dragonaut
Member
I purchased a Super Tenere (2012, non-ES) in April after dreaming of one for years. I have to say, overall I've been pretty disappointed in this bike vs. what I had expected it to be - most of all I had thought it would be a comfortable and capable highway bike and a real "mile muncher" as so many people say it is. Instead, I find it to have a very rough/coarse engine character, not easy to find a "sweet spot" for cruising speed/RPM, and my throttle hand gets vibrated and numb pretty quickly. The seat is uncomfortable after an hour or so, and the leg position I find oddly cramped for such a big machine. Worst of all, the wind blast, noise, and turbulence is very, very fatiguing. It's tolerable on 55 mph roads but after more than 20 or 30 minutes on the interstate I get really tired of the wind and when I get off the bike for a much needed break I feel like I lost a fight. The bike even came with a National Cycle tall windscreen and the side wind deflectors so I had really expected this bike to do pretty well with wind protection. I have fiddled with the height adjustment on the windscreen with little success.
It's disappointing since I had thought the S10 would be a bike I could really travel and cover some distance on - the lack of comfort combined with the dismal fuel efficiency and extra-jerky throttle makes me wonder how it's really an improvement over my previous bike (Honda NC700X - not what I would have considered the best highway bike but I rode the heck out of mine, and it certainly wasn't any worse on wind protection). My question for those of you who do find the Tenere a comfortable tourer, what am I missing and what can I adjust, change, do differently with mine before I give up on it and trade it for something else?
It's disappointing since I had thought the S10 would be a bike I could really travel and cover some distance on - the lack of comfort combined with the dismal fuel efficiency and extra-jerky throttle makes me wonder how it's really an improvement over my previous bike (Honda NC700X - not what I would have considered the best highway bike but I rode the heck out of mine, and it certainly wasn't any worse on wind protection). My question for those of you who do find the Tenere a comfortable tourer, what am I missing and what can I adjust, change, do differently with mine before I give up on it and trade it for something else?