6 Reasons a DR650 is better than a Tenere

I recently turned down a Tenere and bought a DR650 instead. Here's why...

[mattevans]

My DR sucks. After 70, 000km I had a valve cover oil leak and had to spend 4 dollars on new seals and take 5 minutes to change those o-rings as I drank my morning coffee before meeting up with my friends. Soon I'll have to spend 20 minutes along with my morning coffee to adjust the valves and I might get my hands dirty.

[jonwoodworker]

I was doing some single track woods riding last week end on the DR. I rolled up to 3 guys on a KTM, Beta, and Sherco. All three are absolute awesome bikes, but all they wanted to do is look at and ask questions about my DR...lol. I have 2 sets of wheels, one with knobbies and one set with Shinko 705's. My advise for buying a DR is get a used one and make it into what ever you want. Aftermarket is huge, everyone has parts for it.

[rupertsuzuki]

A few thoughts:
Weight is irrelevant until you have to pick it up; DR for the win.
Budget; a fully farkled DR’s journey ends where the T7’s begins, so both are essentially the same price but the DR is better at this point and the T7 still weighs a 100 pounds more.
The T7 might have more power to stretch its legs on the highway but where I live if you get caught using it kiss your bike goodbye, the DR has more than enough power to flirt with this legal limit while still being able to pass so if this is the T7’s advantage it’s lost on me given the task.
The T7 offers weight I don’t want to pick up, with performance I can’t use, complexity I can’t fix and all at a price I don’t want to pay.
Sounds like a winner.

[pilotdane]

Very good decision indeed !!!! You nailed it too on the simplicity & being "BULLET PROOF" - TRUST ME - There is nothing like a single cylinder carbureted "thumper" - that is literally a "BLANK SHEET" - and you can absolutely make it "ONE OF A KIND". I have been riding for about 55 years and it is, BAR NONE, the best bike I have ever owned. Congrats for sure - And it doesn't make "Hot Pockets" LOL.... And I also agree with you on the look - even "stock" - I think it is a freakin work of I understand, all too well, "what do you want to do?" - Where do you ride, how do you ride, etc... I am a true 50/50 DUAL SPORT RIDER, and I could smoke the Tenere' off road - Hell, I smoke KTM's off road with my DR.... Just saying....

Cheers !

[joeblack]

Great video. In 2018, I was in the market for a new bike and impatiently waiting on the T7 to come to the U.S. I finally settled on the DR as the T7 took another couple years to show up. $2K in upgrades later, I wouldn't trade the DR for anything. It has been rugged and reliable over 11K miles, so far, riding all over New Mexico, parts of NMBDR, most of AZBDR and COBDR. I'm 6' tall, but the lower stature of the bike make it feel comfortable and planted offroad.

[tshadow]

I like the DR650 locknut valves, over T7 shim and bucket. My next motorcycle will be old fashion locknut valve adjustment.

[RGB]

Nice vid. I am a DR rider and extremely happy with my bike, and my main riding buddy rides a T7. I would not part with my bike, nor he his. He looks at a carburetor like I do a steam engine (and he is very mechanically adept). I look at his bike like one I don’t want to either maintain, or ever have to lift alone.

One thing I will give the T7 is it does seem to me, on balance, to be a more reliable bike than the DR. Yes, the DR is often called “bulletproof “ but that has not been my experience. Mine dropped a valve in the cylinder, toasting that top end. Then I swapped engines with a newer one and at the end of my first riding season found a piece of that dreaded circlip in my oil change. So I combined the two engines, the top end from the newer and the bottom end from the older to keep the bike on the road. Bottom line for me is I still love the DR simply because I COULD do all of these procedures, but I remain skeptical about reliability claims based on my personal experience.

At the end of the day, it’s different horses for different courses. He and I are both happy bike owners and we each wouldn’t change a thing.

[curtiscummings]

Had the GS1200, still have a Honda Africa Twin but bought a DR650 in 2019 for all the reasons you mentioned and am extremely happy. Put 5 miles on it and stripped it down much like you have and spend about another 4 thousand on mods. It was a great decision and I now have about 20, 000 miles on it with no issues. Love it so much I am considering buying another to replace this one. We share the same opinion regarding the T7 and DR. Great video. To me, the DR is the ultimate adventure bike now and is much more fun to ride than the bigger ADV bikes with only one exception, that being long miles on the slab. Enjoy your bike...

[T-zw]

I had a DR. It was lots of fun. I put 55, 000 miles on it. I spent over 2k in mods. I had two sets of wheels and gearing. It’s a nice bike but I wouldn’t put it in the same category as a T7. While there’s quite a bit of overlap the DR is really a dual sport but the T7 is a better traveling bike. The ABS on the T7 adds to the safety plus you can run full heated gear on the T7. You can’t on the DR without draining your battery. The choice really depends on what you primarily plan to do with the bike. If your going to include lots of single track the DR (with mods) is better. If your primarily doing long hauls on fire roads and paved roads, the T7 is better.

[rsbharley]

Excellent video, thanks for taking the time to share. I am looking at dr650's or drz400e. Cheers

[jasonloke]

Thanks for sharing. I have a DR for 18 years. Thanks for your good reasons. I must use it for another 18. Thanks!!

[michaelbennett]

Good one. All of same reasons that I settled on last year when looking for a replacement for the BMW. Never looked back!! Love it. Weight was the top of my list and find it absolutely amazing moving from the 200kg F650 to the 160Kg DR650. Chalk and cheese. So easy. Simple things like physically turning the bike around to get out of a narrowing no exit track and the like.

[jhackett]

Lots of good points made here. And if the motor dies miles from home I’d much rather work on simple old technology that I fully understand. Fuel injection is great but it relies on too many components that are never lying around in the middle of nowhere.

[chasingtrail]

Good video and I appreciate your points. I'm having this struggle myself, though finding a Tenere 700 anytime soon is unlikely to happen for me in the USA. I sold a well sorted DR650 a while back and I've missed it ever since. I know I'll never get my money back out of all the mods, but I can also build MY perfect machine. The DR650 is a wonderful platform to build your own custom bike. I'm also concerned by the weight of the T7. Anything over 400 lbs seems like too much to take offroad, for me.

[inrptn]

The DR650 was my first dual sport and I really took for granted how awesome it was. Other than being a bit top heavy, it was an amazing machine on and off road. Here I am 15 years later looking at getting another one. Please make a video about the bulletproofing process you are doing!

[joshl]

I have a 1995 dr650. Love the simplicity of it as well. Been coveting the Tenere 700 almost to the point of buying one. Thank you for this reminder video of why I should stick with a DR650, possibly 20 or so years newer though!

[Boom-ouvb]

I was lucky and sound a well fArkled dr650 prior to the pandemic and all it’s bullshit and price gouging. Got it with low miles for $3000. A buddy of mine wants one now and they are almost double in price (USA). Definitely my favorite motorcycle that I have had and I’ve had quite a few over the past 30 years. So easy to maintain and with proper riding skill you’d be surprised at what you can do on one. Great video btw! I think a lot of people can agree and the motorcycle you compare it to is quite different for sure.

[jeremybrunes]

I went from crotch rockets to a couple Honda cr650ls and a Yamaha XT500 the simple daul sports are just gratifying to ride fast or slow mostly I think simplicity is something you can go out and carry a tool kit and know you are coming home! Great comparison

[eugrules]

Both good bikes. Kind of apples and oranges. Once I decided that I was not going to ride anything more difficult than a 2 track dirt, the T7 became my choice. When I want to ride a trail, I want to be on my ktm 300. If you are going to own one bike, the DR650 would be hard to beat.

[RatherBeWheeling]

Great video! I am struggling with a recent purchase of a 2009 DR with low miles. After having a few fancy bikes previously with traction control, abs, full dash/instrumentation etc etc the stock DR feels very outdated and rough ha ha. What I am looking forward to is building it into a bike that fits my riding style. The bike is like you said very simple and a tinkers dream. The best part is when I drop it down the side of a hill I am not worried about a 4000$ repair bill for plastics, computers radiators, shrouds, lights... and so on.