So who are the Adv riders here?

It's not for everbody.
If you think about a bike that you can race, that's great on the street, and that you can actually ride Mosquito Pass, it has to be a generalist. It does a lot of different stuff, but it doesn't do any one of them in an excellent, "top of the heap" manner.

The bike was not designed to this exploring type stuff, and I only found its capability by accident. Then I began to test the limits. It actually has some pretty extreme limits, but there are plenty of mods to make it crash worthy.

I like it, more than anything, because it always makes me grin, no matter where or how I ride it. There are few bikes, IMO, that can do that long term. I'm on year 11.

The next thing is that I ride alone and have to be self sufficient. The power/torque to weight is better than every single d/s or adventure bike on the market. I can pick it up loaded. I don't need a milk crate to mount it.

The short suspension is the great weakness, along with the 17 inch front, but with the fat tire, it is better than an AT in the sand. There's many other factors, but nobody wants to read a book report.

 

^^^ Nice summary

I still think the KLR650 is hands down the best ADV bike ever built, but it is woefully lacking in personality. The Hyper 1100 is just the opposite. It will have you grinning every second you're riding.

 

Ktm500, two sets of wheels, some tasty farkles, do anything you want except set the 285 lap record.

 

I know jack squat about KTM's. My friend has a 1090 that I rode and thought it was OK but that's about it. There is an 07 950SM with 37K miles for a very reasonable price. It's fairly loaded with farkles and service records. I have no need for this bike at all but it's such a good price I'm trying to figure how to turn it down. Repeat...I don't need this bike!

 

I don’t think it’s that much more capable than your GS. But it should be higher maintainance....

 

The answer to the ADV question is always KTM

 

Yamaha has the answer

 

Yeah, when it comes out in 2026!

 

Already happening in Europe, here fall of next year.

I’ll wait, waited 10 months on the Super Tenere back in 2011. We’ll worth the wait for a quality built motorcycle.

 

Funs already started in Europe

 

Why do they hate America


But I don't disagree with you that it should be a hell of a motorcycle, especially since they've been developing it since 2002!



In all seriousness, if it is that good I may dabble with ditching the GS and going lighter.

 

It’ll be worth the wait. They only missed the mark on the Super Tenere with weight, everything else about it was excellent. Bigger guys still love it. It was just to big for me but the bike was super solid and reliable even beat on heavily off road.

I’m not doing much if any super slabbing now days to riding areas. I haul in a toy hauler or back of my truck. Then I ride. Lighter is better for me anyways. I can barely pick up a 250F dirtbike in any uneven ground much less a 500+ lb ADV bike. I rarely if ever drop them but it’s always in the back of my head “what if”.

My current ride the Africa Twin is a nice bike just slightly larger in size than I like. Didn’t test ride the many running around local to me before buying. Regret that now.

 

I find it hard to take any ADV bike with a welded on subframe and anything other than a 21" front wheel seriously...just my personal observation...and I will add a photo of the KTM

 

Britt has good taste. I do have the other wheels to match.

 

I'm pretty excited about the T700, but that thing looks verrrrryyyyy top heavy. I think its going to feel surprising heavy for a mid-size ADV bike.

 

Same was said about the Super Tenere when it was coming out. You had to own one to see that looks don’t always tell the story. Yamaha did an outstanding job of placing things normally high down low. Top heavy weight was not the bikes issue. It was very well balanced. Over built added to the overall weight. It was not top heavy.

I suspect they’ve did their homework on the T700. Yamaha is not new to this type motorcycle. They go back way before this was even a class of motorcycle.

 

I could get in soooooooo much trouble on that...OhYeah.

 

I'm looking forward to a side by side comparison between the Yamaha and KTM. With the bikes showing up in europe, it seems like the comparos should be coming out shortly. I think it'll be cool to see the strengths and weaknesses of each. Thats one nice thing about the ADV segment, different people are looking for different things in the bikes. I know what I want (off road performance and weight) are not what many are looking for, but I have decent places to go play within an hour or two.

I'll have to wait and see the actual wet weight of the yamaha after you do the usual mods (skid plate/protection, tail rack, basic tool kit/tube, 4 gallons of gas, aftermarket exhaust, etc.). Could be that the exhaust is a boat anchor or there's an easy way to drop some weight. I hope that in "fun" trim it's closer to 400lbs but I'm guessing it'll be well over 450lbs like the KTM 790. My current DS ride has a 6 gallon tank, close to 100hp v-twin, 10+" of travel on both ends, maybe 12" clearance at the skid plate, and has had all the basic mods done to make it durable. But it's 10 years old at this point, and I keep hoping that someone will come out with a package that works better. For me it's all about the weight. Mine is 452# with 4 gallons of gas and all my standard long day ride kit on board. I'd love it to be 30# lighter but I just don't see anyone making anything that has the whole package. 5 or 6 friends have all bought the same bike in the past couple of years, one rode to the arctic circle with his last summer (from GA), I'm thinking maybe in 2 years I'll do the same. Might ship the bike to CO or something to avoid some of the mind numbing freeway stretches. One friend has a 790 duke already and has the 790 adv on order, will be excited to give it a whirl when it arrives. He's got a 1290 ADV R and a 1290 SD-R currently, will be curious to see if he keeps all of them or gets rid of some of them (I would guess the 1290 ADV will get the chop).

Maybe Yamaha will hit it out of the park (specs do not always do a bike justice) but since they have been stingy with details, (8" travel, 9.5" ground clearance, better have a good skid plate and 450+lbs wet weight) I'm not going to hold my breath. BUT it does look good and if I were going to ride more on the pavement, I'd take a serious look at the 700 or the 790.

 

I read that the first journalist test rides will be around the second week of May. Results to follow.

There's a thread about this bike on the ADV forum that's hundreds of pages long. This goes down as one of the most anticipated motorcycles in recent history. It has to be perfect to live up to the hype.