs wet. The Tenere spec says 578. That's pretty hefty for a bike that's designed for some off-road use.
If you think the s10 is fast. Ride a triumph tiger explorer. Last summer I rode an s10 a 1200 GS and a tiger explorer back to back to back. Now Im a proud owner of a 2013 tiger explorer. Except for the ducati ms, everything else its just slow in comparison. Havent had a chance to ride ir hard yet. Still getting acquainted with it and mountain roads are still in wintees deep freeze. However, rode on a couple of nice and easy front range rides, triple digits in the tex comes so easy I scared myself more than once.
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I ran into a dude on an ST at Moab UT. He said not best for off road but wanted shaft drive for longer trips! Makes sence! He said his other choice was the V.
The magazines all rate the Super Tenere the best off road bike of the big adventure bikes. I sat on the Yamaha and the Tiger Explorer at the same dealership. The Yamaha fit me better, but the Explorer has cruise control and can handle side and top bags at the same time.
I would have to sell a couple bikes to buy and equip either of the big adventure bikes though.
Mebbe once there are some gently used models FS out there.
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