The 2021 Ténéré 700 is Yamaha’s highly anticipated middleweight adventure motorcycle, which shares an engine with the popular MT-07 naked platform. It’s aimed at accessibility and affordability. In fact, the new Ténéré has a relatively low $9,999 MSRP, which is significantly less than the competing KTM 790 Adventure R’s $13,699.
Powered by the same 689cc CP2 parallel-twin engine as the MT-07 and XSR700 models, the Ténéré offers approachable off-road power delivery. To achieve a more dirt-focused engine characteristic with a broader, more usable torque curve, Yamaha tuned the powerplant with dedicated ECU settings, a Ténéré-specific airbox, and new muffler.
Ahead of an upcoming comparison test, we ran the Ténéré 700 on our in-house Dynojet 250i dyno, recording 63.78 peak hp at 8,870 rpm and 44.09 pound-feet of torque at 6,640 rpm. For reference, the last time we ran the Yamaha MT-07 on the dyno, it produced slightly higher numbers: 67.60 hp and 46.54 pound-feet of torque, but the Ténéré 700′s torque curve is slightly flatter across the midrange. This offers more flexibility of gear selection needed for tricky off-road sections and romping around the city alike.
The flexibility and usable power delivery of Ténéré's CP2 engine makes it a fun-loving platform with a ton of capability in every scenario.
