If the year 2020 were to be summed up in a short film, this video from Camel ADV Products documenting the government-ordered crushing of its 2019 Yamaha Tenere 700 test mule would suffice.
Driving to the demolition yard, Camel ADV founder and owner Cory Hanson explains his wretched mission. He’d imported the European-spec’d bike from Switzerland the year before Yamaha made the T7 available in North America so that he could get a jump on creating some aftermarket goodies for the model. But like so many things these days, the bike, imported on a 12-month temporary import permit, was wrapped in red tape from the get-go, including a stipulation that within one year it needed to be exported out of Cory’s home country of Canada or be destroyed.
It was certainly never his intention to crush the machine. Instead it was slated to be raced in the Baja Rally this year, then left in Mexico to live out a happy-go-lucky life. Covid stomped on that plan by forcing an indefinite closure of the border between the U.S. and Canada, making it infeasible to travel to the rally.
It’s a cringefest watching the big demolition crawler roll up behind the T7, dropping its Venus flytrap-like four-tine grapple onto the helpless machine as the plant’s owner says to Cory, “He’ll drop it a couple times then drive over it.” Ugh. It’s tough to watch, but hard to look away. The crawler picks up the Yamaha like it’s a child’s toy and throws it to the ground repeatedly, then does ride up on it – the sound here is ghastly — before finally flipping it gently one last time as if to make sure it’s dead.
Many of the people who have watched the mutilation on Camel ADV’s YouTube channel were indignant, like the guy who said he didn’t know the reasoning and couldn’t finish watching the video and thought it criminal the scene had been uploaded. Come on people, get the info before making judgements.
Cory clearly explains on the video, and again in the video description, that he had no choice in the matter. He needed to provide the Canadian government with a certificate from an authorized disposal processing operation confirming “the demise of the vehicle.” In addition to the certificate, pictures or a video of the destruction process must show any remaining parts reduced to unsalable condition. Dismantling, disassembly or recycling of any of the bike’s original equipment was illegal.
If it is of any consolation, the bike was already trashed after a year of dissection and transplantation of experimental parts, followed by lots of hard riding and at least one major crash to validate those parts. It also got passed around, including to us here at ADV Pulse so we could do some early testing ahead of the bike’s arrival in the U.S.
The only possible way to save the T7 would have been to export it back to Europe, but it would have cost a fortune in crating, duty, air freight costs and dangerous goods certificates, not to mention all the work the bike would have needed to pass Europe’s rigid vehicle inspections. The bike was already half dead, its headlight cracked, radiator punctured and all the stock body panels broken. Its forks were leaking and the frame had been cut and welded several times making it impossible to reapply the stock exhaust or shock. Cory also says the bike was without its ABS and all of the factory brake hoses or hard lines.
That’s how R&D happens folks, and this Yamaha isn’t the first motorcycle to lose its life for the sake of creating awesome aftermarket parts like Camel ADV’s skid plate, high fender kits, and console stabilizer for the T7.
Still, even when you have all the facts it’s a tough video to watch. No one wants to see a hard-working ADV bike being thrown around like it’s trash. What about that skid plate though? It held up pretty well for stock. And the way the tank pops off and rolls to the foreground with its Camel ADV logo facing us like some perfectly orchestrated marketing trick. That, or it “rolled like a severed head,” as one YouTube viewer commented, forced to watch its body die.
For Cory’s part, as he says it was still a sad day even though he’d already gone through the seven stages of grief over the bike his government sentenced to death. The Swiss-borne Yamaha had provided him a great service though, allowing him a 12-month jump in R&D over his competitors in North America.
At least we can bear witness and share our grief over its final moments. RIP little T7 soldier!
Author: Jamie Elvidge
Jamie has been a motorcycle journalist for more than 30 years, testing the entire range of bikes for the major print magazines and specializing in adventure-travel related stories. To date she’s written and supplied photography for articles describing what it’s like to ride in all 50 states and 43 foreign countries, receiving two Lowell Thomas Society of American Travel Writer’s Awards along the way. Her most-challenging adventure yet has been riding in the 2018 GS Trophy in Mongolia as Team AusAmerica’s embedded journalist.October 03, 2020 at 12:37AM
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Government Orders Destruction Of Rider's Yamaha Tenere 700 - ADV Pulse
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