Showdown: 2022 Aprilia Tuareg 660 Vs. Yamaha Tenere 700

Middleweight adventure bikes duke it out on a 2,000 mile tour

As we motored slaunchways across Utah, the late daylight stretched our shadows and cast golden hues against the tall canyon walls, further accentuating the contrast between the rust colored ancient seabeds peppered with lush green juniper and muted sage. The lavender sky over Bryce faded as we continued westward on Hwy 12. Refusing to pack a second visor for my Shoei Hornet X2, I lifted the dark smoke shield as I led our crew into the dark dense forest, keeping my line of sight just above the Ténéré’s windscreen in an attempt to protect my peepers from the onslaught of kamikaze insects. In a further showing of stubbornity, I refused to roll back off the throttle while the only bit of light left – aside from what the Ténéré’s quite ample quad headlight offered – was a thick crimson band at the horizon, the bottom punctured by spire-like tree tops.

Bugs bounced off my face and every now and then I’d notice a deer grazing on the side of the road caught just for an instant in my periphery, a reminder of the imminent danger. It had been a long day, one that started with 40 miles of off-road before we got to our itinerary’s previously scheduled 400-plus miles on pavement. Despite the darkness, the compounded weariness from a week on the road with my boss, and the sweat-soaked, then dried, then soaked again, condition of my gear, I thought to myself, I could go for another week or so.

2022 Aprilia Tuareg 660 vs. Yamaha Ténéré 700

All of you folks who remember the days when the bikes we now call middleweights were plenty for touring will likely echo my sentiment, but the idea of folks questioning the validity of touring on machines like the Aprilia Tuareg and Yamaha Ténéré has always puzzled me. The capability in terms of what we now call middleweight adventure motorcycles is immense. For me, the off-road ability combined with highway prowess is what does it. For folks just getting into such things, like Evans, the potential of doing an actual adventure tour involving full days of off-road riding bracketed by long days of pavement strafing, and not having to pilot a machine that put his inseam to the test, weighed 500-plus pounds, and made entirely more power than necessary, eased his anxiety for the unknown off-road sections.

As always, there are pros and cons to open-class adventure machines and the middleweights too, but we decided we were going to set out on an actual tour starting at Revzilla’s Get On! ADV Fest in the Black Hills of South Dakota, culminating at our homes in southern California. Over six days, we’d navigate our way through hundreds of miles of backroads and small towns, two sections of Backcountry Discovery Routes – one in Wyoming and one in Utah – and spend our time split between camping and hotels to stave off some of the stank that develops on a long summer ride. We’d see just how grueling traveling on middleweight adventure bikes would be, or not.

We three – Sean Matic, Evans Brasfield, and myself – would saddle up on two Aprilia Tuaregs and one Yamaha Ténéré. Sean’s Tuareg – the video mule – was complete with Aprilia’s hard panniers while Evans and I loaded down the other Tuareg and Ténéré with Wolfman soft luggage containing everything that the three of us would need for camping, hoteling, charging and hopefully not fixing.

Seeing the two machines parked outside our “cabin” at the Buffalo Chip (a wood shed, at least it had an air conditioner), many a passing attendee of the ADV Fest in progress justified our idea saying, “That’s the comparison we want to see!”

Feeling validated, we hit the road to see what conclusions we might come to over what our own track-based editor Troy S. referred to as a “manly itinerary.” The following events are what transpired.

Parallel Twins

But first, a quick look at our competitors. The new Aprilia Tuareg 660 and the now well-seated Yamaha Ténéré 700 are what we believe to be two of the most closely matched middleweight adventure machines on the market at this point. Yes, the Aprilia in this test carries a $2,300 premium compared to the $10,299 Ténéré, but it does bring with it a host of electronic upgrades that make the extra dough more palatable, but we’ll get further into that in a bit. Let’s have a look at what makes up the foundation of these cycles motor.

2022 Aprilia Tuareg 660 Review – First Ride

2020 Yamaha Ténéré 700 Review – First Ride

Both bikes are powered by Parallel Twin engines featuring a 270-degree crank, DOHC, and four valves per cylinder. The 659cc Aprilia motor boasts a slightly higher compression ratio at 13.5:1 versus the 689cc Yamaha’s 11.5:1. Bores are similar with the Ténéré making up most of its displacement advantage in the stroke. On the Rottweiler Performance Dynojet, the two bikes hit peak performance numbers at nearly identical rpm. The Aprilia ekes out six more horses at 9,200 rpm while the Ténéré has a slight torque advantage from low rpm, though both hit their peak torque figures in the mid-range.

In the suspension department, the similarities continue with both bikes using fully adjustable 43mm KYB forks and linkage-type KYB shocks. The Aprilia however, offers 9.4 inches of travel out of its legs while the Yamaha is working with 8.3 inches fore and 7.9 inches aft.

All three of the Tuareg’s braking discs are larger, but Brembo components are found on both bikes. ABS can also be disabled on both machines, though the Ténéré will revert to the street setting whether the bike is shut off with the key or the kill switch. The Tuareg has three ABS settings: 1, 2, and Off and will hold whichever ABS setting (including Off) when switched off with the kill switch. If ABS is entirely disabled on the Tuareg, switching the key off at the ignition will cause ABS to revert to the off-road setting (setting 1) which has a lower intervention at the front wheel and disables the function at the rear wheel.

Switchable ABS is about all the Yamaha offers in terms of rider aids, which many folks out there are a-okay with. The Aprilia, however, gets the APRC functionality similar to what we’ve seen on the other 660 models to date allowing adjustment of engine mapping, engine braking, traction control, and ABS in all four of its modes (ABS can only be disabled in Off-road mode).

Both machines are rolling on 21/18-inch wheel combinations wrapped with the same excellent Pirelli Scorpion Rally STRs. The only difference here are the rim-mounted spokes found on the Tuareg’s hoops allowing the Aprilia to use tubeless tires. The Ténéré’s standard center-mounted spoke design hints at the Yamaha’s tube-based setup. Pros and cons to both, as always.

Back to the road.

2,000 miles and 6 days

I’m such a whiner when it comes to humidity these days. I mean, it was a large factor in my moving from the Midwest, where I spent 19 years dealing with it. So, naturally, when I first hopped on board the Aprilia and felt a large bubble of stagnant heat keeping the air from my feet to knees nice (moist) and warm on a 95-degree night in 10000% humidity-stricken Sturgis, I took quick notice. It seems Evans doesn’t have much feeling in his lower extremities these days:

While I felt the engine’s bubble of heat around my lower legs, it never bothered me as much as it seemed to affect Ryan. Maybe this is a side effect of all those years I spent on cruisers early in my career. There’s hot, and there’s HOT. —Mr. Brasfield

I must admit that my first ride was in Red Wing boots and Levis which let the heat seep through a bit easier. Once I had donned riding pants, knee guards, and moto boots, it wasn’t nearly as oppressive. Honestly, there were only a few other times over the course of 2000 miles that I gave it much thought after my first ride. I will say though, that I never had an issue with the Ténéré in terms of heat.

Once we had wrangled our Tuaregs away from eager demo riders, we were able to get the Wolfman luggage situated on Evans’ and my rides. My pack ended up weighing in right around 37 pounds total with the three Wolfman bags and base. Evans’ setup on the Ténéré weighed about 50 lbs, a fair amount more, but he was packing for two, plus some. Thankfully, both bikes have easily accessible knobs for dialing in preload at the shock to accommodate the extra weight of my things and all of Evans’ shoes.

Leaving the Buffalo Chip heading south we got into some twisty roads that snaked their way through the Black Hills National Forest. We avoided that mountain with those old dead guys carved in it, and judging by the traffic as we inched nearer, it was a good idea.

Well into some of the tighter tight roads with speed limits we disregarded, “Yes, we’re speeding! For science!”, we were reminded of our 21-inch front wheels, but moreso, how impressively the Pirelli STRs work on pavement. It was no problem hustling the two machines loaded up with gear through the corners. I did end up dialing in a bit more preload to help keep things more even keel on the Ténéré.

Our fun start to the ride also set the scene for a few other opinions that would last for the remainder of the trip, some were molded and massaged by the extra time and miles, while others remained steadfast in our minds.

While not an issue off-road, we didn’t need much time to surmise that the Ténéré would be getting the nod in the braking department:

Even though the calipers have Brembo emblazoned on them, the Tuareg’s binders left a lot to be desired. Now is when I insert the tried and (often) true comment about how a change in brake pads might liven up the Aprilia’s stopping power. —EvB

Also, despite these two machines both using Parallel Twins with similar specs, they make power quite differently. The dyno chart hints at the difference, but jumping back and forth between the two tells the real story. We’ve put a good amount of miles on Ténéré 700s in the past few years, and an even gooder amount on machines with the CP2 engine. The torquey low-end power that the Yamaha P Twin puts out is addicting. It’s fun off-road, and as we experienced at the beginning of our trip, it makes blasting through tight hairpins effortless as the power is always right there waiting to slingshot you forward, provided you don’t go looking for it too far into the rpm range.

The Aprilia’s mill basically makes its power in opposite fashion. It doesn’t have nearly the low-end punch that the T7 has but makes up for it with a strong mid-range that climbs to gap the Yamaha by six horsepower up top. Aprilia says the Tuareg’s 660 setup has been certified for ADV use with different length intake ducts, different cams, a new exhaust system, and 10% lower gearing.

With neither Evans nor I having thrown a leg over the Tuareg prior to this trip, we had been curious how it would compare.

Going into this tour, the Tuareg’s engine was the big question mark. I knew it had the top end power to be a hoot on paved roads, but would that top end bias affect slow going in technical off-road sections. As it turns out, the engine was able to motor over pretty much everything I was willing to ride on. While I did have to slip the clutch a bit more than on the Ténéré, I never found it to be a problem. In fact, having the electronic aids, like traction control, made me feel much more comfortable on the higher-speed sections, too. —EB

I was beginning to feel the same way, but it took me longer to be convinced. Also, both bikes use cable-actuated clutches, but we both felt the Aprilia’s had a bit lighter pull at the lever.

Our first off-road day was along the Wyoming Backcountry Discovery Route. We rolled into camp the evening prior and in the morning set off to a fairly tame day of riding large gravel roads through the gorgeous Medicine Bow-Routt National Forest in southeastern Wyoming. To break up the monotony, we took an out-and-back detour to the top of Kennaday Peak which reaches nearly 11,000 ft up into the sky. That trip provided us with some nice switchbacks, excellent views, and a few babyheads to bounce around over.