2019 yamaha MT09 RALLY RAID

From T7 Roots to T9 Ambitions

On paper it makes a lot of sense, Yamaha built a 90HP 700 twin cylinder Adventure bike that weighs around 205KG. They called it the T7 Tenere, built off the MT07/XSR700 platform. So if you wanted something more, the next logical step would be a T9 Tenere right? A snarling animal powered by the 115HP Triple out of the MT09/XSR900 platform. That’s what we thought too.

Off-Road Dreams Meet MT09 Power

The MT09 as it sits is lighter than the Tenere 700 at 188kg, and makes more power. If we were to beef up the suspension, lift the bike, fabricate a rally tower and convert the wheels to off road sizes wrapped in a knobby tyre, that would probably make a lot of sense…. Or at least be a lot of fun.

So we set some goals and got to work. We wanted to create around 180-mm of ground clearance, build out some crash protection for the stressed engine cross member, give the bike plush off road suspension and create a Rally raid style aesthetic with a custom rally tower. New ground for Purpose Built Moto, but since when have we let that stop us?

KTM 1190 Forks in Action

Our first step was the wheel and suspension conversion. This was relatively simple, fitting up a stem of KTM 1190 ADV forks, and a 21”wheel to suit. I had toyed with the idea of running a single side disc brake, but the twin disc was retained.

This will make the bike a little more street friendly when Tyson chooses to swap the wheels out for his set of 17’s. Some clearancing needed to be done with the old tank shrouds and inner lining from the factory headlight shroud.

Mastering Rear Suspension Challenges

The rear suspension was a little more challenging. We sent the bike to our mates at Costanzo’s Racing Tuned to have the front end dialled in and a custom shock built for the rear.

To have the rear operating correctly, some heavy engineering was needed. I had to design and fabricate some new shock linkages for the lower shock mount, as well as re-engineer the central frame brace and top shock mount to allow more travel in the suspension to actuate properly through its full range of motion. Some of this stuff is a bit like black magic to me, but between myself and Charlie we can pretty much figure anything out (it's mostly Charlie).

Twin Mufflers That Make the Triple Sing

With that done, and the bike sitting on its new suspension and wheels, we could begin the idea phase of the fairing design and work through some of the other design points. The first was the exhaust. From the outset I knew I wanted to run a twin under tail muffler set, so I sourced some cans from Yoshimura and mounted them up under the tail. I then took the 4 into 1 factory collector and modified the exhaust making a custom mid pipe to snake its way rearward and link up with these new mufflers. This would ensure that Triple would sing, and deliver that experience Tyson wanted when he twisted the throttle on the Yamaha 900.

We would now move onto mounting some mid set pegs to allow for proper control when off road riding, using some frame mounts near the swing arm pivot we were able to perfectly place some off road style pegs and link up the rear brake and quick shift. The bars have been lifted slightly with some Mid/High bend taper bars to give the proper ADV bike feel and position to the rider.

Custom Rally Tower for the Tenere 900

Our Last step in getting the skeleton on the Tenere 900 completed was the custom rally tower. We’ve sourced this from an Italian company that makes all manner of aftermarket towers. This particular model was made for the T7 and was an easy mod to make suit the MT09 frame. The kit was supplied with a set of headlights and a central windscreen. With that mounted it was time to start decking the custom adventure bike out with the fairings and guards it would need.

Cody got busy making the sheet metal that would link the tank to the rally tower. We designed a shape that would retain the sharp lines present on the MT09 tank, and give some muscular shoulders to the front end of the bike. These panels finish into a pair of secondary windscreen panels made from High def yellow Perspex. This area is my favourite part of the bike, the style and finish looks factory, but is 100% hand made. The yellow screens give a great pop of colour on the front end and serve to let the rider have a better view over the front from the saddle.

MX Style Front Design with Precision

The front end was finished out with a set of custom fork shrouds, and an MX/ADV style front mud guard, all hand shaped aluminium.

Now onto the tail of the bike. This is where I stepped into the picture and got busy on the hammers. The tail box and integrated tail light came first, shaping up an off road inspired rear mud guard tail tidy and mounting a set of our new Omni Lights on the tail as turn signals. The tail light is boxed in LED strips with a custom red lens, giving a seamless design again aiming at that factory style finish.

Shaping the Perfect Rally Aesthetic

The side covers / number plates on the rear had to be both functional to protect the rider from the undertail exhaust as well as complete the styling picture on the bike. The Mid pipe was already heat shielded with some custom shrouds. The hand shaped side panels would cover the top section of the pipe and start of the mufflers, completing the Rally driven aesthetic that has been taking shape on the MT09 Adventure build. With that, a seat worthy of long range adventures was shaped up, and sent off to Jamason from Timeless Auto trim to be wrapped in a Grippa vinyl cover.

Lightweight Strength with Chromoly Tubing

Our last touches here were some bar work, a bash plate to protect the engine and cases, and a set of bag racks for the rear. All fabricated from light weight and strong chromoly tubing. We’ve utilized the front and rear chassis mounts for the crash protection bars, and linked them at the rear with a cross bar for sump/exhaust protection. The Crash bars double as a bash plate mount for the geometric patterned aluminium bash plate that protects everything on the front of the motor from the sump right up to the radiator.

The bag racks have been built to mount a set of Kreiga bags that go on and off with a few bolts on each side.

The Power of Paint and Passion

Now, Tyson and I could look at the wild creation we had built in raw metal. It was time to decide on a paint scheme direction. We threw ideas around from classic Yamaha Dakar liveries, VMX graphics and paint jobs and finally landed on a Blue/yellow Yamaha throwback that would use the iconic speed block design, mixed with a flat Yamaha blue and pop yellow.

Justin from pop bang classic broke out the paints, mixed up some incredible colours and took our paint renderings from a laptop screen to reality. I was shocked at the colour Justin produced, so crispy and flat that all of our custom sheet metal looked like plastic.

Ride It Feel the Purpose

A strange thing to think about when you see it but it fits perfectly for this build. The ride on our custom Tenere 900 is really made by the incredible suspension set up.

It holds the road well considering the very off road geared tyre choice, and the plush suspension set up by Costanzo’s is a real joy. I only have on road experience on the bike but my God is it fun. Ripping the throttle on will bring the front wheel up without hesitation, and once traction control is turned off the bike is a wild animal only tamed by the rider's throttle control.

All of this somehow feels incredibly manageable. Once delivered we had another happy client and another rider out there on a hand built, creatively conceived Purpose Built Moto Machine, guaranteed to turn a few heads and raise a few eyebrows. Now lets see what Tyson gets up to with his machine once he decides to get it dirty.

Make sure you check out our build video on YouTube to hear the sound of this bike on the test ride!

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