Yamaha Tenere 700 impresses with the ease at which it aces off-roading. It can very well be called the famed Honda Africa Twin's kryptonite, as it clearly gives the Honda a complex! This Yamaha has the highest off-roading appeal among the middle-weight ADVs offerings, and it just looks brutal. Well, if you think that Yamaha would stop there, prepare to be shocked.

The Tenere 700 Raid Prototype takes things even further and made it rally-spec. The Tenere was a good motorcycle but was let down by performance, braking, and suspension issues when it came to extreme off-roading. Well, Yamaha listened, rectified, and has answered with the bolder Raid Prototype.

Yamaha Tenere 700 got a TED-talk on "You live only once", and now we have the rally-ready Tenere 700 Raid Prototype.

Yamaha Tenere 700 In Itself Is An Unreal Machine

The Yamaha Tenere 700 looks like an alien and is a very focused off-road-centric adventure machine. When launched in 2019 it was lauded for the smashing package it was and shamed the likes of Kawasaki Versys 650 and Suzuki V-Strom 650 when it came to no-nonsense off-roading.

It uses the same 689cc CP2 parallel-twin engine from the Yamaha MT-07 but widened the torque curve to help scale all those rocks. It also put the KTM 890 Adventure in a stressful situation! But the real blow was for those big bulky ADVs like the BMW R1250 GS Adventure, Ducati Multistrada V4, and Suzuki V-Strom 1050XT.

Because the Tenere 700 was at par and at times even better for half the price and weight! The Tenere sure did have its set of flaws, but Yamaha listened to all of it and rectified them. That's why we have the Tenere 700 Raid Prototype, the evolution of an unreal machine.

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The "Bring It On" List Of Mods On This Rally-ready Yamaha

Yamaha has given this prototype a slew of performance and GYTR (Genuine Yamaha Technology Racing) upgrades to be an off-roading monster. The engine which was criticized for having moderate performance gets a GYTR ECU remap along with a high-performance airbox and filter. Yamaha has also packed in a heavy-duty Rekluse clutch and a new clutch lever.

This bundle is completed with a full titanium Akrapovic race exhaust for better breathability. Cooling has been drastically improved with an oversized radiator, dual cooling fans, a new water pump cover, and a new oil cooler. With a 48 teeth final drive sprocket, the Tenere 700 Raid Prototype is faster and doesn't lose its cool.

The next critical aspect was the suspension which has been completely revamped here. The Prototype packs rally-spec KYB, fully-adjustable 48 mm inverted forks up front that delivers 10.6 inches of travel. To make things bullet-proof, the upper triple clamps are made of CNC machined aluminum. The rear mono-shock has also been upgraded with 10.3 inches of travel and a new linkage setup.

Next up are the brakes that get overhauled for shaper and quicker response. Yamaha has given this raid machine an upgraded front brake master cylinder and a bigger 300mm disk. At the rear also, it gets a bigger 267 mm disc. New racing brake pads and steel-braided front and rear brake hoses take care of consistent and sharper braking in extreme conditions. The caliper mounting brackets are sturdier, and so is the front brake lever.

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What To Expect From Yamaha Tenere 700 Raid Prototype?

We sure are thrilled about all these incremental upgrades on the Tenere 700 Raid Prototype. But Yamaha has kept us in the dark on what the future holds. Off-Roading monks like Alessandro Botturi and Pol Tarres sure have done an incredible job in honing these hard-core Tenere 700 Prototypes around.

There are numerous possibilities here, ranging from a meaner and more-hardcore Tenere 700 production model to a rally-spec team that would want to devour the competition. Or better, bundle all these additional bits and sell it as a rally kit! Only if Dakar Rally didn't have the 450cc single-cylinder restriction; things could have been very interesting.

Sources: Yamaha-motor.eu, Cycleworld.com, Rideapart.com