Home › Forums › Your Garage › New to me V-Strom
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December 1, 2011 at 12:27 pm #100769
I flew up to QLD and brought home an 09 DL 650. I am pretty impressed at the versatility , long range comfort and economy. I reckon I got to know it pretty well doing a first ride of 1350 klms over 2 days.
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Cheers SteveDecember 1, 2011 at 1:25 pm #212460Nice Bike Steve, by all accounts they are a good thing, I am yet to have a ride on one. No one will trust me is half the problem I think!
December 1, 2011 at 1:52 pm #212508Nice bike like the colour Steve. Enjoy mate
TB
December 1, 2011 at 5:26 pm #212461Thanks Guys.
Mick, I haven’t ridden many bikes but it has plenty of go for me, I handled it easy on dirt roads so it will do the job that I want. If we ever cross paths Mick you can have a go, I dont know your history :cheer: .
SteveDecember 1, 2011 at 5:45 pm #212511Nice! I had one for a while DRool, godd bike for long distance hauling or wizzing down to the shops and pretty capable off road except for the low clearance.
December 1, 2011 at 11:35 pm #212462G’day Steve,
I have a white 09, they are very good but not as dirt capable as some seem to think- dirt roads yes, the tougher stuff- only if the rider has good dirt skills to start with.
And as mentioned, not enough ground clearance when it gets rough.Awesome for touring and commuting.
Super reliable, 50,000km + on mine and I swear it just kicked up another gear performance wise since the 50 came up.I have been looking at replacing mine with something a bit more dirt worthy but more capable on the highway than my old KLR.
It is starting to look like the Wee will stay and I will still try to look for something better than the KLR but still cheap.You didn’t get the ABS model by the look of it though?
Add a fork brace [cheap and good improvement], crash bars, panniers, you already have a bash plate.
The seat and the screen are two common topics of complaint, for me the seat has softened and I can now do up to 1000km in a day on it, the screen I have actually changed but I found the helmet made the difference rather than the screen when it comes to buffeting .
And join this forum if you haven’t already http://www.stromtrooper.com/australia-new-zealand/ an excellent resource and heaps of local members on it [some of them here as well as on ADV and offroadexplorer].
A pic of mine taken a year or so back.
It won’t take you long to get the urge to cover some miles on a decent road trip, I did 1000km in the first four days of buying mine [had to get the first service out of the way before a road trip 👿 ], then went for a 4,600km three state road trip- just to try it out you understand 👿
Enjoy the new bike Steve.
Cheers,
Ock. [aka Steve]December 2, 2011 at 8:48 am #212463Hi Steve, I am a member of Stromtroopers and posted over there.
No ABS, I hope I can live without it :unsure: .
I did a 700klm day in the saddle on the way home and did get a bit sore so will fit the gel pad I have and a sheepskin maybe and see how that goes.
The fork brace is on my list, I brought back pannier frames that I picked up from MTD at Wurtulla QLD for soft luggage, I was going to buy the Suzuki crash bars (would you recommend those or another brand?
The screen/buffeting I reckon will be fixed with an adjustment of the screen either in stock range or a Madstad bracket although I didn’t find it that bad.
Now your dilemawith finding a bike more dirt worthy but as good on the road, I can only think of the Tiger or Tenere. Do you have others on your list?
Thanks for your reply. SteveDecember 3, 2011 at 2:09 am #212518DRool wrote:Hi Steve, I am a member of Stromtroopers and posted over there.
No ABS, I hope I can live without it :unsure: .
I did a 700klm day in the saddle on the way home and did get a bit sore so will fit the gel pad I have and a sheepskin maybe and see how that goes.
The fork brace is on my list, I brought back pannier frames that I picked up from MTD at Wurtulla QLD for soft luggage, I was going to buy the Suzuki crash bars (would you recommend those or another brand?
The screen/buffeting I reckon will be fixed with an adjustment of the screen either in stock range or a Madstad bracket although I didn’t find it that bad.
Now your dilemawith finding a bike more dirt worthy but as good on the road, I can only think of the Tiger or Tenere. Do you have others on your list?
Thanks for your reply. SteveI have Givi crash bars and they are good [Suzuki dealer supplied when I bought the bike new], although I’ve never dropped the bike to test them out. :dry:
As for a Wee replacement, NOT a BMW [again] that’s for sure.
I’ve ridden a couple of Ten660’s and they would be a maybe.
I have also ridden a couple of new KLR’s and they won’t do either.
I looked at a Tiger XC the other day that was fully kitted out with luggage and all the goodies [didn’t get a ride], I could very quickly fall in love with one of those though I think.A later Transalp 650 would be an option perhaps.
I’ve had no nibbles on selling the Wee but I have looked at yet another old Transalp 600, the idea being to perhaps replace the old KLR with the old TA and keep the Wee for now.
Do you use the same user name over on Stromtrooper as here or are you known as something different?
Ock.
December 3, 2011 at 8:38 am #212464Hi Steve, my username on Stromtroopers is Strombow.
Ok a Transalp would fit the bill better. From what I have seen of the Tiger on the net/reviews I think I could live with one too.
No nibbles on the Wee could be because they are running out the old models at a bit over 8 grand at the moment. Maybe when they run out things will pick up.
I look forward to seeing what you end up with. SteveDecember 4, 2011 at 7:29 pm #212601Hi all,
these have to be one of the most underrated bikes on the market. A friend of mine purchased an ABS Strom when I got my BMW and we have done thousands of kays on all types of roads together. The Strom continues to impress me and offers outstanding value for money. A very sweet giant-killing motor with a well set-up injection system has it running with much larger capacity bikes all days with excellent fuel consumption and range.Crash bars, bash plates and handgaurds are a must as we nearly had a disaster early on when a rock bent one of the banjo bolts on the oil cooler, causing the Strom to bleed everywhere. Luckily, as I was running the Beemer in, I had a bottle of oil stashed in a panier and topped in up (after tightening the bolt and getting it to seal again). We were mid-way between Dalmortan and Tyringham in the state forest, which was not ideal!.
The suspension is the only area that is a little underdone, something they appear to have addressed on the new model. Plenty of companies making off-road gear for these now so they are certainly easy to ‘toughen-up’ for the bush. Enjoy!
Nige
December 5, 2011 at 4:11 pm #212669Nice bike mate! I’m enjoying my Vstrom 650, very smooth and quiet, enough herbs to ring my bells and cheap to run. I have the stock screen at the lowest setting and find bugger-all buffeting on my helmet until I reach speeds that would not be considered illegal on public roads (tested on closed roads on private property of course, you understand!). I find tipping my helmet forward (it is a ONE Industries Kombat MX-style helmet) gives me the least buffeting. I have not had any other issues so far.
Mine is an 08 model and has barkbusters, bashplate, centre stand, heated grips, crash bars and top box. Running Tourance tyres at the moment, but will probably go to Anakee’s next (should be a while, the rear is almost new!).
I haven’t got comfortable enough with my bike yet to find the shortcomings of the suspension, so can’t comment on that.
Hope to see you on the road eh!
Cheers!
December 5, 2011 at 7:53 pm #212465Hi Ecks-Man, I only noticed the wind at high speed as well so am not concerned as others are with the so called buffeting.
You sound like you have some good gear on the bike, I am picking up so crash bars tomorrow and have another bash plate to go on (not to confident with the B&B plate mounting on the the motor). I got pannier frames from Motor cycle Tours Downunder in QLD for soft bags.
Give me a yell when you are replacing the tyres and I will let you know the mileage on the Anakees, 3000klm so far without much sign of wear.
I dont know that I will push the stock suspension but you never know. Cheers SteveDecember 5, 2011 at 9:14 pm #212466I have a customer who has turned out to be a 650 Vstrom fan. He’s made longer damper rods for it (30Mm) and he’s running our fork springs and V4s valves. We supplied him an Ohlins for the rear but it was too soft stock, i’ve given him a stiffer setting one and it’s better but he wants more so i’m about to do it again. We are also going to lengthen the shock by 25mm as he does use it as an adventure bike.
Best part is he has an XR650R as well! he loves the Strom for it’s road manners and just wants to be able to ride at a reasonable pace in the bush and not have to be careful with the odd jump.
I’ll post some photos up tonight.Nick
December 5, 2011 at 9:42 pm #212467Sounds good Nick, looking forward to the pics.
There are some good threads on ADV and Stromtroopers of people turning crashed Stroms into more dirt worthy beasts. Search thinstroms if anyone is interested.December 5, 2011 at 11:06 pm #212733Teknik wrote:I have a customer who has turned out to be a 650 Vstrom fan. He’s made longer damper rods for it (30Mm) and he’s running our fork springs and V4s valves. We supplied him an Ohlins for the rear but it was too soft stock, i’ve given him a stiffer setting one and it’s better but he wants more so i’m about to do it again. We are also going to lengthen the shock by 25mm as he does use it as an adventure bike.
Best part is he has an XR650R as well! he loves the Strom for it’s road manners and just wants to be able to ride at a reasonable pace in the bush and not have to be careful with the odd jump.
I’ll post some photos up tonight.Nick
Bring those piccies on mate, I like the stance of a strom with proper boingers! They look pretty tough when they are sitting that bit taller – much more aggresive!
DRool wrote:Sounds good Nick, looking forward to the pics.
There are some good threads on ADV and Stromtroopers of people turning crashed Stroms into more dirt worthy beasts. Search thinstroms if anyone is interested.True that, have you seen the one in the states that is basically naked – it is hard to pick as a strom, looks more like a big-ass XR or something. Check out the dude calling himself Assfault and his bike:
http://advrider.com/forums/showpost.php?p=17209557&postcount=1071
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