Celebrating Arrival of AVGeek's Super Tenere to AZ!

[beemerdons]

https://weather.aol.com/forecast/todays//usa/arizona/chandler/id/usaz0034;jsessionid=52438133E163FA6A003799B8426E5AF7 PLEASE...bring plenty of water with you tomorrow, I don't want to lose any riders due to dehydration, heat exhaustion and then heat stroke!

When I posted this ride months ago, I had no idea it would be 102F on Sunday, September 25. Usually we are cooled off by now, but this year in Phoenix has been totally unbearable. Once we are up in the Bradshaw Mountains we will get some relief, but have at least a half gallon of water on your bike tomorrow.

There will be plenty of water break and photography stops, so take a big drink of water at each one. There are three places you can buy more water: 1) Meetup location at the Chevron Station in their store. 2) Crown King General Store will have bottled water. 3) As soon as we enter Prescott from the South on the Senator Highway there will be a Circle K Store.

 

[AVGeek]

At least its a dry heat. I'm still wringing myself out after 11 days in Orlando...

 

[beemerdons]

What a great ride at least as far as Crown King! Although warm it was plenty nice once we were up in the Bradshaws. As far as Bryan's - AVGeek (the other Brian!) bike, after replacing the blown cooling fan fuse we thought we had his problem solved, but in the end it appears the the fan motor died when it was unable to turn following the gentle lay down. Don and Bryan waited in Crown King (up at the far end) and I rode back home to grab my pickup truck and return. Got back to CK around 3:15PM we loaded up the bike and had Bryan home a little after 5:00 PM. His Tenere had only about 350 total miles on it. Anyway all's well that ends well!

Here is the gathering for the ride:

Here I am yelling at AVGeek - Brian to get that piece of Jap Crap out of here; only Rice Grinder among seven Teutonic Motorcycles!

 

[beemerdons]

The quotation below was from AZ Beemers Club President Brian Boles; my Mexico riding buddy and a fantastic offroad rider.

My ride on the Senator Highway started off on the wrong foot at the beginning, when I woke Melanie up much earlier than she was planning to. So, leaving a rather cranky wife behind, I headed up to the meetup. After the meetup, myself on F800GS, Dave on F800GS, Don on F650GS, Carl on KTM990, Claire on F650GS single, Brian (on a Yamaha Tenere), John on a new to him R1200GS and Scott on a R1200GS; rode up to the Bumblebee turnoff.

We rode on up to Crown King. On one of the switchbacks, Brian on the Tenere, had a low speed drop. No personal damage, and we thought the bike didn't suffer either, but that wasn't the case.

The breakfast at Crown King was good. We saw Omar and a friend up at CK. They had ridden up the back way.

After breakfast, we continued on towards Prescott. Myself and Scott were leading. We would wait at major turns to make sure the rest of the group was still with us.

At one of the intersections, Scott and I hung around for about 1/2 hour until Carl, Claire, and John rode up. We found out that the Tenere had suffered a bent radiator fan in the drop, overheated, and puked out all of its coolant.

The five of us hung out for about another 1/2 hour, and then Carl, Claire, Scott and John decided to continue on to Prescott. I said bye, and waited a little longer, until some other riders told me they saw Don, Brian and Dave riding back towards CK. So, I turned back and went into CK. I saw Omar and friend gassing up, and I rode up to the saloon, but I didn't see the wounded bike or riders. (Apparently, they were up a little farther than I rode up).

So, I headed down to the valley, and stopped back at the I-17 meetup, to re-air my tires.

My cell phone was honking at me. Melanie was calling me in a panic.

Turns out that Don's lady, Donna, had mistaken Don's message and confused the 2 Brian's on the ride. So, Melanie thought I had crashed and was all freaked out.

By the time I got home, things had settled. Don and Brian were still in CK and Dave was on his way with a trailer. I assume the others were on their way back from Prescott.

Not sure what the final outcome was -

Don? Dave? details please . . .

Hey, don't know why Melanie was freaking. She has a life insurance policy on BB. What's the problem!

Laughing and yakking at the meet up point.

Telling tall tales of derring do and kicking tires before our departure.

Time to fire up the machines and head north to the dirt road up to Crown King.

 

[beemerdons]

We stopped in Bumblebee to air down our tires for the dirt work.

Scott's beautiful blue GS.

Dave saying: "Come on, let's ride dirt!"

Another sweet BMW R1200GS belonging to John. It is nicely equipped.

Another fantastic Teutonic machine, the big Katoom "Orange Pumpkin" owned by Carl.

 

[beemerdons]

We stopped at the Cleator General Store. Cleator had a population of over 500 during the mining boom, only fifty live here now!

Nice shot of mi Salma Hayek, my BMW F650GS Twin; even though yamafitter, rushes and fjrrider call her "Miss Piggy"!

I love our Arizona Sonoran desert, I could almost see buying myself a get away cabin in Cleator; it has liquor sales, what more do you need!

The Cleator Saloon had not opened when we were there at 9am, by 4pm the place was filled to the rafters!

There is the road to Crown King ahead of us and the Bradshaw Mountains; time to saddle up and get riding again!

 

[marcusorelius]

Nice Report Papa Chuy! Considered going but decided it was to far & hot for me & my Drz. Duke & I went to camp at the canyon instead.

 

[beemerdons]

Nice Report Papa Chuy! Considered going but decided it was to far & hot for me & my Drz. Duke & I went to camp at the canyon instead.

You're right Mark, while it was as fun as can be up in the Bradshaw Mountains: It was hotter than Hades down in the Phoenix Valley!

I'm so sick of this Summer, it has been the hottest on record for Phoenix and it is lasting longer than any other Summer on record!!!

 

[beemerdons]

Crown King was jumping last Sunday, lots of folks out riding and drinking beer at the Saloon.

Brian and Claire checking out John's BMW R1200GS and Papa Chuy's F650GS Twin.

Brian - AVGeek's new Yamaha Super Tenere up front and center in downtown Crown King.

What do we of AZ Beemers and FJR Forum do even better than moto riding: We eat!

Food was great, there was plenty of it and the price was reasonable: Six bucks for B-fast!

 

[beemerdons]

Thanks for the pics. Looks like a nice day.

What did you think of the Yamaha? Still hoping to see one.

Well Steve-O, here is a picture of AVGeek Brian's Yamaha Super Tenere: Broken down out on the trail!

Brian took a slow speed tumble to the left directly onto his radiator and radiator fan behind the fairing.

This would be a total non issue on a BMW, because BMW protects the oil or water radiators extremely well.

However, Yamaha Motorcycles did a lousy job in where they located the radiator and fan on the Super Tenere.

Long story short, we spent an hour working and dinking on the YAM ST and still could not get it operational.

AVGeek's ST10 rode back to Phoenix in the back of Dave H's pickup truck, while I like Yamaha a lot, I really feel their Engineering Department dropped the ball on this huge dual sport. It is certainly no threat to any of the BMW GS models, it is simply too heavy and is not as tough on the trail as a BMW GS is!

 

[MCRIDER007]

This would be a total non issue on a BMW, because BMW protects the oil or water radiators extremely well.

AVGeek's ST10 rode back to Phoenix in the back of Dave H's pickup truck, while I like Yamaha a lot, I really feel their Engineering Department dropped the ball on this huge dual sport. It is certainly no threat to any of the BMW GS models, it is simply too heavy and is not as tough on the trail as a BMW GS is!

Thanks for the pictures and explanation. I looked at my Tenere and will have to say that the plastic mesh pretending to protect the radiator fan is pretty flimsy, it probably will work if the Tenere is laid down on a smooth surface, anything else.....well you have shown us the result. I also noted that AVGeek's Tenere has the same OEM tires as mine, which are pretty useless off pavement.

 

[beemerdons]

This would be a total non issue on a BMW, because BMW protects the oil or water radiators extremely well.

AVGeek's ST10 rode back to Phoenix in the back of Dave H's pickup truck, while I like Yamaha a lot, I really feel their Engineering Department dropped the ball on this huge dual sport. It is certainly no threat to any of the BMW GS models, it is simply too heavy and is not as tough on the trail as a BMW GS is!

Thanks for the pictures and explanation. I looked at my Tenere and will have to say that the plastic mesh pretending to protect the radiator fan is pretty flimsy, it probably will work if the Tenere is laid down on a smooth surface, anything else.....well you have shown us the result. I also noted that AVGeek's Tenere has the same OEM tires as mine, which are pretty useless off pavement.

MCRIDER007: The quotation below is from AZ Beemers Club President Brian Boles, a long time off road rider and Mexico dirt road explorer. It also is the consensus of the other BMW GS folks on this ride, all of whom are great dual sport riders, including Lady Claire. We all liked the Yamaha and we all, even as BMW people, know that it will sell like hotcakes, it does have some great features at a really great price. But, it definitely needs more hard part protection in lot of areas!

In weak defense of Yamaha engineers, they aren't the only ones. I have a KTM radiator that folded up like an accordion in a drop, although, amazingly, it didn't spring a leak. And the F800/650 radiator only has that plastic side panel to protect its sides; even if the fan is in a better place. And why do they keep putting the oil filters front and center behind the front wheel (BMW, Triumph, Yama).

The Yamaha's real problem was that it wasn't prepped for the ride. No crash bars, no skid pan. Call it premature exploration.

In all fairness, this is correct! The Super Tenere was not fully guarded yet, but guards add even more weight!

 

[MCRIDER007]

In weak defense of Yamaha engineers, they aren't the only ones. I have a KTM radiator that folded up like an accordion in a drop, although, amazingly, it didn't spring a leak. And the F800/650 radiator only has that plastic side panel to protect its sides; even if the fan is in a better place. And why do they keep putting the oil filters front and center behind the front wheel (BMW, Triumph, Yama).

The Yamaha's real problem was that it wasn't prepped for the ride. No crash bars, no skid pan. Call it premature exploration.

In all fairness, this is correct! The Super Tenere was not fully guarded yet, but guards add even more weight!

It also needed some dirt tires. I think if you are riding the Tenere on roads/trails that requires that it be fully guarded then you are probably riding the wrong bike. I have seen the videos of some very good riders taking the Tenere on some pretty nasty roads but that is not where it is going to be in its element. The Tenere is way too heavy and lacks a stump puller first gear for slow riding or starting on a steep incline. Its really made for riding on rough pavement with occasional excursions on improved gravel roads when the pavement ends. Anyone who buys a Tenere with the intention of using it for a trail bike is going to be disappointed as soon as they compare it to the much lighter competition that is available...besides its too pretty to get all dinged up...leave that to the BMWs that leave the showroom looking like a magnet that was dragged through a junk yard.

 

[AVGeek]

I knew it was a risk to ride "guard less" this time around. And where I fell had nothing to do with the tires. The bike felt sure footed and planted, in fact that was the problem when I dropped it! I wasn't thinking about the right gear and footing when I hit that patch of sand. One of my next projects is to go ahead and build a combo engine guard/skid plate, so that this doesn't happen again. I do remember thinking that the road to Crown King, and beyond, was exactly why I bought this particular bike, and I have no regrets whatsoever. Like any bike, I just need to set it up for the kind of riding I intend to do with it.

 

[johnny80s]

More pictures of the pretty Blonde. What the hell is she doing out with you ugly mugs?

 

[beemerdons]

More pictures of the pretty Blonde. What the hell is she doing out with you ugly mugs?

Juan, when did you start liking girls? FJRBluesman and SkooterG are going to be heartbroken!

 

[johnny80s]

More pictures of the pretty Blonde. What the hell is she doing out with you ugly mugs?

Juan, when did you start liking girls? FJRBluesman and SkooterG are going to be heartbroken!

Shut and post more pictures.

 

[beemerdons]

More pictures of the pretty Blonde. What the hell is she doing out with you ugly mugs?

Juan, when did you start liking girls? FJRBluesman and SkooterG are going to be heartbroken!

Shut and post more pictures.

OK!

 

[johnny80s]

yuck.

 

[beemerdons]

yuck.

Cento anni di salute e felicita, Goombah!