Essentially adventure motorcycles are our cargo donkeys. Not only do they carry us and our luggage but we demand the ability to take them through rough terrain.
And without a doubt, the new Yamaha Tenere 700 is pretty much like one of those little donkeys taking on a lot and taking it with confidence. The comparison game could go on and on but I’ll end it with their simple, reliable features.
There’s a thing though about these new and hot middle weight class adventure/dual sport/dual purpose motorcycles. Manufacturers have put a lot of effort into shaving weight off. Wrestling with a lighter, more nimble adventure bike on the trails day after day, week after week is less exhausting than with the “typical” 220kg/490lbs + adventure motorcycles.
Hence the owners of mid weight adventure motos such as the Tenere 700, KTM 790 Adventure, Husqvarna 701, KTM 690 Enduro R are not keen on putting more weight on their bikes than absolutely necessary. More often not the list of accessories excludes crash bars, centre stand and even pannier racks. This could result in 10-15kgs/22-33lbs of weight not added to their bikes.
Not having crash bars comes with risk. We know that but so does riding itself! Centre stand is not so essential. Cleaning and lubing your chain can be done without it with some creativity.
How about pannier racks though? Where does one mount their soft or hard cases?
Some cool companies like Mosko Moto and Kriega offer soft panniers which do not rely on pannier racks. They are simply just saddle mounted and tied to the passenger foot peg and a rear luggage rack.
This is all fine and dandy but some motorcycles such as the new Yamaha Tenere 700 offer absolutely no platform for even these so-called “rackless” panniers. We came up with a solution:
We designed a passenger handle which does not exist on Yamaha Tenere 700s out of the factory! Then we extended the passenger grab handle towards the rear end of the bike and mounted a large, platform style rear luggage rack on it.
We call this “Rear Rack Combo” because it combines the passenger grab handles and the rear luggage racks. It’s bolted on the subframe via 8mm diameter bolts and reinforced at the four mounting points.
With this light weight platform which comes in around 2.5kg/5.5lbs only, there’s a solid option to install “rackless” panniers now. The bonus feature which Tenere 700 owners will certainly fall in love with? It’s in the video below..
