The Yamaha Ténéré 700 Raid prototype was one of the (rare) favorite appearances of the EICMA 2021 in Milan, and the high-end mid-weight adventure bike raised more questions than answers. Has Yamaha installed a new higher-priced ADV machine for its future range? Has he tried to revive the company for his GYTR spare parts catalog? Maybe a combination of the two? It’s hard to say.
It is therefore curious to see today that the Yamaha Ténéré 700 Raid machine is discovered by our colleagues at Cycle World in European patent documents. And again, this raises more questions than it answers. For those who have not followed Yamaha’s developments with the Ténéré 700, the new “Raid” prototype takes over the budget-oriented ADV bike and adapts to many of the updates that you would expect from a specially built adventure bike.
The Raid prototype included an Akrapovic exhaust, a more powerful and fully adjustable long-stroke suspension, an updated ECU, a heavier clutch and improved cooling functions – to name just a few.
It remains to be seen how much of this Kit, teased on the EICMA, could do on a production motorcycle, but it is obvious that Yamaha needs a second spindle in its mid-weight ADV range to better compete with motorcycles like the Aprilia Tuareg 660 and KTM 890 Adventure R.
It appears from the design patents that Yamaha has certainly retained some characteristics of the prototype, but may have left much of the meat of the bone, which leads us to wonder how the Japanese brand wants to position this bike. We can see a double fuel tank design that indicates a greater fuel capacity (and therefore a greater range), with some subtle modifications to the body to improve wind protection, durability and comfort.
However, the suspension seems unchanged, and some of the most obvious off-road parts are not-found. Perhaps these GYTR options will be available on the aftermarket. The dashboard seems to be more of a new TFT piece than the Casio LCD unit of the current incarnation. But is there enough added value for the Yamaha Ténéré 700 Raid? That remains to be seen, and the answer will probably depend on the price.
For a modest price increase, the Ténéré 700 Raid could be the best platform to develop its ideal Dual Sport machine. But as a direct competitor to more sophisticated models in this area, Yamaha may have missed the mark.