It took me a long time to settle on this bike and ultimately it came down to the fact that a friend had a similar version. My god, I made a great choice!

I would go so far as to say this is one of the most underrated bikes out there today. Light, capable, strong, easy to ride, reliable are all very good adjectives for this bike. I was sad to let it go when I sold it but it had served its purpose and I needed to move on. If anyone is looking for a very good dual-purpose bike I would always recommend the Tenere, and now there’s a new version that should correct any of the very minor short-comings that the bike had.

I think the problem I had was when riding in the UK, the amount of motorway travel you have to do to eat up miles is a bit too much for this bike. It always needed an extra gear to be fuel-efficient when travelling at motorway speeds. Don’t get me wrong though it was very capable but did lack a bit of power when overtaking.

Take it off-road though and it really excels. Load it up with camping gear, fill it up and just go. It’s as easy as that.

I had so many good times with this big thumper (single cylinder) in the three years that I owned it, exploring the British Isles.