bluetenere

Yamaha VMAX. Woo hoo. I called it my speeding ticket machine. 

This was a Honda Nighthawk 750 aka CB750. Rode it all over California. Totaled it on the highway between Oakland and San Jose when that lady changed lanes into me. Bike was history but I was just fine.

Short stop here to rendezvous with the world renowned Skunk Ape hunter.

Excellent.

It does exactly what it’s supposed to and it does it well.

Rode up to Orlando and back at the beginning of the week and tried it in a number of different positions until I found the right one to eliminate that little bit of buffeting that the standard windscreen height always caused. For me that sweet spot was as far up as the bracket allowed and as far back. There was an added benefit in the hot humid Florida summer.. extra ventilation under the screen that felt kinda nice at speed.

For reference I’m 6`0` and the seat height is in the tallest position also.

I tried it in other positions as well and none were bad but the tallest worked to best do far.

Hopefully this last point is obvious to all you riders but I did all the adjustment during stops. The brackets do not lend themselves to adjusting while moving…besides you gotta pay attention.

One last special thanks to the love bugs and the hour of torrential rain on the way up..Thanks for keeping me on my toes nature.

Here’s what you start with:

When I first got the bike I tried to move the windscreen to the higher position as I thought that’s what the second set of holes were for. Didn’t work for me, so this aftermarket bracket is hopefully going to help the buffeting I feel at the very top of my helmet.

First step is fitting the two halves of the bracket together. The instructions leave much to be desired on that but I managed to figure it out while being laid out on the couch passing a kidney stone the past couple of days. Sorry no photos on how the two parts fit but if you can’t figure it out shoot me a line.

Here’s the two bracket half’s ready to install:

the flip side:

Pretty simple after that. Take off windscreen:

Install one side:

Then the other side:

Then mount the windscreen back on. I found it helpful to leave the bracket adjustment knobs loose so the holes could all align.

All in all it was pretty simple installation. I’ll take it for a ride later and let you know how it behaves. If you have questions send me a comment.

So walking around at Riva Motorsports in Pompano just now I noticed a few changes to the next year’s Super T. Different instrument cluster…not an improvement in my opinion… looks very basic.

And also an added bracket to make the windscreen adjustable.

That feature is an improvement. I actually ordered an aftermarket version of this the other day. Waiting on it to arrive.

What did arrive today was my new skidplate. Remember my dilemma in an earlier post trying to figure out which one to buy? We’ll in the time between then and now Yamaha came out with one. But that’s not the one I settled on.  Which one did I get? Go find the old post and guess.

I’ll post a bolt by bolt account of that install soon.

While dropping of the bike for some maintenance and to clear a couple of recalls I just ran into this lady.

Finally brought the bike out of its cocoon for a ride down to the Heat game in Miami last night and a cruise to the cool kid coffee shop today.

Appointment made for next Saturday to do a little service and fix a couple of recall issues and maybe put some fresh, or fresher, rubber on it. I still have the tires I shipped home from the xcountry trip that have plenty of life left. Should I put the semi knobbies back on??

Roland Ochoa

It was a bit hot.

Got lots of requests to pose for pictures.

Hop a curb and put it in the grass right out front.

K dressed as a generic fabulous person.

One of the things that the Super Tenere is lacking is a serious skid plate. Also known as a bashplate.

By contrast my Africa Twin (sadly under a cover since the arrival of the SuperT —longer actually) has a pretty beefy stock bashplate. Not sure why the Yamaha designers decided to leave that in the hands of the farkle makers. But the result is lots of choices. So I’m having trouble deciding. Can any of you dear readers help?

Here are the choices, followed by a quick survey.

Touratech’s version.

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Altrider’s version

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SW-Motech’s version

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And finally Ricochet’s version

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Help me figure it out. Take this survey:

It’s also good for drooling over nifty gizmos ‘n gadgets in the ads and write ups. There is a particularly interesting article about the Dalton Highway in Alaska in this issue that persuaded me to pick this up during today’s Barnes and Noble Binge.

I’ve now started ‘advertising’ my BIG D adventure. D is for diagonal. Key West, FL to Prudhoe Bay, AK. By advertising I mean shooting my mouth off about it. The theory being if you tell enough people about a crazy idea eventually you’re forced to either do it, or leave town (either option is basically the same outcome in this instance.)

Thank you barista Mariah at Brew (native Alaskan) for tips today on best season to attempt the Alaska part (summer).

AltRider comes with mounting holes that fit the RotoPax perfectly. One gallon of gas, one gallon of water. Let’s go!!

Roto Pax on Super Tenere