Geezer with a Grudge: tdm 900

Showing posts with label tdm 900. Show all posts

Jul 26, 2012

The Road to the Super Ténéré

As I was reviewing the final copy for my MMM Ténéré review, I realized I have a history stored on my computer of that motorcycle's evolution from the TDM to the Ténéré:

My own 1992 TDM 850, pre-side stand installation.

The not-for-USA 1996 TDM 900

The not-for-USA 1996 Dakar-winning XZE750 (later 850)

The not-for-USA 1998 TDM 900

The not-for-USA 2000 TDM 900

The not-for-USA 2001 TDM 900

The not-for-USA 2003 TDM 900

The not-for-USA 2006 ABS Tourer TDM 900

Finally, the for-USA 2012 Super Ténéré 1200

A lot of years and great Yamaha adventure touring motorcycles between the last imported TDM 850 (1993) and the arrival of the Ténéré. If that doesn't make you feel neglected, you've had a disappointing life.

"Nobody else does this emperor's clothes kind of thing!" Kevin Cameron August 2009
"Criticism is something we can avoid easily by saying nothing, doing nothing, and being nothing." Aristotle
"You are a motorcycle bigot." Known and Unknown
"This is not a video game. This is your life. Ride to stay alive." Mrs. Elvy Day
“If I'd written all the truth I knew for the past ten years, about 600 people - including me - would be rotting in prison cells from Rio to Seattle today. Absolute truth is a very rare and dangerous commodity in the context of professional journalism.” Hunter Thompson
"Truth is more of a stranger than fiction . . . It is not worth while to strain one's self to tell the truth to people who habitually discount everything you tell them, whether it is true or isn't." Mark Twain

Warning: If you're looking for a pleasant conversation about motorcycling from a frozen-north Minnesota Nice perspective, good luck with your search. As Bobby Dylan once said, "it ain't me, babe."

This blog was a companion to my MMM magazine column. MMM died and went to website oblivion in early 2020, but I have continued to find things to squawk about even after myasthenia gravis doubled my vision and may have ended my life on a motorcycle.

Google has continued to defeature and abandon Blogger, including making it very difficult to include pictures, video, and audio. I have copied all of my old stuff to my Wordpress blog, GeezerwithAGrudge.com, and there are now essays on that site that I won't be duplicating on this site. AND you can subscribe to Wordpress blogs.

The Geezer Story

I stumbled upon this column name (Geezer with a Grudge) almost 20 years ago, in 1999. The first Minnesota Motorcycle Monthly editor I worked with, in late 1999, complained that the magazine was getting no mail and the editors wanted to know if any readers were still out there. I fired off a sarcastic note, as a joke, intended to provide a little humor and some feedback. He published it as an article and later called me to say he'd received more mail on that letter than he'd received in the past year! I followed that with an offer to write a monthly column attempting to piss off a particular section of the magazine's readership to see if that tactic would generate some mail.

It did, probably more regularly than the magazine wanted at times, and I wrote a monthly column for MMM until the magazine died in 2018.

I plan to post an occasional old Geezer article into the blog, followed by short comments about the current status of my perspective on our activity/sport/vehicle of choice.