TRAIL ZONE

TRAIL MAIL

THE TENERE LEGEND REVISITED!

Hi Guys: Firstly, congrats to all of you at TRAILZONE, I have been a suscriber for a while now and you all do a great job in getting a great magazine out.

Okay, now what I want to talk about: I read with great interest in the latest issue (and various other back issues) regarding the fantastic TENERE. I was a very lucky and proud owner of a '83 TENERE which I purchased new in '84.

Myself and two other mates bought three of them new and a fourth mate bought a XT600 as he couldn't source a TENERE. We went on an epic journey of 9000 kays in four weeks to Broken Hill, Menindee, Flinders Ranges, Oodnadatta Track, Stuart Hwy (dirt in those years), Ayers Rock, Alice (Centre Rally and Henley on Todd), Three Ways to Birdsville (races yee-haa!), Towoomba and back home (Hunter Valley). Wow, what a ride for four green young guys! We camped and took all provisions to be self-sufficient, and as we all had similar bikes, we shared our spares around ourselves.

I noticed that "Project TENERE" came with a spare tank! You might be interested to know that all three of us owners gained a spare tank each, as the early TENEREs had a habit of the baffles coming loose and rattling. Yamaha Australia fixed this by supplying new tanks and we all got to keep the originals. 

I have sent a pic from that trip and hope that it may be of interest to you.

Cheers and keep up the good work.

-- Shultzy, via www.trailzone.com.au

That pic is the stuff of legend, Shultzy. You reckon you had enough gear lashed on the rear carry rack? And you even had stuff strapped on the headlight surround! Talk about being fully-loaded -- awesome! The return of the mighty Tenere sure is bringing a lot of fans of the classic Japanese adventure bike out of the woodwork. I've had readers offering me spare shocks and parts for my ol' banger, and heaps of guys like you writing in to tell us about their good ol' days on their Teneres. I've got another update on the '83 Tenere Project Bike coming up in TRAIL ZONE issue #26, so make sure you look out for it for another trip down memeory lane.

Ride on!

-- Clubby, 

    www.trailzone.com.au