Having now spent a couple of days on the Tenere, I'm starting to get used to it. On A roads and motorways it's still sluggish and quite hard work, I got around the top speed issue by winding it out right through the gears, changing up at 6K RPM or so. It's still not overly happy about going fast but it can at least keep up with traffic. I assume 5th gear is pretty much overdrive anyway.
Off road, the Tenere really comes into it's own. I spent a morning on one of the local motocross tracks, I was the only one there for most of the time. Having never ridden off road before I started out on the kiddie track; a short circuit designed for small wheel 80cc bikes. Actually quite challenging on the chest high Tenere in anything other then first gear. I then moved over to the adult circuit, a much longer track with a lot of jumps, banked corners, ruts and mud. The bike was completely in it's element and is far more capable than I am. About 20 minutes at a time was all I could manage on either track, I never knew off road riding was so exhausting.
The afternoon was spent riding little back roads around North Yorkshire, again the Tenere is in it's element. I took many shortcuts on unsealed tracks and a quick cheeky blat round the edge of a field and again, the bike isn't just good, it's excellent.
Looks like I'm going to be staying as far away as possible from the highways in South America but then I knew that anyway.
Things to do:
- Re fit the rack and boxes. Make the hard/soft luggage decision.
- Voltage regulator.
- Wire up the accessory socket.
- Fit the sat nav.
- Arrange to ship the bike.
Hopefully on the road in a couple of weeks.
