2026 Yamaha Ténéré 700 World Raid Review

What's up guys, Ryan with Motorcycle.com here with Yamaha's new Tenere 700 World Raid. Thanks to Yamaha for bringing us out to a super cool spot here in Idaho to get our first chance with this new bike. So what's changed from the World Raid? Well, you might already know because it's been out in Europe for a few years now, but if you don't already know, the bike gets longer range, taller suspension, you could say more premium suspension, an electronic upgrade, and then a host of a few other kind of tasteful upgrades along the way. So let's get into it. So as far as the longer range, the Yamaha Tenere World Raid gets a 6.1 gallon tank, or I guess I should say tanks because we've got a split tank design here, which is really cool. And honestly, the way it kind of juts out to the sides is slightly reminiscent of the XT 550 that was raced way back when, but it's really cool to see Yamaha adapt this design and give riders that want that longer range an option here on the Tenere platform. So you do have that leveling. So as you're using the fuel, it is going to keep everything level, but you are going to have to fill up both sides when you're at the pump. But another, you could say improvement is that they also dropped the weight lower. And so they kind of centralized the mass of the entire motorcycle a bit more than it was before, which I think was probably one of the Tenere's biggest complaints was it being top heavy. So although you do have a lot more weight up here, they did their best to bring it down and in my opinion, kind of make it into this classic styling that's kind of based on bikes from yesteryear. So that's really cool. Then getting into the suspension, the suspension is something that kind of leaves me questioning things a little bit. I think we have a similar situation than when Honda brought out the first Africa Twin Adventure Sports. They brought out this model that was taller, had more range, better suspension. It was the tallest motorcycle in the adventure bike space at that time. And it was like, well, is it the long range model or is it the hardcore suspension model? Kind of left you questioning things. I kind of feel the same thing about the World Raid. And maybe it's because we're not getting the Rally Raid in America that you can get in other places of the world, but we do have some really nice suspension on this bike. So you're going to get a 46 mil fork up front with full adjustability. And then the shock is also going to give you a bit extra travel. You're basically getting an extra inch of travel on each end. And you got full adjustability on it, but we'll get into the riding dynamics a little bit later, but it does leave me kind of questioning is it long range? Is it more hardcore off-road? What are we doing here? But getting back to what makes the World Raid, the World Raid is also going to be the six-axis IMU. So you're getting more electronics and basically more data to inform those electronics. So now you have cornering ABS, cornering tract control. You have slide control that isn't so much cornering, but kind of decides where the bike is at in space from a sliding perspective, not so much angle, but probably is going to be using some of that information. So definitely a cool feature here. And you have the ability to adjust those things. So you've got a couple levels of TC, you've got a couple levels of the slide control, and then you can adjust your power modes as well. Basically, you're getting the same things, some of the same things that you had on the 2025 refresh of the Tenere 700, but now you've got IMU-based electronics to adjust a little bit too. So you get an off-road mode, a street mode, and then off in both traction control and slide control. So cool to see those features on this bike. And you're getting all of these things. Don't even forget to mention the 16-click, pretty interestingly designed damper, steering damper that you have right here. Easily adjustable, super cool. You've got bigger foot pegs, a rally kind of inspired seat, one-piece seat, and that basically rounds out what's different for the World Raid. And you're getting all that for just two grand more than the base model at 11 grand. This thing's going to cost you $13,000 in the U.S. And I believe availability is at the end of the month, so these things are going to be in dealers right away. So as far as these things that make the World Raid the World Raid, the fuel tank, yes, it's kind of big. As far as the top heaviness, without really riding the bikes back-to-back, I can't really speak to it, but it does give you more room from the handlebar to the top of the tank. It does feel, you can kind of feel that momentum. It's supposed to be about 485 pounds wet. You can feel that momentum when you start to slide around and stuff, but the bike feels just incredibly stable. It always has felt stable, but as far as handling goes on the trail, I didn't really feel any negative effects from the tank. I didn't feel like the bike was too top heavy. It was super easy to kind of maneuver around. We did end up getting into some technical sections, some of them unexpected, but it gave me some chance to really push the bike a little bit harder than we had for the rest of the trip. And after three days of riding, I would say this thing handles really well. I never had a problem, you know, kind of pushing it down into turns. It didn't feel top heavy to me compared to some of the other bikes, not only the the standard Tenere, but other bikes in the past that have been pretty top heavy. So really, no complaints about the tank. It might take you a little bit longer at the fuel pump to get this thing filled up, but if you want the range, you've got it here. And Yamaha also said they did the split tank design to keep fuel from sloshing around so much. Whether or not you want to believe that, it's up to you. If it's more of a styling exercise that harkens back to the days of old with other bikes, you know, either one, it's got the range. If that's for you, it's got it. So in terms of the electronics, you know, there are probably plenty of people that think like, 689cc engine twin, do I need that? I would say yes, because this bike's always been super punchy. All of, well, every bike that's used this engine in the Yamaha lineup has a lot of torque. MT in the naked bike stands for Master of Torque. So as far as the electronics go on a bike like this, I do think that they can be beneficial for some riders. I think, you know, for us, we kind of set it and forget it today. But for me, I was changing, you know, I kind of tried everything, left, uh, you know, left everything on the road, did that, tried not to break traction on the road too much, but then started testing stuff off-road. Being able to adjust the ABS, the slide control and the traction control between just a street setting and an off-road setting. There's not like super granular, uh, adjustment like on some of the KTMs and other bikes that you see. But as far as this goes, it's really cool to just be able to kind of switch between the two. I found myself leaving ABS on on the front and off on the rear for the majority of the day. And honestly, I left slide control on the off-road setting for a good portion of the three days we've been riding. The only time when I did decide to shut it off was when we got into more silty stuff. The silt was getting on top of the rocks we were going over and the ABS was just kicking in more than I wanted it to. So it's nice that you have the option to shut it off completely, but for most riding, it's probably fine to leave it on. When it comes to the slide control, I would say if you're on an actual adventure tour and you're looking to slide the bike around a little bit, but need to keep things in line, you need to get your way through your tour, slide control provides a nice safety net. So again, it's kind of up to you if you want to kind of hoon around and drift around some gravel roads. Leaving the slide control in the off-road setting is pretty fun, lets you step it out. You've got that little bit of a safety net there, it's nice to have. Again, that said, you can turn it off and drift to your heart's content. This bike is super smooth, delivers the torque super smooth as it always has. And you know, I think, do you need it? Probably not. You can use what is now an electronic throttle to kind of dial in your drifts. And you know, the whole bike has always been really easy to ride, but you do get those electronics here with the new bike that, you know, kind of just make the entire experience a little bit more premium, I guess. One of the best electronic features now that we've got an electronic throttle though, is cruise control. And that comes standard on the World Raid, happy to see that for sure. We had the optional quick shifter, which worked really well. And honestly, as they've, you know, become more popular on off-road bikes, I really enjoy using them off-road, especially when you're in fast stuff. It's just a lot of fun to be able to blip through, you know, down the gears, click up, super easy. Nice feature to have, and Yamaha does it really well. But I would say the thing that stands out to me the most, and like I already mentioned, is kind of the most confusing thing, is the suspension. You've got, again, you've got more travel, so you get more ground clearance with the World Raid, you get all this adjustability, and the damping feels much more sorted. I think it surprised me the most, whether it was on-road or off-road, at lean, going over bumps on-road, rocks off-road, the thing feels totally, totally stable. With all the adjustability that you get too, in terms of preload, compression, rebound, you're going to be able to fine-tune it. I would say in the stock settings, it feels almost a little firm with like fast hits, high-speed compression, but when I was kind of noticing that in potholes on the road and whatnot, once we got off-road and we started picking up the pace, I was very happy for it. So again, I think the World Raid is a really cool option from Yamaha. I'm glad they finally brought it to the States. Not sure what took so long, but it's, again, maybe a little confusing with the more premium suspension, the taller ground clearance, taller suspension travel, bigger tank, but at the same time, it works really well, and all the time we spent out here, I was super impressed with the suspension, and the added tank didn't make a difference in that. We had a really good time today. Definitely want to shout out the bigger foot pegs too, because the thing needed that from the beginning. But anyway, as far as the thing goes, it's the tried-and-true Tenere that you already knew. With these upgrades, you'll have to decide for yourself if you want it, if this is for you, but it's an option that's $13,000 from Yamaha. All right, guys. Well, that's it for now. Hopefully, we can get our hands on one of these bikes back in California, spend a little bit more time with it. Thanks for watching. If you like the video, like, comment, subscribe. If you want all the details, the specs, a little bit further breakdown, head on over to Motorcycle.com. Thanks for watching.