Surely you can see that I have already ridden one? It was good.

Eventually,,, amoung the other 500 unread posts from the last two weeks.......

I had the privilege to ride a xt1200z on Friday.The bike does feel light and handles accordingly.One thing that did impress me was the power delivery when in sport mode.Wow.It is amazing what a different timing curve can do to the performance of a bike.(Almost hooligan performance).As for offroad capabilities I would not take it where I ride my xt660 tenere.Gravel roads and neat forest lanes she will handle with ease.But then than is what it is made for imho.Build quality is good with no vibrations.Seating position is almost the same as my 660 tenere.I think it is possible to get 20km/l if ridden with care and in touring mode.The only way you will know is to go and ride it yourself.We all look for different things when purchasing a bike.

Amen.

Short on- and off-road test video by Dutch Dakar-legend Arjan Brouwer:

subtitle: Fat Boys can jump!!



HJ

If anyone wants to see one and you're local to Woking then pop in, they've got the silver one fully loaded at �13,000 ....

I'd love to have one but wont be available here anytime soon (not even the Z is available yet :088:) plus it will probably be very very expensive for my standards. Motorcycles (cars too!) are expensive here in Brazil due to heavy taxation for instance:

a) XT660R, made in brazil (lower taxes) will cost you around 12500 euros :sad11:
b) If you to imagine the cost of a 1200GS Adventure (even more taxes on import goods) you should expect to drop 38800 euros!!!! :076:

So if you are traveling around this country and see someone ridding an GS ask him to pay you a beer he sure can afford it!!!!

More off-road Super Tenere; again by Arjan Brouwer:



HJ

I notice he's changed the tyres for the finish at Dakar.

1200 Tenere Hmmmm
 

Hi Guys,

Its been a while, but have been busy with work, a broken wrist and a new baby!

I have just had an 'on road' ride on one of the new Super Tenere's in the UK. So for the quick lowdown and my opinion as unbiased as possible.

It is a very nice bike to ride on road, very well balanced with confidence building stability(I kept catching my toes on the tarmac!). The bike sits lower overall than the 660 Ten, as would be expected from the pictures and this works well to hide the extra weight! So much so that the 1200 Ten 'feels' lighter than its little brother. Its comfortable, as smooth as can be expected for a parallel twin, and the power putdown seems linear and plentiful for requirements in both touring and sport throttle modes.

I not usually a fan of augmentation for bikes such as Traction and ABS, preferring a 'real' ride. However I like this one! The traction control has OFF/FULL/Partial settings, and the cross linked brakes work nicely.

Im not about to change my 660 in for one. But if I was going to go for a big adventure bike, it would definitely be on the cards and a close call with a Big GS. Its still alot of money for any of the 1200's though.

Im happy to answer any questions and no, im not a journalist, I just got lucky :-)

Cheers