Me likey.


I want one and I'd take the Yamaha any day of the week and twice on Sundays over the KTM.

That's a good point ... one I'd forgotten. I did not know Yamaha made "big" bikes in Italy ... or Spain. Was the 1200 Tenere built in Italy or Spain?

I could live with an Italian made Yamaha as Yam has had a relationship in Italy for what? 20 years?

For KTM, the relationship with this Chinese company, AFAIK, is fairly new. Plus, Bajai Auto India own half of KTM ... and may be calling the shots more in future. Hopefully they get the production bugs out before they release it!

But the Yamaha could have bugs too ... as many first year bikes can have.
But, IMO, Yamaha have a better track record for getting things right. Plus ... I raced Yamahas in AMA Enduro ... loved them! (2 strokes)
so biased!

yeah, me too some time ago, but not anymore. Look how many quality issues has new Africa Twin supposedly built in Japan. Once you get KTM you'll appreciate it. Times when the whole bike was made in Japan are gone anyway.

my tenere was built in France, it is just an assembly though. Not a problem with quality anyway, but KTM built in India concerns me a lot...

Yea, Bajai and KTM really need to straighten out the quality control in India.

What do you think of the Chinese company building the 790 for KTM?
Apparently KTM, along with the Chinese company, have built a new production
facility there. Any info?

I have no problem with Chinese or e.g. Taiwan quality anymore, as a matter of fact for goods made in Taiwan or Japan I don't see any quality difference.

Thanks to EU we probably won't see anything build in Europe anymore soon

Taiwan not the same thing as Chinese mainland.
Much closer to Japan, as you say.
Better quality metallurgy and fabrication than much of China – that's how Taiwan made their reputation, a bit like Switz and watches back in the day.
Of course no reason why China can't get there eventually, if not already in places.

According to the Internet, the MT07s/XSR (same motor) are assembled at the Japanese Iwata factory.

No complaints if the T7 ends up as well made as my scrambled XSR (a lot better than my XT660Z)

KTM + CFMoto: West Meets East - Cycle News

Last I checked, CF Moto is in China, not Taiwan. And I agree, Taiwanese quality has been GREAT for 20 years.

Kymco (Taiwan) built the 450 dirt bike engines for BMW and plenty of other great products. NO, they did not build BMW's F650's. Those were built by Loncin (who are now building the latest BMW 850's) bit lower quality? But AFAIK, Kymco quality is very close to Japan quality.

But CF moto (from reading Alan Cathcart's writings about Chinese Moto production over last 15 years, is one of the best or maybe? THE best moto company in China?

Looks like the switch will not be made until 2020 ... but I'm not clear on this.
So, maybe first 790's will be Austrian made ? ... or ? Hope it works out whatever way it goes.

i'll have to sell a lot of my thinks to buy it ...
but i will!!!!

Don't be too quick to knock Chinese manufactured bikes. The brand owners have been chasing cheap labour all round the world so are well used to instilling and ensuring their global quality standards. They don't just give them a set of drawings and say "off you go"!

A friend of mine had a Honda Innova as well as the Chinese branded equivalent, both made in the same plant in China. The Honda was everything you'd expect, slick, reliable, well finished, and the Chinese bike made for the local market was shoddy, sharing only an engine and a shape. If European and Japanese companies manufacture abroad they are very careful to make sure the product quality stays the same, the only effect should be that it costs you less because the poor sods who make it for pennies earn less in the process.

So regardless of where each bike is made you should judge it by the standards of the parent company not the local market. That said I intend to buy either a 790 or a T7, as I want a relatively lightweight bike that can eat up the miles but doesn't flounder like a whale off road. My thoughts were the KTM, as I believe they have made great strides in reliability while still maintaining a performance focus, but I'd consider the Yamaha if the weight is comparable.

It's not a new phenomena.
Run-of-the-mill established technology metal bashing will continue in "developing" countries while high-end, very innovative technology will remain with those countries/corporations which hold the patents, copyright and manufacturing rights under licence (the latter have been widely ignored by China in the past but that needs to change if they want to continue to trade with the rest of the world - the POTUS has told them I guess).

__________________
Dave

A new video of the tenere 700:

https://youtu.be/R-4_rYHMg2w



Patrick

will go for a ride tomorrow ... not on my Tenere as it is in Germany ... but maybe on the KLX450R that I still have here ... thanks for posting

ohh I just checked out that video and found some info as I noticed it has an English license plate on it! So i ran some checks the bike was registered back in the Uk March 2018 and it is 689cc.

I imagine that as Nick sanders is involved in the last part of the tour that the bike has been prepped by Alf england Mototrcycles as they have prepped all of Nicks yamahas for many years. I guess as it was going on a world tour it had to be legally registered somewhere but it appears Yamaha UK have a strong involvement with the bikes World release.

The bike was also on UK plate in morroco but was on an ausie plate for the first part of the tour in OZ

Love the look of the T7 but its too lardy and tall for me I had a 660 Tenere and loved it but I've got short legs and the bike was too wide for me to get a good standover height to really enjoy it off road and the front end was heavy so suffered in muddy conditions. So sadly i wont be in the market for one. KTM might swing me with the 390 adventure unless Yamaha utilise the MT 03 engine and do a T3 now we're talking but its probably at least 2 years away!