100,000km | Ténéré Without Limits

Endless Adventure with Yamalube and Ride ADV

There are adventure bikes that look the part, and then there are adventure bikes that have genuinely lived the life. Greg Yager’s Yamaha Ténéré 700 falls very firmly into the second category.

Known around RideADV as OG, the Mule and, at times, the Cory bike, this hard-working Ténéré has now travelled more than 100,000 kilometres since joining the RideADV fleet in October 2019. That figure alone is impressive. What makes it remarkable is the type of kilometres involved.

This has not been a life of Sunday coffee runs and gentle highway cruising. As part of Greg’s Yamaha Motor Australia-supported RideADV operation, based at Mangrove Mountain in New South Wales, the bike has spent most of its life doing what the Ténéré 700 was built to do, riding off-road. It has enjoyed a life of leading adventure rides, sweeping groups, testing suspension and proving components in real Australian conditions. “The kilometres on this bike are pretty well always off-road,” Greg says. “We do as much off-road as possible, and that is the whole mantra behind RideADV.”

-
The bike also carries a special place in Australian Ténéré history, being one of the first Ténéré 700s in the country, and possibly the first Ténéré 700 registered in Australia. It was airfreighted in with 11 others for the model’s local launch and quickly became more than just another bike in the fleet. “We’ve had this bike since October 2019,” Greg explains. “It’s done a lot of work including early testing with journalists. It's also been used for suspension testing, along with dyno work and the day-to-day demands of running adventure rides with RideADV.

For many riders, putting 100,000 kilometres on an adventure bike would be a milestone worthy of celebration. For Greg, it was also a chance to inspect what was happening inside the engine. From day one, the bike has been run on Yamalube 10W-40 semi-synthetic oil. While Yamaha’s recommended oil change interval is 10,000 kilometres, Greg’s RideADV fleet receives fresh oil every 5000 kilometres as part of his own own maintenance schedule. “The 5000 kilometre oil change is what we do on all our fleet bikes,” Greg says. “It is just a maintenance thing we do here.”

That routine is deliberately simple: regular servicing, Yamalube, quality filtration, genuine Yamaha parts where required and careful attention to the things that matter in off-road use. Greg revealed that RideADV’s maintenance is handled in-house, with support from Lincoln Brien from Chris Watson Motorcycles, who finished second in the world in Yamaha’s Technician Grand Prix.

.
Outside of regular servicing and normal wear items such as tyres, chains, sprockets, air filters and oil filters, the bike has required remarkably little. Greg revealed the only things he has needed to replace over the past 100,000km are a countershaft sprocket seal, replaced under warranty after an early oil leak, along with three valve shims and two spark plugs. That is the list. “We have never replaced a fuel filter or fuel injector, or had any fuel-related issues on any of our Yamahas in the last 15 years,” Greg says.

The valve clearance story is particularly interesting because Greg made an early decision to run this specific bike longer as a real-world test case. “The recommended spark plug interval is 20,000 kilometres and the valve inspection interval is 40,000 kilometres, but this bike's spark plugs and valve cover were not touched until around 80,000 kilometres,” Greg explains. “That was the first time we pulled the spark plugs and the first time we removed the valve cover to take a look.”

When the cams were removed, what Greg discovered said plenty about both the CP2 engine and the maintenance routine behind it. “They were unmarked,” Greg says. “There was absolutely no marking on the camshafts, the followers were fine, the buckets were fine, everything was really good. We were stoked with that at 80,000 kilometres, but not surprised.”

Greg said that three shims were fitted - two exhaust and one intake - not because the engine had suffered a failure, but to bring the clearances back into the middle of the specification range. The original spark plugs were also replaced with standard plugs. For anyone who rides adventure bikes in Australia, that kind of evidence matters. Dust, heat, low-speed work, water crossings, heavy loads and long days are all part of the job. This Ténéré 700 has had all of that, repeatedly, yet it continues to power along.

The bike has evolved over time, as any long-term RideADV development bike would. It now carries a 45-litre Safari long-range tank, GYTR airbox, custom tune, RideADV racks, navigation equipment and suspension developed with Teknik Motorsport for Australian conditions. But those modifications are not the heart of this story. They are simply evidence of a bike that has been used, tested and refined in the environment it was built for.

i
Greg says the 2025 Ténéré 700 RideADV’s bikes in his fleet are fitted with a range of Yamaha Genuine items such as bash plates, crash bars, levers and other hard parts wherever they suit the application. “The Yamaha genuine stuff now is prime,” Greg says. “Pretty well all of our 2025 bikes are now specified with only genuine OEM Yamaha accessories.”

Despite its age, mileage and hard use, the Old Girl is far from finished. Greg’s trust in the bike is based on maintenance logs and hard use. “Now, at more than 100,000 kilometres, people ask me what the plan is with this bike,” he says. “If I had to go to Perth tomorrow, I would have no hesitation riding this bike there, or anywhere else for that matter. In fact, the Safari tank was originally fitted to send this bike to Canada so I could ride it to the top of the world. That's how much faith I have in it.”

When asked if the bike still runs as good as the day he got it, Greg says he believes it may even go better, helped by the years of testing and refinement carried out along the way.

For Yamaha, the story is a real-world example of the Ténéré 700 doing exactly what riders expect from it: taking punishment, covering distance and coming back ready for more. It also underlines the value of consistent servicing, correct lubrication, genuine parts and Yamaha technical expertise.

After more than 100,000 kilometres of off-road riding, testing, touring, dust, rain, heat and hard work, Greg Yager’s Ténéré 700 is not being retired, It will remain part of the RideADV story for years to come.