Legendary motorcycle designer Oberdan Bezzi is best known for his creative, yet thoughtful tweaks to production motorcycles—the kind of stuff we riders would like to see manufacturers build. The flow of designs from his studio in Italy, reveal a personal quest for perfection, both in artistic rendition and the elusive mesh between innovation and market appeal.

Now, Bezzi has teamed up with fellow Italian and custom builder Mauro Gessi to bring one of his latest renders to life— a showstopping Yamaha Tenere 700 Rally Racer. This will not simply be some creative livery on the bike but a true rally-ready version of the T7 for hardcore dirt fans.

While we only have illustrations to peruse today, the duo intends to bring this T7 Rally Racer to the public —-not as a one-off custom, but as a limited edition model consumers can customize.

This machine will be pointed directly at off-road rally racing with increased suspension travel, a new swingarm, more robust brakes, more substantial skid plate, Akrapovič exhaust and up-spec’d wheels. It carries two separate aluminum, large-capacity fuel tanks, the extra weight offset by swapping the T7’s stock bodywork and other key components with lightweight carbon or kevlar replacements. 

In spite of all the modifications, Bezzi preserves the T7’s basic, most recognizable form in his renderings by leaving untouched unique structural elements such as the bike’s headlight assembly. In the past the designer has expressed how essential it is to preserve a bike and its brand’s history and philosophy by allowing some of its most notable stock elements to shine through.  

Bezzi, who lives and works on Italy’s beautiful northeast coast, has said he has been drawing motorcycle designs from the age he could first hold a pencil. With over 30 years of professional design experience and a portfolio that includes an assemblage of cool dual sport concepts, the popular Yamaha was a natural choice for transformation. 

Veteran Italian builder Gessi and Bezzi most recently teamed up for their most popular-to-date dual-sport collaboration, a flesh and blood custom Honda Dominator-based “650 Paris Dakar” replica bike.  

This Tenere Rally Racer likewise has off-road rallying intentions and will be offered to customers in customizable paint schemes. Of the various graphic packages created by Bezzi, the retro black on blue or yellow are sure to be the most popular. However, there will be a truly one-off design, unrepeatable even by request, in Black Ivory that is sure to be a hit. 

No word yet on availability of the Bezzi-Gessi Tenere 700s, but in the meantime, Yamaha’s stock version is now in dealerships and ready to ramble. And as trials champ Pol Tarres showed us in a recent video, the standard machine already has wings to fly.

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.