VStrom Owners Thread

re: K60's .... thanks to all who replied.

well I got me a set and went for a 1,000 mile ride ... very good on pavement, handled well and no problems .... very good on dirt, gravel, and hard packed sand but not loose sand !

and warm tar snakes ... guess no tire can handle those eh ?

ride well .... DL650 likum K60 Scouts .... vrooooom ....

Hey thanks,I'm on the fence with K60's so it's good to hear some feedback.

Congratulations on your new ride. It looks exactly like mine 3rd Wee (2010 ABS) ,which will be going on sale this week, since I got my 4th Wee (total # of 6 V Stroms so far - first 2 were Vee). Finally I got one with silver wheels. PS. If you familiar with Pulaski, NY, there will be Polish Riders of Canada and USA at the beginning of September. Usually there is few riders form your area. It looks like there will be 2 Glee this time, next to my gray/ silver Wee. You are more then welcome to join the club.

New Vstrom owner here. Picked up a demo unit 2013 650 Adventure model.

Here's a good place to start learning about your new ride -

http://www.vstrom.info/Smf/index.php

Welcome to the asylum.

And www. Stromtrooper.com might be even better.

I use pannier liner bags with my side-loading Pelican 1550's and have no problems. Extremely nice being able to quickly bring the entire contents of my cases into my tent, motel room, home, etc. without having to detach & carry the whole pannier.

I bought an 04 with 22k miles and Iam really starting to like this bike but at 3k to 3.5k rpms it has a studder or miss but clears up after 4k,is this the norm ?

Do you have a link to the racks that work with the Tusk panniers?

Unfortunately it is. The best fix I have found for this type of an issue is get a power commander III . Once I received mine it cleared up all issues with the engine, provided better response, and just made the bike a real jewel. Only down side is it did reduce the fuel mileage a small amount. It really is a great bike and I hope you enjoy it.
TC

Yes, its exactly how a high reving v-twin will run. Running a good fuel map helps, but really its too far below the torque curve to expect much below 4k. That's less than half the red line.

I run mine down to 3k with no issues, I just feed the throttle in smoothly and run a tweaked fuel map. Its no lazy low reving v-twin, the engine came from a sport bike design originally with different cams in the Strom.

I take back what I said a couple weeks ago about the V-Strom being a "barely acceptable off-road bike." I just did an 1100-mile trip this past weekend (over 2.5 days), about 60 of which was on dirt... and the bike performed amazingly well, especially being loaded down with camping gear. I turned up the rear shock about 1-1.5 turns towards Firm, and unless it was a really big bump, it didn't bottom. That's way better than I can say for my DR650 when it had its stock suspension.

Now, the stock forks on this thing do leave a bit to be desired, so I will probably upgrade those first. Plus at only $300 for valving and springs, it's a deal compared to $1200 for a custom rear shock with adjustable compression and rebound.

BUT... honestly, it doesn't need it that bad. The bike's biggest limitation is ground clearance, so large rocks are just an exercise in testing your skid plate.

Rob

Rob, coming from a fellow KLX owner, this is a good report. More and more things are pointing me towards the VStrom being my next addition to the stable!


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Once you get used to it, and as long as you don't plan to haul ass, you'll enjoy it. Oh, another limitation worth mentioning -- the aluminum wheels! Don't hit stuff too hard or you'll crack or taco 'em. I want a set of spoked wheels for mine, but crap, $2200 for a set. Pass.

After this weekend, I went through and was looking at the specs of other bikes in the segment... the BMW F700GS for example. Same suspension travel, only slightly better ground clearance (maybe an inch), similar weight. It just makes the V-Strom stand out even more.

Also... it would help a lot to drop a tooth on the front sprocket. I've been meaning to order one for mine but never get around to it. There were several times when I got into soft stuff where I had to slip the heck out of the clutch to get the thing moving without stalling it. But other than that it did okay. It's also neat watching the MPG gauge reporting mid 60's MPG while doing this.

BTW be sure you wire in an ABS shut-off switch.

Rob

A spring upgrade is cheap and easy, if thats not enough you can always drop in Cogent's DL650 stuff. But, I'm happy with a simple spring upgrade so far. I spent around $120 on the DL1000 forks, changed the bike by a huge amount getting rid of the brake dive. Sonic 1.0's and 7wt does wonders. Front and rear can be done for less than $300 if you do it yourself and already have tools. I guess on the DL650 you need to make a fork tool or buy one, no big deal. Its best to break things down and flush out the old fluid, I also put in new OEM fork seals. Rear spring can be compressed in a number of ways, I nailed a wood block together with legs on it and used my shop press. Some have used floor jacks and etc.

I'll get the Cogent DDCs and some springs for mine. I'm a big fan of improved valving. I notice it rebounding more than I'd like, and that's one of the things I'd like to change.

Likewise with the rear... a little more rebound than I'd like. I have the Cogent rear shock on my DR650, and finally got it tuned good during my OBDR Route 4 ride a few weekends ago. I do need a stiffer spring (I went up one level from stock), but I can nail some pretty big bumps now, loaded with camping gear, and quite literally barely feel it. 'Course there's a lot to be said for 10" of suspension travel too. :)

Rob

I don't plan on taking mine deep off road except for gravel roads. The only thing I would have to worry about as far as suspension is hitting big pit holes on those gravel roads. I plan to use this bike as a 75/25 road/ gravel bike. My KLX will then be my 75/25 dirt/ road bike.


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Oh cool so you're keeping the KLX. That's good! That way you can get your hard-core dirt stuff satisfied, and then be able to relax on the V-Strom.

Rob

Yeah, the more and more I talk about it, post about it, etc, the more and more convinced I am that I need to just keep the KLX and go for a bigger more road touring oriented bike as an ADD to my stable. For the exact reasons you mention.