I bought my new (to me) 2021 Yamaha Tenere 700 on 7th of July 2023. I had looked at the bike a few days ago, negotiated the price with the dealer (California Speed-Sports Inc, Dublin CA), and decided to buy it. So a couple of days later, I paid for the bike using a check, but the dealer needed the check to clear before the bike could be taken home. After those few agonizing days, I finally rode it home on Friday July 7th, and was excited to ride it on some dirt.
So the next day, Mahesh (on his Kawasaki KLX230) and I (T7) decided to explore the Crandall & Deer Creek Area in the lower Sierras. I had looked at a few SBR threads and got a feel for the area. There is a lot of single track riding here and also some Forest Service Roads, so our plan was to mix and match some of these roads and ride across from Hwy 108 to Hwy 4.
We made it to the staging area without much trouble. Which is to say a lot for the little KLX230. Mahesh could handle the bike for ~100 miles of highway needed to get here from his house.
We rode down a 2-track trail that slowly became single track. I couldn’t quite make out the trail number, but Google maps placed it at 38°09’07.2″N 120°08’36.6″W. It was fun, but the trail became challenging pretty quickly and we decided to turn back and head to the main Forest Roads instead.
So we headed west on the main Forest Rt 4N01 which was a nice wide and flowly dirt road. The Tenere was very easy to ride here and I was having a lot of fun. From 4N01 we turned off on 4N04 and the road got a little more challenging. There was a lot of rain and erosion last winter so the road was in relatively poor condition. The ruts were deep and the riding was getting more tricky.
From 4N04 we took 3N03, which was similarly challenging to ride (“gnarly” as they say). And somewhere along 3N03 it happened – I dropped the bike. I came in too hot in one downhill section, grabbed too much of the front brake and lost control of the front. I tried to save it to the very end, but lost my balance and the bike tipped over. Thankfully I could just step away from the bike under me, and I did not hurt myself one bit. I had turned off the ABS and I feel that was a mistake. If the front ABS was on, it would have prevented a complete loss of traction. The bike fell on it’s right side. Unfortunately I did not take any picture, I was such a state of surprise that I immediately picked up the bike. I did not find the bike heavy to pick up at all, maybe it was the adrenaline going at that moment.
Unfortunately, I did not realize that I had bent my exhaust hanger by dropping the bike on the right, a common T7 problem. I just rode on, mainly thinking my handlebars are tweaked, which they were. I did not realize till later on that the bent exhaust was going to rub my swingarm. Thankfully the damage was minimal and I bent back the muffler away from the swingarm during our lunch stop.
We made it down to the bridge across the New Malones Lake. It was very hot by now (90+) and we were extremely tired riding heavy adv bikes in the heat.
We rode the rest of the tarmac to Hwy 4 and then to a later lunch at Cascabel Restaurant in Angels Camp. I was definitely bummed that I had dropped the bike and dinged up the swingarm – on the second day of my ownership!
We made it back to the Bay Area in good time, tired but glad that we could conquer this challenging adv ride.
There was some minor damage to the handguards and crash guards.
But the crash guards did their job!
The swingarm was also not too bad, I just put on some electrical tape.
Sujit Kirpekar 