Why I chose the Aprilia Tuareg 660 over other ADVs: First impressions

After a lot of self thought I finally reduced my final list to Yamaha Ténéré, Aprilia Tuareg and Yamaha Tracer 7.

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Back Story

16th November 2007 - This was my last motorcycle purchase! I picked up the newly launched Bajaj Pulsar 220 Dts-FI. And boy did I ride that bike!!! I had clocked close to 130K Kms on it by 2018. Of course, most of those were in my earlier years of ownership (30K by the first year, 50K by the second year, etc., etc.)

But in 2018, I moved countries and my Pulsar and my biking life stayed parked, gathering dust for close to five years. A combination of a new job, new country, new language, and new additions to the family meant I had to keep that part of my life parked until recently.

Getting There

In late 2022 I started the long and arduous process of getting a French license, for familial reasons I decided to get a car license first. I cleared the theory exam in June 2022 but found time for the practical test only in March 2023. Once the car license was in my pocket, I focussed on my real target the A2 bike license, the timeline of that was relatively quicker. I did my theory in April 2023, I finished my mandatory 20 hours of training in June 2023, the first practical test (closed track) was cleared at the beginning of July 2023, and on 31st July I cleared my second practical test (open traffic).

Making a Choice

This was probably the hardest part. And only because it had been a long time, I had no idea what kind of a biker I wanted to be or what kind of a bike I wanted to ride. If you asked me 5 years ago, the answer would been quite clear, I wanted a middle-weight Trail/ADV, because that was my riding style back then. However, now I wasn't sure, because maybe I would not be riding so much off-road, maybe I would just stick to highways. What helped, however, was that I knew what I did not want. I certainly had no interest in super-sports, street bikes, or cruisers.

This clarity helps narrow down the choices to either Sport Touring (ST) or Adventure (ADV) bikes. The Triumph Tiger has long been on my wishlist, so naturally, the new Tiger 900 was at the top of my list. My initial list looked something like this -

• Triumph Tiger 900 (GT & Rally) and the older Tiger 800s
• Honda Transalp XL750
• Yamaha Ténéré
• Yamaha Tracer 700
• Triumph Tiger 660
• KTM 890 Adventure
• Honda CB500X

In addition to this, I explored the idea of picking up an older generation 2012-15 era ST bike as well.

But a few things became quickly apparent, firstly, I did not want to pick up a really old bike and have to think about maintenance every time I head out. My last couple of years with the Pulsar 220 were spent (time & money) in keeping it in top riding condition and currently in my life I do not have the bandwidth to spend that kind of time to keep something up and running.

The second brutal realization was that considering my license's age, I am in the category of a novice driver/rider. And, as it has been more than 5 years since my last insurance renewal of my vehicle, I could not provide any sort of proof of insurance. So as a novice rider, you get put on the highest premium bracket for insurance. So now I also had to take insurance quotations into account while choosing the bike. Because, if you look at the above list, the insurance value varies by almost 3 times between the cheapest to insure and the highest.

The last hurdle I had was that most vehicle shops did not have an A2 license-compatible test-ride vehicle. For example, the Tiger 900 Rally Pro (topmost in my list of choices) was not available for a test ride in an A2 variant with any dealer in the entire region around me. I was offered a test ride for a Tiger 900 GT Pro though, which I did take and came back mostly unconvinced. I had the same issue with the Yamaha Ténéré, nobody had an A2 demo bike that I could test ride. So for most of the bikes on that list above, the top choices (Tiger 900 RP and Yamaha T7) would have to be purchased purely based on the opinions of others. I was not so sure that I wanted to do that, because reviews can be objective, but the way someone connects with one bike can be different for different people.

And then in my mind, the whole ST vs. ADV battle was something that I had to sort. Was I being too ambitious thinking of an ADV bike, while my primary riding would be ST-oriented? After a lot of self thought I finally reduced my final list to the following -

• Yamaha Ténéré
• Aprilia Tuareg (New Entry)
• Yamaha Tracer 7

It was finally going to be a Japan vs. Italy showdown. The Ténéré was already a legend, there is no doubt that is an excellent bike, but the extremely high seat height (775mm) seat height meant that I could barely tiptoe on that bike (yes with Motocross boots I might get a bit more down, but definitely not flatfoot). Plus no Yamaha dealer had an A2 variant that I could at least get a test ride on. I knew that the Tracer 7 would be an excellent bike as well. And overall in all things considered, either of the Yamaha's made sense. Reliable AF(pardon my french!), cheap to maintain & insure and more importantly very easy to sell if I wanted to move to anything else.

The Italian, well I had discarded from my first list itself due to many reasons (all logical). First and foremost, reliability was/has not been a forte of the Italian stable, secondly, the bike was a new kid on the block having been released in just 2022 (other variants RS & Tuono based on the same engine have been there since 2020, but have had many teething issues at the start), there is a lot that a manufacturer needs to evolve over some time to stabilize their product. I learned this the hard way with the Pulsar 220, being the owner of a first-generation product, I had experienced this first hand. And lastly, the Tuareg was loaded to the gills (for its class) with electronics, which are stuff that is just waiting to fail (depending on how you think!). Again, this was something I had seen with the Pulsar 220 as well, the Fuel Injection unit was relatively rock solid, but the electricals & electronics built around it were its Achilles heel. Having left me stranded more than once. And as they say, once bitten, twice shy. And more importantly, aesthetically, the Tuareg did not appeal to my eyes as well. It looked like a weirdly structured bike, in comparison the Ténéré seemed to have a very flowing design language that appealed to my eyes.

However, I decided against all logic to give this bike a shot, just so that I have an option to choose from. Unlike Yamaha, Aprilia was eager to set up an A2 test ride bike for me and also unlike Yamaha they said they had bikes available in stock and could deliver it to me in a week, unlike Yamaha said I might need to wait until 2024 due to the insane demand. I know this should have been a red flag that nobody is buying the Aprilias.

All reviews of the Tuareg were mostly all praises with not much to complain about. Reliability was brought up, but nobody had any solid consistent reliability-related failures to talk about. So I thought, why not just give it a try, especially since people are practically singing praises?

So I took an appointment for a test ride of the bike one weekend and went there hoping to be WoW'ed! However, the test ride did not yield any significant 'Eureka!!!' moment as I found that engine to be quite vibey, there was too much wind buffeting with the stock screen, and the engine maps did not feel that much was changing on the bike's behaviour. On the other side, I found that the bike was super light and nimble, and it carried its weight quite low. The grunt on the restricted bike was more than enough to lug around its weight and could almost be called fun. On the highway, the bike sits on the sweet spot between 5-6K RPM when doing 100-110 and could easily pull further when needing to overtake slower-moving vehicles.

The Decision

I spent the next few days devouring all content related to both these bikes, from forums to YouTube videos to various articles on the internet. In the meantime, I also managed to get to sit on the Ténéré and walk the bike around with my feet. Two things became quickly apparent, not only was the Ténéré very high, but the reviews that talked about its weight being quite high were all true. If the bike starts to tip over, unless I worked out for 6 months on my thigh & shoulder strength there was no way I was going to be able to keep that bike upright in a tricky situation. Second, I was spoilt riding Tubeless Tyres for all those years on the 220. I just could not get myself to go back to the Tube Tyre tyre setup. Despite it being much better for offroad riding! I know I am no Pol Tarres, and if I ever get to a point where my riding skills exceed the capability of Tubeless rims, I could invest in a set of wheels.

Finally, the decision came down to more heart vs brain. On paper, the Tuareg far exceeds the Ténéré in all aspects. Even from a suspension PoV, I would need to invest 2-3K € to get it up to the level of the Tuareg, leaving the electronics aside. Because out of the factory, the Tuareg has more suspension travel and has more adjustability. Even though the adjustability aspect exceeds my current skill set, it is good to know that if needed I do not need to break the bank again and upgrade the suspension.And to my test ride experience of the Tuareg, I chalked down the Vibey bike feeling to it being a test ride bike that has probably not been run-in well. And coming from a Pulsar, there was no way that I could complain about vibes. The seat height on the Tuareg is 860mm, so I can almost flatfoot easily and the biggest plus point was that the Tuareg carries its weight pretty low which makes it very easy to manage.

In the end, in my heart even if I ended with an ST, I knew that I would regret not buying an ADV, just because with an ADV I know if I see a trail at least I have an option. With an ST that door stays closed (more or less!). So it had to be an ADV in the end! Though I know on twisties and fast highways an ST will outshine the AD in the handling department, I know if I don't go ADV now, I would probably never go down the ADV route. So it just had to be an ADV only!

Thus, I decided to go down the same route as I did 16 years back, taking a chance on the new kid on the block as it just pulled the strings of the heart more than the obvious Japanese choice (back then it was the Karizma). I decided that I needed to get myself an Italian Pulsar

Finally, I put down my money on the Italian and got it home one fine rainy Friday afternoon in October.

For now, I picked up only very basic accessories from Aprilia. I got it with a quick shifter, chain guard, and heated grips and bought it with an extended warranty of two years which was enough to empty the bank for now. I will slowly accessorize this over the upcoming weeks starting with getting the protection first, then looking at picking up some luggage. Right now, I have the fork & swingarm protectors, and crash guard on order. Will explore some tank & tail bags next and then hopefully will change the engine sump guard

This is not the best season for riding with it being cold and rainy the running-in is going to be slow and steady for now. I will keep this thread updated as I make progress with the ownership experience of the Tuareg

First Impression

The demo bike was not run in well, this became apparent the moment I slowly rode my new Tuareg back to my place! Though I have not done a whole lot of mileage yet on the bike. But, it's been very very smooth so far. The different ride modes are great as well and I can see the behaviour change finally. And the suspension as it is from the factory seems to hit the sweet spot. For now, I have done a mix of city, highways, small little twisties, and small village roads and it seems pretty well set. The bike responds well despite the A2 restriction because the Torque is reduced only a bit, down to 60Nm from 70Nm, so overall the pull is excellent. Trying to get to 1000 km of service as soon as possible so I can open up the bike a bit more and try and do slightly longer rides weather willing. I will update this thread as I get more done on the bike. Hoping to do a longish ride in May/June next year with some bit of TET thrown in

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