I've seen the pictures, read the specs - but has anyone actually seen one of these in the "flesh" yet? Are we looking at a potential overland bike here?

Why Yamaha have chosen to put the exhaust downpipes under the engine is a mystery to me, and why no rack, and why such a small tank? Otherwise, if the price tag isn't too high I might well be tempted to go back to XTs from XLVs.......

Yes it was here at the exhibition in Amsterdam, together with SM-brother XT660X.
It's an XT and definitely not a Ténéré, and as such can be compared with the XT600E.
The bash plate is plastic and there's hardly any ground clearing.
If you want to go touring continents just buy a good old Ténéré.

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Fred, XTZ660, Holland.

i had a fiddle with one at the NEC last month, and although i liked it i dont think it is better than my XT600E, for toughness, fuel capacity, the exhausts, water cooling, seat comfort.
i think yamaha have done some canny market research and built something that will appeal to people who want the style of, but never want to "use" an off road bike. it also comes in supermoto style, for that reason it has the more powerful engine i think, because it will always stay on the road like 99% of landrovers sold in UK!

you will have to spend a lot of time and cash to make an overlander i think.

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dave

Hmm. That's what I thought; thanks for confiming my suspicions. So no real successor to the XT600E even, let alone the Tenere. What are Yamaha thinking of? A missed opportunity!

Stig

The problem is that there are too little of us, the adventurous types, so it's not a market for Yamaha to re-enter into.
Here in Holland there are hundreds of thousands of people with a motorbikedriverslicense who have been brainwashed that on a motorbike you must be able to go very fast on a straight dry road, and that you must be able to put both feet on the ground whenever, however short legs you have. So they have never had the opportunity to learn to appreciate the fun and usefulness of a real adventure bike. They are condemned to the streets on their shiny rolling toilets or plastic whistles.

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Fred, XTZ660, Holland.

a disapointment to everyone on HUBB perhaps, but i think yamaha will sell loads of them, because it looks good, should go well with the XTZ engine, and i think its good value at just over £4K. its gone for the MZ baghira's balls, and i think the yam is better made, after a good look at both bikes.
also, if yamaha throw in a years insurance like some other bikes they do, then spotty college kid wont be able to get his hands on one fast enough, especially when he learns what he can do to that engine!

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dave

What can you do to an engine that has injection, catalysts and was designed to meet the severest environmental restrictions?
I have a friend who bought and soon sold a BMW F650Dakar because he could not mess with the engine.

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Fred, XTZ660, Holland.

oh no, not the tree-huggers again! i didnt know yamaha had done all that rubbish, i thought it was the old XTZ engine, no wonder it doesnt make much power. i knew it must have CATs in the exhausts, but they are always the first thing to go in the "for MoT only" box.

shame.

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dave

I had a poke round at the NEC. It's Euro-pretty SM trendy jink, unfortunately.

Better with a 3AJ. There will never be another bike like it (apart from perhaps a Honda XR650L).

I'd rather spend my money Tenere-ising an XT600E or improving / rebuilding an old bike.

I think my next bike will be an XTZ660 again. One with low kilometrage, shiny, and that has never been abused.

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Fred, XTZ660, Holland.

I'd be interested in a late XTZ660 as well. The reason I posted the thread is that I need to replace my Transalp, which has 62,000 miles and is 10 years old. In fairness to the Transalp, it's been great, taking me on my 150 mile round commute every day in the darkness, and longer off road tours as well. I now have to decide whether I will rebuild the Transalp (with a more off road bias, much like Honda's original concept)to do tours through places like Morocco and then buy a low mileage, more road oriented machine for the commute, or whether to buy something that (like the Transalp) can do both commuting and backlands touring. I had an XT600Z years ago and would have liked an updated/improved version of that, but it's clear from your replies that the XT660R is nothing like one of those. The fact that the only similarity between the XT660R and the old XTZ660 is a similar cylinder displacement tends to suggest that Yamaha aren't interested in "rally" style bikes any more. Why did they axe the XTZ660 in the UK anyway? Are there countries where that model is still imported?

Stig

as a 1997 XT600E owner, i must say im pretty happy with it, its bombproof and goes well enough for my commuting, and as a supermotard its a lot of fun, but ive been looking at the MZ baghira which has the XTZ660 5valve engine, and it is noticably better. i can see now that the XT600E was a big BACKWARDS step in the tenere range, i dont really understand why yamaha did it, every other model in the range has better performance and suspension and its been gradually getting worse as each new model comes out. this new 660R is just the next in the line.

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dave

Hi Dave: yes, it is quite strange that Yamaha should have taken this line. I tend to consider Yamaha to be the original "dual sport" concept originator with the XT500. What we want aren't necessarily rally replicas, but bikes that are as tough and with similar capabilities. The original Tenere was close to that, but its evolution seems to have taken two parallel lines; one toward greater complexity (e.g., XTZ750, XTZ660 and XT660R/X) and a worse than backward direction where we saw the first XT600E losing the tacho, alloy wheels, larger tank and better quality suspension of the Tenere series in favour of low purchase cost. I'm glad that one of the traditions has continued in the XT660R, but sad that it wasn't a combination of the best of both evolutionary lines of the XT. Shame.

I saw a Baghira at Ray Dentith's a few years ago and liked it. There is a lot of potential there, I think - but with Yamaha reliability. I wouldn't want to do my Portsmouth to London commute every day on one though! The seat would be the first thing I'd change. Out of interest, which part of Portsmouth do you live in, and how far is your commute?

Stig

its a shame, but yamaha could have done so much better. bringing out 2 versions is a great idea, a supermoto for those who want roadgoing fun only, and a dual purpose bike that is really up to going off road (or RTW). but what they bring out is exactly the same bike but with different wheels.

yamaha could quite easily have made two completely different bikes out of the same basis, even with different engine tune, 1.outright performance at any cost for the SM boys (me!) and
2.economy/durability/distance between servicing for those with any RTW/club enduro bent.
you could have two suspension setups too, i bet thats the same between the R and S as well.
the first japanese factory SM should have been a much better effort, and all the dualsport boys want is a new tenere, but we both have a strangled mess.

Stig, i am not going to embarress myself and tell you how far i commute every day, but it takes me longer to put on the gear than to do the ride in this weather. in the summer it takes hours!! strange that


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dave

Dave
Must be a lot of diversions and road works in the summer!!!!
Dave