One sector of the new motorcycle market is absolutely booming and every manufacturer is doing their best to get a piece of the adventure bike pie. We will all have our favourites, but two machines have a reputation above all others, built on the back of incredible sales figures and endless Paris-Dakar rally wins. One of course is the BMW GS, and the other is celebrating 40 years of success, the famed and well named, Yamaha Ténéré. To celebrate the milestone, Yamaha has released a race-inspired 40th Anniversary edition, but in Austria, the local marketing team had an idea to really capture attention. So, a call was made to the guys in Graz at Vagabund Moto, and doing what they do best, they’ve created this stunning rally-raid Ténéré 700, which gives the old heave-ho to the status quo.

Since its inception, the Dakar rally has been the proving ground for the toughest machines on the planet and Yamaha took on the challenge from day one. The first two events were won by Cyril Neveu on an XT500, and as competition heated up the Ténéré was born with huge success and ‘Monsieur Dakar’ himself Stéphane Peterhansel, recorded six Yamaha victories on his own, a feat which remains unbeaten to this day. More recently, legendary adventurer and Yamaha ambassador Nick Sanders used a Ténéré 700 to complete his latest trip around the globe, and it starts to become hard to argue with the model’s credentials for being an excellent explorer.

Having taken the call from Yamaha Austria, Phil and Paul didn’t want to build just another stickered-up race replica, they do one-off designs their own way. “Based on the Ténéré 700 40th anniversary edition, we have taken the approach of generating a modern retro look and expressing it more strongly with our colour design.” But the guys are also big believers in “form follows function” and when you look past the wild colours, there are plenty of additions that make this a wonderful, and very usable, weekend warrior. 

But before any spanners were spun, the entire team at Vagabund sat down to draw up a cohesive design, which would inform the build from start to finish. It is an area that the guys take very seriously and helps to explain why each and every one of their builds has such a high degree of fit and finish. This level of commitment to exceptionalism translates into one of the first moves the boys made, 3D scanning the entire rear end of the bike. This has allowed them to design their new parts on the computer, knowing that the finished product would be a perfect fit. And the new integrated taillight housing with those cool coloured acrylic accents really set the tone.

The same colour is used on the tall front screen for a look like no other, and with the four projector headlights below, it sure has a futuristic vibe. The next addition was a full set of Zieger crash bars, which instantly adds to the rally bike credibility, and allows for the introduction of another crazy colour, the dayglo orange.

Protecting the powerplant is another piece from the Zieger, a skid plate that wears the same yellow hue as the acrylic components. This use of practical components and various colours then lands on the “specially manufactured brake disc protector, made of high-quality polyamide-12 plastic, and is intended to round off this approach even further.

Having used such striking colours for the accent pieces, the primary hue would be vital in pulling the look together, and the Vagabund team came up with an inspired choice. Giving the Yamaha the look of a futuristic military machine, the grey and white digital camo is applied to the majority of the bodywork, with the Ténéré name in white, and the same colour also used on the disc cover, lower crash bar and bark busters. You can see why the initial design was so important to avoid a mess, and a more traditional approach is used for the rally seat with black Vagabund Alcantara upholstery.

Of course, one of the most attractive aspects of the Ténéré 700 has nothing to do with its looks, but the sheer performance of the crossplane crank equipped 689cc parallel twin engine. The configuration is all the rage at the moment in the motorcycle world, but that crank and excellent fuelling deliver excellent torque throughout the rev range, which is exactly what you want for the powerplant of an adventure bike.

The guys didn’t see the need to perform many modifications, but one interesting tweak is the change to the mid-pipe of the exhaust that gives the muffler a seriously radical upswept angle. Sitting just above the muffler is the first of the vital storage options that are key to making an adventure bike a practical piece of kit. 

The hard Peli case has its own adaptor to fit the rear crash protection and makes the perfect place for your valuables. Beneath SW-Motech side carriers allow for the addition of big soft bags, which are easily removed and would happily host, clothes, a small tent and other accessories for your overnight comfort. While finishing the job off is a pair of quick-release mounts at the front of the bike for two Carhartt-WIP bags, with shoulder straps for when you want to head off on foot.

For all the crazy colours and over-the-top aspects, it is a very usable machine and Vagabund has perfectly bucked the status quo as is their way, and produced a stylish Ténéré 700 for those with an adventurous spirit.

[ Vagabund Moto | Photography by Stefan Leitner – Instagram ]