KIWI RIDER APRIL 2021 VOL2 | Page 107

YAMAHA TENERE 700
irritates me . I find it triggers ‘ range anxiety ’, and that ’ s hard to overcome , even when the logical part of my brain knows I still have 150km worth of fuel left in the tank .
MODIFICATIONS SO FAR Following my first off road excursion , where I bent the factory skid plate on a relatively sedate dualtrack gravel shakedown , I sourced a more solid skid plate and crash bars from Outback Motortek . Now I know when each rock attack is thwarted ... it ’ s heralded by a loud audible “ dong ”. Seriously , riding down a gravel track now sounds like London ’ s Big Ben at midday . The crash bars have saved the radiator and fairings on a couple of slow speed drops too . I ’ m just shy of 5 ’ 10 ” ( 1.77m ), and I ’ m not blessed in the leg length department , so I am on the shorter end of the scale for people who can comfortably touch the ground . This means coming to a stop on uneven terrain can occasionally result in being unable to find solid footing , and the bike deciding it would rather take a quick nap in the dirt . As far as luggage goes , I was lucky enough to be able to test out the Ventura Evo luggage system . Installation of this is very easy with just four bolts and no need to remove fairings . Handy though it is , I was missing the panniers I had on my MT-07 , so have picked up a set of Kriega OS-12 panniers . These have been great so far ; waterproof , low profile and there are plenty of options for expansion . Other farkles include a Quadlock phone mount on the bars .
KIWI RIDER 107