“Retro-kitted” Yamaha T7 from Holy Moly Motorcycles…
In the adventure bike world, it seems the major manufacturers have taken the bigger is better approach in recent years: more displacement, more power, and more electronics, which translates to more weight and heavier price tags. In 2019, however, Yamaha took a different approach with the Ténéré 700, offering a lighter, simpler, more agile, and less expensive ADV bike…and people loved it.
The T7 weighs 450 pounds fully fueled, as compared to the 523-lb heft of a new BMW R1300GS, and power comes from a 72-bhp version of the CP2 parallel-twin from the popular Yamaha MT-07. The weight and geometry are closer to that of the big thumper dual-sports than your typical ADV bike…but with much more modern tech:
“In a lot of ways, the Ténéré 700 feels a lot like the bike Kawasaki and Honda fans asked about for years: a modern version of the venerable KLR650 or XR650L. It’s a simple, no-nonsense adventure bike that’s more big enduro than anything else.” –Cycle World
We’ve seen a number of shops work to put the T7 in rally raid trim, and our friend Francisco Menezes of Portugal’s Holy Moly Motorcycles was one such builder. He did a ton of work on the shop’s T7, including titanium headers and a lightweight rally exhaust, lacing up a pair of gold Excel Tasagako rims wrapped in tubeless Mitas rubber, rally plastics and armor, in-house intake, selectable ABS delete, single-disc conversion for a lighter front end off-road, and a full 3D-printed navigation tower built with 7solid Italy and mcpro3D.
The Holy Moly T7 rally bike was lighter, faster, and cooler than the stocker, but at the bike’s first big off-road event, Francisco and the Ténéré took a tumble — the risk that comes with riding hard on the trail. Fortunately, Francisco himself emerged unscathed, but the T7’s front end was in bad shape, with the stock bodywork destroyed along with the prototype rally tower.
It was certainly disheartening, but Francisco found a way to salvage the build, following a bold vision he probably wouldn’t have dared to try on such a new machine had it not been damaged:
“We decided to do something I had in mind for a long time… A retro backdated XT600Z Ténéré like in the late 80s. We tried to achieve the style, the shape, and the duality of the classic XT600Z Ténéré while keeping all the good parts of a new motorcycle, and especially all the good parts of the amazing T7.”
As many of you know, the XT600Z was the first of the legendary Ténéré series, named after the most grueling Saharan stage of the Paris Dakar Rally. To backdate a modern adventure bike to echo the appearance of its primogenitor would be no easy feat — and a few keyboard commandos scoffed at the idea of stripping down and transforming a new T7 in such a profound way (not realizing the bike was wreck-damaged to begin with).
But Francisco stayed true to his vision and created an modern T7 that looks like it just stepped out of the 1980s, oozing nostalgia from the heady days of the big air-cooled Dakar bikes singing across the Sahara.
What’s more, this XTZ-inspired retro T7 is no one-off. Francisco has developed this makeover as a full retro kit that will go on sale in 2025 as a limited edition. The kit saves around 10 kilograms (22 pounds) over the stock bike and includes the following items: front fender, LED headlight, radiator guard, side and top tank covers, display mount, rear plastics, license plate holder, and small LED turn signals.
For the T7 owner, that means a Ténéré 700 that pays homage to the timeless dual-sports and enduros of the 1980s while shaving a significant slice of poundage off the stocker. This is the kind of adventure bike we’d love to own and ride.
Yamaha T7 Retro: Builder Interview
• Please tell us a bit about yourself, your history with motorcycles, and your workshop.
I’m Francisco Menezes, born in Lisbon, Portugal. Owner and builder of Holy Moly Motorcycles. I started working on motorcycles in Porto where I grew up and lived until turning 18. When I was around 15 or 16, by need and lack of money (at the time my parents didn’t know I had bought a motorcycle so I hid it in a garage), I started the most difficult DIY of my life: Finding out how a motorcycle works and how to make it run again. It didn’t work very well, so I ended up saving some money and sent it to a mechanic.
After all the mechanical parts were fixed and working, I did the re-style myself with some old, some borrow, and some stolen tools. Since then I started to customize, fix, and upgrade some of my buddies’ motorcycles.
A few long years later, in 2012, I started to build cafe racers and scramblers with some friends as a hobby. In 2015 I started to seriously work on motorcycles and started HOLY MOLY MOTORCYCLES — I was growing and learning as a person, a builder, and of course a mechanic!
Then years later we have a slightly established motorcycle workshop in Lisbon, and we have built more than 50 professional motorcycles and have been growing since then. It was a solo trip; I had amazing people around me in the last few years and I learnt a lot from all of them!
• What’s the make, model, and year of the donor bike?
This is our workshop motorcycle, Yamaha T7 from 2019, entered as a very fast trade
but after three years, we acknowledge that it’s come to stay.
• Why was this bike built?
We had the motorcycle stopped for a few months while we were upgrading, creating new parts, making it way way lighter, in order to create a very able Rally Raid motorcycle. We were able to lose around 20 kgs!
At the time it was ready — faster, cooler, and light weight — and we were very proud and keen to
present it! But on the first public off-road event we had a serious crash… I came out without injuries but the motorcycle was very damaged on the front. Our new rally tower prototype was destroyed! So we decided to do something I had in mind for a long time.
• What was the design concept and what influenced the build?
A retro backdated XT600Z Ténéré like in the late 80s. We tried to achieve the style, the shape, and the duality of the classic XT600Z Ténéré while keeping all the good parts of a new motorcycle, and especially all the good parts of the amazing T7.
• What custom work was done to the bike?
Beside all the work we done on this bike previously, the re-style is a very simple 10-piece kit. It’s necessary to remove 5 times more parts than we actually assemble!
- Titanium headers + light rally exhuast
- License plate holder and small blinkers (HM)
- Full Rtech plastics and skid plate
- Evap, ais and canister removed
- Better intake (HM)
- Yamaha Rally seat
- Rally big footrests
- Folding mini passenger footrests (HM)
- Narrow gold Excel Tasagako rims (HM)
- Mitas XT trail tires
- Tubeless kit (HM)
- Full 3D-printed navigation tower with display, tablet mount, and lights — display and remote controls by 7solid Italy and production on the tower is a collab between us and mcpro3D.
- Single disc conversion (HM)
- Lithium battery
- ABS temporary delete (HM)
- Etc., etc. It’s around 64 items!
The extras included in the kit are ONLY aestetic parts:
- Front fender
- Headlight with LED
- Radiator guard
- Side tank cover
- Top tank cover
- Display mount
- Rear plastics
- License plate holder
- Small LED turn signals
The bike now its 190kgs (not a reference because we started with a lighter bike). But this kit allows you to save almost 10kgs starting with a stock bike.
• Can you tell us what it’s like to ride this bike?
It’s the perfect match: new and modern everything, with the style of a classic dual sport. Ready for any terrain, any adventure, and perfect as a commuter. This special kit is way lighter and easier to ride.
• Was there anything done during this build that you are particularly proud of?
I’m proud in general! We went against all the odds. We ‘’destroyed’’ a T7 to make a naked motorcycle, everyone mock us and told us no one would like it, but here we are now!
Follow the Builders
Builder: @holymolymotorcycles
Stickers: @kingsstickers
Rally Display: @7solid_
Rally Collab: @mcpro3d
