[krat]

I have to agree here. The 700 is an excellent bike for what it is, which is an adventure bike for lugging long paved road miles and occasional jaunts down a fire road.

It is not a beginners bike and it is not one step up from a 250.

I know that here in the States people consider a 650 a beginners bike but they are not riding in the dirt, they are on the street where ambulances are nearby.

The Tenere 700 has gotten a lot of press recently, mostly because it has been supplied to a lot of press people for free. Lots of experienced riders are considering or buying it but most are not flocking to the dealership because it has made everything on the dirt obsolete. Their appearance has not reduced the prices of good used mid weight dual sports at all.

Riding in the dirt is a different hobby. I know people that have ridden for years and never dropped their bike, on the street. On the dirt it is a normal and natural thing to dump your bike several times daily. That is one of the reasons you hear experienced street riders say they are crap on the dirt! They think that because their bike washed out the front wheel in the gravel that they are crap. No, they are just riding in the gravel.

Now on a 250 you have a sub 300 pound bike to stand back up 15 dimes a day. On the 700 you are picking up a 600 pound bike with full fuel load. Do that a half dozen times real fast!!!!

It is really exciting to watch the You-tube videos where they run wide open in the dirt like they were running the Dakar Rally, but they never mention that Dakar has a 450cc size limit on the bikes.