Back in December when I ordered the new Tenere, I hadn’t realised about the upcoming Euro5 emmissions, and I had no idea that the 2021 model year was going to come with the catalytic converter on the downpipe. My initial reaction was really more a kneejerk reaction than a response, but I had ordered the bashplate and other hardparts already, so it would probably be fine. No one will see it, right? No one will even notice.
Now, I don’t have to tell anyone, but the internet is full of eejits with unqualified opinions, and the handful of places I looked all seemed to be saying the same things. Ugh it’s so ugly! What were they thinking? I’m going to cancel my order!
Like, what a load of crap. I suppose time would tell how things went, but there was really no need to throw the toys out of the pram.
When the bike and the accessory parts did eventually arrive, everything fit. Crash bars, Radiator screen, Chain guide, perfect… but the bashplate wouldn’t go on. It was a Euro4 bashplate and it wouldn’t fit over the new Euro5 downpipes. I suggested the dealer might take an angle grinder to it to help it fit but they weren’t about to go taking a grinder to a new 2021 bike or it’s parts. I don’t really blame them. I wouldn’t do it to someone elses’ bike either.
Doing it to my own bike, however, is another story. I am quite comfortable taking an angle grinder to my own new bike, so I told the guys at the shop that I’d take the Euro4 bashplate and I’d make it fit. Oh man was I going to make this thing fit.
The OEM light duty bashplates came off and the grinder took the mounting lugs from the new catalytic converter.
The new heavy duty bashplate still wouldn’t fit over the cat so I had to grind out a couple of grooves and take a lump hammer to it. I may have jumped on it a few times too. But they were special jumps, and this was a special precision lump hammer too.
Eventually I had bent it enough that it fit, and all i had to do was remove it and secure the new shape permanently using a couple of pieces of steel and some rivnuts.
In the interests of full disclosure, I couldn’t get one of the 4 bolts holes on the bashplate to line up with the frame, so it’s secured on with the other three and a few thick cable ties where the fourth should go.
Fast forward a few months and I’ve about 3000km up on the Tenere, and it’s fabulous. And it’s a Euro5 bike. So fuck the begrudgers. Leave the powertrain stock and just enjoy your bike. It is absolutely brilliant and I’m pure delighted with it. If you want you want to be the coolest guy at starbucks go buy a 1250 GS or something. The CP2 690cc twin is just bursting with life, there’s no anti wheelie or traction control, no rider modes or anything to complicate the pure joy of the marvel of engineering that this bike is. My slightly modified euro4 bashplate may alse be a marvel of engineering, but I don’t want to blow my own trumpet about that. We both know, and that’s enough for me :o)
The handguards are the exact same KTM OEM handguards I use on the KTM and Husky. I’d looked at the barkbusters branded handguards but read some reports that the cable clutch on the Tenere is an issue and the hardguard on the left bar has to be set either too high or too low. I waited till the Tenere arrived before checking if my KTM handguards would fit, and they 100% do. The clutch cable isn’t an issue either, although at full steering lock the bottom of the bolt on both sides touches the plastic side/tank cover.