2021 Yamaha Tenere 700 available with lowering kit

It is not likely Malaysian riders will get to see the 2021 Yamaha Tenere 700 locally outside of grey imports, though this dual-purpose middleweight is available in both Thailand and the Philippines in the ASEAN market. What is interesting is the Tenere 700 is offered in the Philippines with a factory lowering kit.

Comprising of two components, the Tenere 700 kit comes with a lowering kit and a lower seat, reports topbikes.ph. The standard seat height on the Tenere 700 is a lofty 870 mm – the rather more hardcore Yamaha Tenere 700 Rally places the seat 890 mm off the ground – which presents something of a challenge for some Asian riders.

Adding the lowering kit and low seat drops the seat height by 35 mm to a more manageable 835 mm. The Tenere 700 retails at 619,000 pesos (RM51,912) and the lowering kit and low seat are priced at 9,600 pesos (RM803) and 4,500 pesos (RM376), respectively.

The Tenere 700 was first launched in Europe in 2019, developed from the Yamaha T7 Tenere Concept Dakar Rally off-road race bike. It made its way to the Thailand market in May 2020, price tagged at 439,000 Thai baht (RM58,934) before debuting in the Philippines in 2021.

Carrying Yamaha’s Crossplane 2 liquid-cooled parallel-twin displacing 689 cc, the Tenere 700 produces 72.4 hp at 9,000 rpm and 68 Nm of torque at 6,500 rpm. Fed by EFI, the Tenere 700 gets power to the ground via a six-speed gearbox and chain final drive.

Targeted towards the rider who does more work off-road than on tarmac, the Tenere 700 is less an adventure-touring machine – Yamaha provides the Tracer 900 for this – and more dual-purpose riding. This is shown in the 43 mm diameter upside-down forks with 210 mm of travel and a 200 mm travel monoshock at the back.

Tyre sizes are also oriented for off-road use, 90/90-21 rubber in front and 150/70-18 at the back. The Tenere 700 weighs in at 205 kg and fuel is carried in a 16-litre tank which gives a claimed 350 km range while braking is done with twin 282 mm diameter hydraulic discs in front and a single 280 mm disc on the back, and switchable ABS is standard.