Opinions on V-Stroms

[gregp]

Yep. No kidding - I just went through that exercise on my 2012 DL650. I ended up with a Parabellum "Tall" windshield, plus an extender, and ROX bar risers - after I installed my standard Seat Concepts kit.

[nhbubba]

New screen was in the cards anyway. I think I've finally had it with the buffeting.

[Garandman]

I bought the Suzuki Tall Touring saddle and liked it. Personally I don't like saddles with the rear step, as it keeps me from sliding back and forth on long trips.

Yep. No kidding - I just went through that exercise on my 2012 DL650. I ended up with a Parabellum "Tall" windshield

Have you ridden on dirt roads with it yet? I rode Janice's older DL1000 with a Parabellum and found it flexed a lot on dirt roads.

That said, looking at the new design for the '12+, it looks like the edges are bent which would give it much more shape stiffness.

[gregp]

I have the screen in that picture. I have not taken my Wee off road at all, but the road that I live on rougher than many dirt roads. In short, the screen does move around quite a bit at slower speeds. From what I can tell, this is from the entire front cowl moving, and not from the screen flexing. Attaching the "Vario" spoiler from the stock "Adventure" windshield onto the back of the top of the Parabellum screen made the movement even worse, of course. At speeds above 25 MPH or so, the steady air pressure calms the movement down by holding the screen in a "pressed back" position.
I did have trouble finding enough slack in the throttle cables to allow installation of the ROX risers. After fiddling around with the routing, and not finding a good solution, I ended up trimming 3/4" off of each end of the stock bars. That gave me plenty of cable to work with, and I am accustomed to narrower bars from setting up all of my off-road bikes for NETRA events for 30 years.
BTW - I do not like "stepped seats" either - and I always wondered why they became the standard design. A long, flat seat is much better for a solo rider, and for not sticking the passenger's head up in the turbulence. My wife tells me that the SC kit certainly does not tip her into me as badly as the stock seat. I also have a passenger peg lowering kit, that I bought off of a guy on VSRI. They drop the passenger pegs 4", and work very well, although they become "ankle biters" when pushing the bike around the garage.
Overall, the 2012 DL-650 is a really nice daily commuter, that is capable of pretty much anything - including 2-up sport touring. It is a bit boring, though, and I sometimes think about trading it for a GoldWing or a BMW R1200RT.
If I keep the DL, I will get Emulators for the forks, and I probably should have grabbed that Elka shock that was listed here last week. I was unsure if it would have fit my year model.... But I now see that it would have..

[Garandman]

I put the ELKA on eBay with a buy-it-now price of $475. It sold in one hour.

Sold 8 items on eBay for over $900, down to the last three and I can see big patches of the garage floor!

Now I'm going modern on the Tiger - installing a USB port instead of a cigarette lighter!

[Chippertheripper]

Be careful with the USB port. Almost all of them have a constant power suckage.
So make sure it's switched, or through whatever relay contraption you may or may not have rigged yet.

[Garandman]

I have a switched fusebox, Denali Powerhub.

I'm told the current draw is miniscule unless you leave something plugged in. Think I'll put a multimeter on it and find out!

[02redhawk]

You guys got me seriously thinking of buying a DL650 for 2-up touring.

My SV650 became a track only bike much to the dismay of the wife. She doesn't like the back of my Streetfighter, go figure. So now I need something with a pillion seat that's comfortable for a couple hundred miles (about all we're likely to do 2-up). I looked at/tried a bunch of bikes, none of which we both could live with. I'm 5'8", 175lbs, and most of the ones I've tried were too tall, too wide or too heavy.

Multi - to tall
Diavel - fun bike but nope
Hyper - too much like the SF
VFR - just nope
Connie - nice bike, kind of top heavy
Sprint ST - same as the Connie
Wing - the weight was insane
FB6 - really wide seat, felt like sitting on a volley ball, not fun
Valkyrie - not bad, still pretty heavy, nope
Bonneville - no fun
R1200RT - it cost how much...?

I'd hit a dead end. Then I start reading this thread. never considered a vstrom.

I sat on one this weekend and was surprised to find the weight, height and ergs felt OK. From the few posts I've read here it sounds like it has enough power for what I'd be doing (2-up, mostly back roads with a bit of highway, no off road). Any recommendations on which years to avoid, etc.?

Thanks for any advise.

[nhbubba]

My V-Strom 650 ('11, ABS) is not a lightweight machine. The upside is that it does carry that weight very low. The steering geometry is very quick. I think it handles very well up to about 80 or so. After that it starts to get twitchy. And the ergonomics are much better suited for around town or back-roads than munching miles and miles of super-slab.

The 19-inch front and (slightly) longer suspension travel are tailor made for New England backroads. Slap some sport touring rubber on and you can chuck it into corners, mostly keeping up with far sportier bikes. But then when the road gets crappy you don't get the crap kicked out of your kidneys.

Ergonomics are really close to perfect for my tastes. Very upright compared to anything more sport-tourery. I love it in traffic as I can see over and around even the ginormous SUVs. I can also easily look around and behind me, something I struggle to do on sportier bikes.

Wind protection could be better. Expect to throw some money at a new windscreen to cure annoying buffeting.
Suspension could be better. I have about $1300 into mine. I would budget that money upfront.
Brakes could be better. Definitely expect to swap the pads right away. Mushy lever feel seems to be almost unavoidable.
Seat could be better. I hear the newer 'glee' seat is better. But mine was horrible after 2-3 hours.

Honestly, for 2-up use, I would strongly consider the new DL1000. On paper it is better than the DL650 and the extra power is probably appropriate for 2-up use.

I am anxious to ride a DL1000 myself. I think a DL1000 for covering distance and an SV650 for track/race/sport riding would make a damned fine 2-bike setup. Buy your oil filters in bulk.

[Stromper]

Most with 2 up mission go for the 1000 VEE

[Garandman]

You guys got me seriously thinking of buying a DL650 for 2-up touring.

My SV650 became a track only bike much to the dismay of the wife. She doesn't like the back of my Streetfighter, go figure. So now I need something with a pillion seat that's comfortable for a couple hundred miles (about all we're likely to do 2-up). I looked at/tried a bunch of bikes, none of which we both could live with. I'm 5'8", 175lbs, and most of the ones I've tried were too tall, too wide or too heavy.

Multi - to tall
Diavel - fun bike but nope
Hyper - too much like the SF
VFR - just nope
Connie - nice bike, kind of top heavy
Sprint ST - same as the Connie
Wing - the weight was insane
FB6 - really wide seat, felt like sitting on a volley ball, not fun
Valkyrie - not bad, still pretty heavy, nope
Bonneville - no fun
R1200RT - it cost how much...?

I'd hit a dead end. Then I start reading this thread. never considered a vstrom.

I sat on one this weekend and was surprised to find the weight, height and ergs felt OK. From the few posts I've read here it sounds like it has enough power for what I'd be doing (2-up, mostly back roads with a bit of highway, no off road). Any recommendations on which years to avoid, etc.?

Thanks for any advise.

I owned an 05 and an 09 DL650 ABS. I test rode a DL1000 before buying both. I found the 1000 to have too much weight on the front wheel to like it on soft surfaces, the fueling to be poor and the gearing all wrong. The 2014 DL1000 is a whole new ball game. But because of these issues you can buy DL1000's for almost the same as the same year DL650, so might be worth a try as it has more power and a few other differences: weighs a little more, has cartridge front forks.

The 2007+ DL650 went to the twin plug motor and ABS became available. Other than that their performance, mpg etc was nearly identical. So 2004-2011 DL650's don't have a lot of differences. 2012+ is improved in many ways.

People have ridden both bikes two-up all over the place. The passenger seat is very roomy, there are tons of accessories available, MPG is very good and they burn regular. They are under sprung and benefit from suspension upgrades. The headlights are terrific.

[02redhawk]

I'm sure we'd appreciate longer suspension travel after 2-up on the streetfighter. Dropping some $$ on suspension has been money well spent in my experience so I'd be good with that.

I'd consider the 650 or the 1000 assuming the seat height isn't too tall on the 1000. While I'm familiar with the 650 motor I can't say I've ever read about the 1k motor. Would looking for either model with a few years on it be a bad move?

[Garandman]

They are both very reliable. There are now many with over 100,000 miles.

The only difference in height is the seat: the [interchangable] DL1000 seat is approximately 1" / 25mm taller. Suzuki also makes a tall touring saddle and there are many aftermarket choices. My DL650 saddle was purchased by a shorter DL1000 rider.

[02redhawk]

Re: fueling issues on the 1000
Having dealt with rotten (lean) low rpm fueling on a bike again is something I'd like to avoid. I deal with computers all day.and so would like to limit my mapping adventures to one bike (the sf) and spend more time riding. Any chance a chain and sprockets would fix the gearing woes?

[02redhawk]

Sounds like I need to try one this weekend. Thanks again for all the tips!

[dankatz]

If you are going to ride a few hundred miles 2-up the 650 should suffice. You may just run the tachometer 500 rpm higher. I think the bigger issue with two up would be suspension and brakes, not the motor. Sure, a 1000 cc is more powerful. But, we are spoiled. ;-)

I actually enjoyed the FZ6 that I had for 11.5k miles tremendously and found the suspension, brakes and power was adequate two up stock. Mind you, my wife and I weighed about 300lbs together including all the gear. On the highway the screen was too small (I had a PUIG sport touring), but otherwise it was more comfortable two up than the VFR that I have now.

- - - Updated - - -

Also consider the GSX1250FA - great seat, power and has ABS. They are not that expensive if you can find one. Check out this one at $7999 out the door (left over 2011) http://worcester.craigslist.org/mcd/4570707956.html

[nhbubba]

I went +1 on the front sprocket on my DL650 and the highway revs are damned near PERFECT for my tastes. That is 1-up, cruising at 80-ish indicated.

My read on the fueling issues with the older DL1000 was that it could be solved by a power commander and/or some custom remapping tom-foolery. I don't know jack about programming EFI, so I was leary. Went with the 650 instead as it was good 'nuf for me and my needs. DL650 fuelling is pretty good except right off idle; sometimes she bobbles a bit. I've taught myself to blip the throttle a lot and am fine. It pulls pretty consistently once past ~2500 RPM.

New DL1000 is supposedly a totally different animal and doesn't have the same issues. Supposedly.

I turned 35,000 miles on my DL650 this morning. Outside of upgrades, I have done a reaman'ed stator, a couple oil seals (clutch, countershaft), plugs, air cleaner, oil, and filters. I've ridden it pretty hard and even tracked it twice at NHMS. I get 50-55 MPG across the board. DL1000 won't do that. But I am starting to think the extra power may be worth it. Maybe..

Just swapped a tire and cleaned and adjusted the chain. I'm off for a weekend of camping on this thing starting Friday. Should be fun.

[nhbubba]

I have discovered that the bike will yield what I think is a "tank slapper" under hard engine braking with these huge panniers loaded up with 30-ish lbs of camping gear.

[Stromper]

Most fueling issues can be tuned out of a Vee

but

Either power commander makes it go away all together so mentally add $300 and boom done

Vees have some superior components re the wee

Just got back from my rally of 700 miles with 200 dirt miles happy etc.

[nhbubba]

The range and fuel economy on this thing continues to blow my mind. I've been commuting on the bike a lot this summer. This week I went 5/5 including a bike-night appearance. I'm back on my hyper-anal tracking of fuel mileage kick. My last few tanks:



37,xxx miles and counting. I think I like it.

[Chippertheripper]

You can't argue with mpgs like that.
Is that with the big boxes hanging off?

[nhbubba]

No. Dropped the heavy cases and went back to the thimbles for normal 9-5 commuter doody. The big bags are for camping and weekends only.
I tried a pelican top-box earlier this year. Didn't like it. The Givi e21's are where it's at for my use most of the time. I kind of dig the bagger-esque look anyway.

Co-worker told me he said he saw me just about dragging hard parts leaving the lot the other day. Super comfortable on this thing. I love the way it handles. Really a remarkable little cheapazz suzi.

[Garandman]

I went cruising on back roads in MAine, fully loaded, and averaged 60mpg.

My life time [logged] average for both DL650's I had was 51 mpg.

Excluding track days. My first was 38mpg, second 32, third 29.8.

[nhbubba]

I think I've posted this before. I made a point of filling up immediately before and immediately after the two track days I brought this thing to back in the day before buying the SV. Both were 40-42 MPG.

I would like to think I've learned to wick it up since then.

In retrospect, carrying nearly 6 gallons of fuel around NHMS in the AM sessions was probably overkill.

[gregp]

I just swapped out the stock 15t countershaft sprocket for a 16t on my 2012 650 last night. A short test ride revealed a significant difference. These bikes (DL650A) make incredible commuter machines, and mine seems quite capable of 2-up touring. Yes, the suspension components are budget items, but they work just fine for street riding. The most significant issue is air flow management. 1 1/2 years after purchase, I am still not done trying to get to where I want the bike to be in that regard. I was thinking that fairing mounted mirrors might work better than the bar mounted stock versions... I have not seen a DL with that modification yet. On the 'Strom forums, some folks have had good luck running Aprilia mirrors. Moving the mirrors to the fairing would allow me to run a much wider windscreen.
FWIW - I leave all 3 of my OEM boxes in place, all the time. They are incredibly useful when least expected. Removing them does make the bike feel much more nimble, though....
The only problem that I have experienced so far is that my gear indicator started acting up. It did not want to read in 1-4 - and that would cause the FI light to turn on after a few miles. This occurred while I was running Rotella T. A swap to full synthetic Castrol Power RS 10w-40 seemed to cure the issue.