The time has come. After the Shadow, Pan European, Varadero, NC700X, CRF1000L AT and VFR1200X, I am leaving team Honda.
I have had my eyes out for the Yamaha T7 for years. I focus more and more on off roading and far away broken roads in distant lands. I took a a couple of test ride on the T7 before. It kept nagging not having one in the garage. Yesterday I went to a dealer to get my bike appraised for what it's worth trading it in. There's some mandatory maintenance coming up (bike hitting 113.000km) and I wanted to make a decision if I want to invest more money into it. Yesterday I decided to screw the T7.
The VFR and I have a love/hate relationship. I love it's power, hate it's suspension. I love the torque, I hate it's clonky shocking slow speed ramming and tooting of the drive shaft. I absolute f*****g hate the auto canceling indicator, I love the looks of the LED's and headlight. Etc. Etc.
Upstairs in the dealer, I gazed upon a grey and black feral cat. I always loved the looks of this bike, but money was always an issue back then. I kept walking back to it, not even paying attention anymore to the T7's and Super Tenere's they had lined up next to it. If I was serious, I could ride it straight away, so I agreed. Especially after what they offered me in return (68% of what I bought the Crossy for, at the same dealer even).
My. God. Holy. Moly.
What a power. This is a first gen Tiger Explorer, but lord almighty everything fits and checks the boxes. It is only 15kg lighter, but feels 40kg lighter riding, what I wanted. It picks up way quicker, drive shaft driven, same single sided swingarm, the seat is 10x better, no annoying dashboard caused whistle at 90kmph+ speeds, cruise control (thank you very much), 190mm travel suspension, no drive shaft slack, NO FORCED AUTO CANCELING INDICATORS THAT WORK HALF THE TIME, wohoooo!
I have never driven a triple before and this absolutely perfectly bridges the V4 and parallel twins together. Same power V4 power, picks up quicker like a twin, smooth as a V4. I will miss the VFR, it took me through mud/gravel/sand and over the barren planes of Norway and warm mountains of Italy, but It's time for a new chapter in my biking career.
