YAMAHA XT1200Z SUPER TENERE (20102021) £4500-£11,500
The Ténéré is a big name in the adventure bike world. From its Dakar race-winning pedigree from back in the day, through to its massively successful T7 which has kickstarted the middleweight adventure bike market in recent years, there’s no doubt you can put your faith in Yamaha to build a well-put-together machine that’s up for handling the rough stuff.
But there’s one Ténéré that never really got the love it deserved. The XT1200Z. Okay, it was a bit heavy and a bit too expensive. The last model was priced at £13,500 new (which, rather unbelievably, was more than the R1200GS and KTM 990 Adventure at the time), but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t a cracking bike. Super-stable and capable of big, fast, smooth miles in perfect comfort with a pillion on the back, and surprisingly agile, too (even on the dirt in the hands of the right rider).
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It’d have done a lot better and won a lot more praise if it’d have just been a bit cheaper at the time. Thankfully, you won’t have to break the bank anymore to bag one, with early models sitting around the five grand mark.
At 120mph it’s rock steady and can cut an easy swathe through fast A-roads and nadgery stuff. It’s easy to get carried away… What is an absolute pain in the neck and upwards is the savage wind buffeting from the top of what is a very low-placed screen.
