Yeah, I was making sure i wasn't going to drop it.
[Laughter]
After our ride to Megalong Valley there
was one key takeaway for me and that was
the KTM, while a great bike, was the wrong
bike for the job. It was the wrong bike for me.
Now, while I thought I already knew this,
i worked out what the true difference was
between a motocross bike and enduro bike
and an Adventure bike.
, both big and small.
Now for me moving forward i need to be able to consider
that while the motocross bike obviously
wasn't the right bike
to understand what the right bike was
I needed to understand what the primary
scenario that i was looking for
to apply the bike to so. That for me that
was pretty easy,
Victorian High Country has
always been on my list of places i
wanted to go
and watching brent's journey here on
MotoRides.com.au
that was the exact ride that i wanted to
have a bike for. I looked at that and
thought, yep,
that is what i want to build a bike for.
So, same with cars,
I didn't want something that was fast,
I wanted agile. I want something nimble.
I didn't want something that was too heavy.
So because of that, anything
over a 1000 cc's was out.
A 1200 cc is also out because of the
green slip and the rego prices are like
three times the price! Did you know that?
$200 bucks for a 600 and then
almost $700 bucks for 1200. That's crazy.
I knew what i needed which was a
mid-sized adventure bike
So which bike was also an easy question to answer
At the moment if you look for
mid-size adventure bikes you can't look
past the Tenere700.
Looking at all the reviews that
people put out, everything is
out at the moment anyone who's ever
ridden one of these bikes
without a doubt says that the Tenere 700
is the best midsize
adventure bike that you can buy at the moment.
I was already a Yamaha fan,
so it was a perfect fit.
And to me, the engine that i had in my MT07
was a brilliant motor and so to put that
in an adventure bike it was just a no-brainer.
So that's the bike that i wanted.
Unfortunately, it's not in this year's budget,
so i have to make a compromise.
So then the obvious path to go down from there
was to look for a second hand
older model Tenere.
Now, just so happens there wasn't that many available
and there just happened to be one in New South Wales
that was available and within my budget.
So i went down and had
a ride of this particular one and
I have to say that straight away I loved it.
Alright, so I'm off to
have a look at an older Tenere. Tenere 660.
Whoa...
Yeah. I was making sure i wasn't going to drop it.
[Laughter]
That feels pretty good.
All right, so uh, man it feels
just completely different to the MT.
of course, which you would expect, but
you know, single cylinder versus three,
but it's very sturdy a lot sturdier than
I thought it would be.
It likes being upright
standing up on them is is like super simple.
like it feels really comfortable to
stand up on
Whereas like the MT, when you stand up in
it kind of feels a bit awkward.
Yeah, definitely tall.
It's a lot more comfortable than I expected actually.
I could imagine sitting on this for a
long period of time.
like compared to the KTM
this is a whole different world.
It needs a lot of cleaning up,
A bit dirty. I mean, it feels
pretty sturdy for something that has 53,000kms on it.
Motor feels good. Gearbox feels nice.
It doesn't feel perfect but it's probably
just as imperfect as uh as my thing really.
But i'm actually, um yeah, quite
pleasantly surprised at how
nice this is to ride. How nice it is to sit on.
It's more comfortable than i expected
It's very comfortable.
yeah like i was expecting it to be more
comfortable than the enduro bike but
It's like worlds apart, yeah.
Nice. How'd you find that? Pretty good.
It's a bit small for me I think...
Now the first problem I have
I didn't know what my budget was,
and I wasn't going to know what my budget was
until i sold the KTM.
First task, sell the KTM.
So once I listed it
I listed it on for way too much
and then slowly dropped the price every few days
looking for the rate of enquiries to go up to a couple per day.
Once I'm at that I know I'm at the right price.
So the first person who arranged to
come and have a look at it, didn't.
Oh, that was smart. Probably should have
topped it up with fuel first.
[Music]
Still waiting this guy. He said he was going
to be here at 7:30. It's now
20 past eight and
about quarter past 8 I asked where he was
and he said he was just near the Fiddler.
Now the Fiddler is 12 minutes away
so i don't know what's going on.
Has this guy's got lost on the way or what?
Seriously.
You don't get lost these days do you? Google Maps?
If he's not here by 8:30, I'm going.
[Music]
It's not cool. How is it just a
message and say sorry mate can't get there or
something's come up or whatever it
doesn't even matter what it is it
Doesn't even matter if it's like the
shittiest excuse in the world but just
any excuses better than just ghosting.
It's just dumb.
Luckily there is plenty of other buyers.
Someone else is coming to look at it on Saturday.
One last message.
Sorry mate, I've gotta go.
Kids are at home waiting for dinner. Oh Well.
Oh man, this thing's too big for me.
It's one of the reasons why i want to
sell this thing because it's too hard to get on.
i think it's gone cold sitting here for that long.
I'm just gonna pull in here and just make
sure i'm not being followed as well.
That's one thing that people can do
is they pretend that
they're buying a bike,
then they come and have a look at it,
that's why you don't bring them to your house
because they come and look at it and go
yeah nah yeah nah
and then they turn up that night and steal it.
But if you don't meet at the house the
other thing they can do is they can
wait for you to leave and then follow you.
it's always a good idea just to make
sure you're not being followed.
and then the second guy came and looked
and then the second guy came and looked at it on Saturday.
Alright, he the car parked was full
so he's gone down the other end.
He said he bought a trailer with him
that's a promising sign.
Although, I need to be prepared for the low ball offer.
He's obviously keen. Keen is good,
but needs to be the right amount still.
Are you Kieren?
How are you man? All right, how are you?
Good, good.
A bit packed in here at the moment? I know. It's crazy huh?
That was that, sold.
And that was actually the number I needed.
So literally within the hour I sent a
message to the guy of the Tenere
and put down a deposit.
And then about a week later the next
thing i know i'm riding home on my new bike.
[Music]
This is my new bike.
Time for us to get acquainted.
[Horn beep]
I kept hitting the horn by accident
There's so much adjustment when
you get used to a new bike
but between this and the MT
they couldn't be more different.
They're just polar opposites of each other.
So, just a few little things to do
to make it feel like mine, I guess.
So, what's the first thing you do when you get a new bike?
You go for a ride.
For this ride I was meeting up with Gary
but it was already midday by the time we were taking off
so it was quite late in the day.
A big part of me was just thinking
there's a few little niggling problems
here that i need to sort out
of course a bike with 50,000 kms on the
clock always needs a few little things
that need sorted out.
maybe i should just go back and get the
MT and then i can just have a nice
nice ride in the afternoon.
No. I have to work out all the things that I need to fix.
I've got to work out all the things that need adjusting and so, just keep going.
As it turned out, the more and more I
went on this ride, the more I was
falling in love with this bike.
It was just so amazing.
you know it's such a different motor
this big thumping single cylinder
just feels completely different to the
triple honor on an mt-09
you know the smoothness is not there but
it's talky and it just
loves sitting on that speed you know i
love sitting on 100k an hour and i can
do it all day
[Music]
it was already late in the afternoon and
I thought myself I just can't go home
without at least touching some dirt.
Even if it's just a couple of hundred metres.
Just do something on the dirt so I can feel what this thing is like.
That plan was to do the loop around Commission Road
but I totally totally ran out of time.
So I just went in search for the start of it.
I thought just look for some dirt somewhere around there.
I found this nice little stretch and
I was so impressed with this bike.
I jsut felt so good on the dirt.
it was so comfortable.
It felt as stable.
It felt as stable as it did on the bitumen.
I couldn't believe how
nicely this bike handled on the dirt.
And even as as i followed this
little trail which wasn't very long
it got bumpier and steeper and
the bike just glided over the top of it.
I ended up at a gate so I had a quick stop
and then as i turned around and there's this
guy pulled up in the tractor.
I have to admit i thought crap, here we go.
He's gonna tell me off
about riding up his driveway or
something like that.
Hey, how are ya? Good.
Are you looking for someone?
Hand on.
What's that?
What are you looking for? Someone...
Oh no, I'm just get taking this for a ride.
It's new to me, just taking it for a little spin
to see what it's like on the dirt.
Where are you from? Down in Sydney.
So you're all tuned in, you've got cameras.
You've got contact with other blokes...
Turns out the guy just wanted to have a quick chat.
He just wanted to hear where I was from,
started telling me this story how the cops followed him down Putty Road
and he wasn't doing anything wrong
you just needed someone to chat to didn't ya mate.
Anyway, so that was lovely.
From there I started heading back, it was time to get home.
And I wanted to get hom before the Kangaroos started jumping out on the road.
So as I'm heading back down Putty Road
the sun was setting, I had a heated grips on,
the shield was keeping me out of the wind
it was absolutely amazing, it was so enjoyable,
so relaxing, so easy,
just such a pleasure to ride.
Easily just imagine spending hours and hours
just riding and putting kilometres under your belt.
So this bike was definitely, without doubt the right choice.
It is the right bike for the job, it is the right bike for me
and i can't wait to take it on the next adventure.