MCN 2013 Adv Bike group test vid

[macca]

http://www.motorcyclenews.com/MCN/News/newsresults/videos/2013/April/apr0513-video-adventure-bikes-group-test/
Sample of the recent MCN Adv bike group test. They list the S10 as 4th out of 4 though I suspect this is because its 3yrs old without update :/ . Wierdly they also state its lacking in electro gizmos though its only missing Electro sussies as it has had 3 stage TC and 2 engine maps for the 3 years and its only now that Bimmer and KTM have caught up.. PS I think the electro sussies are just a selling point ie if bm has it then everyone else has to follow suite IMHO not a necessary option as I can count the number of times I've twiddled my S10 sussies on two fingers in just over 2 years , and my Ducatis were only touched the 1st time I bought them to baseline it then left alone. Maybe I'm becoming a luddite in my old age but none of these new'uns are giving me a reason to swap out my 1st Ed S10.

 

[terrysig]

Maybe I'm becoming a luddite in my old age but none of these new'uns are giving me a reason to swap out my 1st Ed S10.

Well said ::026::

 

[fredz43]

Perhaps they rated the S10 4th because they put a hole in the sump on day 1 and it was out of the test after that.. Strangely enough, even though they were planning on doing a lot of off road on this test they didn't fit a bash plate. In the post ride interviews one of the testers mentions that he has a S10 and believed that it would have done well and mentions that on his personal one, has a bash plate. They added he optional luggage, but didn't even fit the optional Yamaha bash plate. We all know that the optional Yamaha bash plate is vulnerable, but it should have done better than the OEM plastic one.

 

[terryth]

If I was in the market, I'd probably go for the KTM. BMW reliability still scares me off. That said I like my ST just fine, even though its a porker, it handles it's weight pretty well. The ~75-100 lbs lost by going to the KTM or BMW would truly make a huge difference in the rough stuff, not that I truly desire to take the ST in truly gnarly terrain, that's what real dirt bikes are for .

 

[X5]

Reasonable review but also keep in mind their "value" comment regarding the S10 and its ridiculous price in the UK....

 

[fredz43]

Here is the part 2 that shows day 1 off road when they put a hole in the sump, thereby eliminating the Super Tenere from the test:

Extreme adventure test: Part one

 

[macca]

Here is the part 2 that shows day 1 off road when they put a hole in the sump, thereby eliminating the Super Tenere from the test:

Extreme adventure test: Part one

Think that offroad vid is from last years test as they have ktm990 there, it would appear this years offroad vid is not yet published and as its the new GS1200WasserBoiler, KTM1190Adv the new(er) Trumpet1200adv and a Blue 1200 S10 with this years (naffer imo) graphics that there testing.

 

[fredz43]

Think that offroad vid is from last years test as they have ktm990 there, it would appear this years offroad vid is not yet published and as its the new GS1200WasserBoiler, KTM1190Adv the new(er) Trumpet1200adv and a Blue 1200 S10 with this years (naffer imo) graphics that there testing.

Ah, ok, thanks for that.

 

[spasm]

the only reason the
others won is because the yamaha standard has no soul. it lacks excitment. and thats why when i got mine i tuned the shit out of it. its as exciting as all the others now lol. i wonder if yamaha will read all these tuning threads and do something about it. the motor is a brute when tuned. ?????

 

[autoteach]

I watched and was disappointed in the "statistics" that they used for their selection of best-worst. They used the location of manufacture in their decision for the triumph, the "ownership experience, posh dealerships, and forums" for the BMW...frankly I think they are disconnected from the ownership experience altogether. Dont care what they have to say

 

[kenbike]

I agree my bike hits very hard and will pull the front wheel no problem in 2nd with tc2 turned on. I feel it really rips for its size and is more powerful than my KTM 990 adventure.
I guess Yamaha has to keep it detuned for the masses and us who desire a fun bike need to spend about $1300 for the header, muffler and PCV with a tune. I don't think I would be happy with the bike stock.

 

[snakebitten]

I am getting real used to my review being at odds with others.

And not just motorcycles. I'm more and more a minority as the years go by.

Never been happier.

 

[Rasher]

I am getting real used to my review being at odds with others.

And not just motorcycles. I'm more and more a minority as the years go by.

Never been happier.

A sign of wisdom no doubt, these reporters have many challenges that they fail to deal with, firstly just spanking someone elses bike around for a day or so removes them from much of the real world ownership experience.

They also get fully kitted bikes, so the BMW would have been supplied with a Billion dollars of "optional" accessories and then compared to the Yamaha using the base price, and although the Yamaha pricing is a bit steep in the UK, it still weighs in a lot less than a fully spec'd GS.

Even if they do modify their long term bikes it tends to be throwing a load of performance goodies onto a bike and whacking it on the track / dyno, having spent about £3k on my Tenere nothing has been done to make it more powerful (peak power) or lap a track faster, although the CJM and suspension mods may have this effect it is not why they have been done.

The comments on lack of electronics were plain stupid, it has as much or more than the others as standard, again the press being blind to the manufacturers ploys of fully kitting a demo bike, and not forgetting BMW have also a history of "tweaking" press bikes with the old model GS the press bikes fuelled far better and threw out an extra 10BHP over customer ones - this would be like Yamaha providing a fully kitted world crosser with Diapson flash and claiming it to be a stock bike.

Of course we also have the advertisers to consider, I bet MCN is going to have some huge advertising revenue come its way for the new GS and the testers were probably under no illusion as to their job prospects if the BMW did not get a glowing report.

The showroom comments were obviously the testers attempts to appear like a "genuine punter", however having experienced the BMW ownership "experience" I can see no bnefit of spending a huge amount of time in a nice showroom with free bean cofee whilst waiting for my BMW to be fixed again, over a rare visit to my Yamaha dealer for routine maintenance, even if the coffee comes from a machine, the time and money I save from a bike that does not break down is more than enough to pop down to Costa and buy myself a cuppa.

I am sure both the Yamaha and KTM are fantastic to ride, and I really do fancy the KTM as an alternative to the Ducati MTS when my Lotto numbers come up.

Having said all of that I think if Yamaha dropped the Tenere price about £1500 in the UK they would sell loads more, the Kawasaki Versys which I really do not think is in the same league does very well because it is cheap and I am sure a number of potential buyers would pay a bit more for the Yamaha's better quality suspension, electronics package and shaft drive is it was not 30% more expensive.

 

[offcamber]

I think they missed one of the most important aspects of the bike....reliability....

 

[zini]

Not only did they fail to mention reliability, what about servicing costs?

 

[autoteach]

you guys forget, brand new bikes don't need to be serviced.

 

[macca]

MCN have now posted the 2013 offroad video snippet. :-X http://www.motorcyclenews.com/MCN/News/newsresults/videos/2013/April/apr0513-video-adventure-bikes-off-road/

 

[Rasher]

Seemed like a load of bollox to me, is Pavey not heavily connected to BMW :question: Like asking Richard Branson to review Airlines.

He made little sense to me, the Yamaha was described as average, yet was better than the Triumph, and I dunno how he can claim the Elexctronics are only average, when many "average" Jorno's have reported how well they work and some admitted to being off-raod novices yet able to hold a nice tail slide by relying on the Yamaha's "Average" electronics.

Both the BMW and KTM have been made over to be better road bikes, I can see maybe with the heritage the KTM may be pretty handy as the previous incarnation was a very good of-roader, so even with more road bias maybe it is pretty handy off-road, as for the BMW I just don't get it, it has bigger road orientated tyres and the whole bike has been psuhed more towards the road.

Another press hack job, probably more to do with who is spending the most on advertising than anything else.

 

[MikeBear]

This is just ridiculous . They didn't show S10 loosing control off road once and KTM and BMW look like cows on iceskates. Still, BMW comes on top. How in the hell is this possible ?
Triumph is not even off road worthy and gets third spot ahead of S10. ::010::
And the worst is MCN expects people to listen to their review.... I'm loosing faith in humanity... ::002::

 

[AlsoRan]

Of course we also have the advertisers to consider, I bet MCN is going to have some huge advertising revenue come its way for the new GS and the testers were probably under no illusion as to their job prospects if the BMW did not get a glowing report.

Well said ::026::

I have seen this as a pattern in several reads that have "tested" the Super Tenere, along with some accessory companies and off-road "training" outfits that show similar bias. Sometimes when there is a genuine competitive threat the incumbent will discredit the competition rather than let their product speak for itself. It sure seems like BMW is trying to minimize the Super Tenere for fear that if the word gets out their market share could suffer more. Funny though, I always thought that they were more respectable than that having been the big incumbent in the adventure bike market for so long. Guess not.