100,000 mile K3 V-Strom report

Hello all, on March 9, 2008 my K3 V-Strom went over the 100,000 mile mark. The bike was bought new as a "left over" on Feb 7, 2004 for $7300. It came with 1 mile on the odometer. Here is the maintenance rundown from my records.

27 oil changes - Castrol Syntec 10x40 (full synthetic)
14 oil filter changes - Fram PH6018
6 front brake pad changes. EBCHH. you must be able to stop !!
2 rear brake pad changes. stock suzuki pads. I dont use the rear brakes much.
5 chains
1 sprocket set at 61,120 miles
5 front tires
8 rear tires
3 valve clearance checks. no adjustments have been made. all within spec.
3 spark plug changes
3 coolant drain & refill
0 leaks !!!

There has only been TWO part failures in all of these miles!! The rear exhaust/header gasket at 66,217 miles and the front brake stop switch at 100,000 miles. These two items total replacement is under $20. And I still have 11 months left on my extended warranty !!

Two other very minor niggly things- the tachometer face plate has warped a little under sunlight and the green OD light comes on when it wants to, in whatever gear it feels likes glowing


mileage by the year-2004-18000, 2005-22901, 2006-23715, 2007-28536, 2008-6848.

Tires-I prefer the 'old' Tourance. here is the mileage from all the tires I've tried.
original Bridgestone F & R-9907mi. these were the worst.
Dunlop rear 9691mi. next worst tire.
Pirelli Scorpion fronts 21899 & 18985mi, Pirelli scorp rear 9216mi. good tires.
Tourances fronts 16147, 18018. Front EXP at +14000.
Tourances rear 12,992, 14775, 14601, 13744. Front EXP 8948.

The Strom is a great bike and runs strong. I've probably sold 30 of them for Suzuki from my testamonial. Here is a list of the 'things' not stock on my bike...Piaa fogs, IPF spots, Gerbing heated jacket/gloves, cig lighter for accessories, Garmin 2720 with RAM mount, Emgo mirrors, rear stand spools,outside temp gauge, dash shelf, modified handguards, Galfer stell front lines, fender extender, Russell seat, K&N air filter, race tech .90 springs w/178 mm spacers, Kappa hard bags, Marsee tank bag, Saeng windscreen deflecter, Cee Bailey 26in over stock shield, handle bar crossbar w/pad, $9 throttle lock, throttle wrist rest, coin holder, blue sea fuse box, 1in bar riser/pullback, Givi crashguards, Suzuki centerstand and Oury grips.

My original thought in 2004 was to buy a BMW GS1150. I'm glad I got the Strom and it has cost a lot less than operating and owning the BMW, IMHO !


To obtain a high mileage, all you have to do is just ride your bike everyday. Granted living in sunny GA, we have a year round riding season. But 100K isnt very many miles for a motorcycle. My 1991 H-D FXRS-CONV has 343,000 miles on its odometer, that is one maintenance 'breakdown' you wouldn't want to see. There's not enough internet space for me to type it all out, but I love the bike just the same.

I have a pic of the Stom odometer, so if anybody wants to help me out and post it for me, that would be nice.

Cheers and happy riding,

Kith Burkingstock. email addy- kith@numail.org
Newnan GA

Very cool I put 60k miles on my TL1000S - like ya said the only thing you need to do to for high mileage is ride the thing

PM me your email address and i will host the image for you.

Congrats on your V-Strom mileage! I had a K3 and wish I never sold it, but I bought a K6 to assuage my guilt .

I've got 23k on my 06. I'm wanting to do 100k.

scweet yall....

Thanks for the Write up !

Care to elaborate a little more on the Tires review (The good/bad and use of them - on/off road) ?

I am still only 1000 kms into my original tires BUT already looking ahead for when I have to swap em out...

Awesome!!!

I'm 1/3 there, on pace to hit 100k in a few more years.

Jamie

Sad to say, I probably have only about 100 miles of off roading on the Strom. I'd say the Tourances are the best for that kind of riding- moderate fire trails, gravel, dirt roads, etc. If you were to really go off roading, I'd say a much more dirt oriented tire (knobby type) would be necessary.

All of those miles with shit fram filters....truly amazing. Hopefully those of us that use good quality filters, will double your mileage. Great writeup.....us Strom owners know how great a bike it truly is.

EXCELLENT review! Makes me glad I own one too!

Nice!! I love reading stuff like this. Makes me comfortable with my decision to get a new 1000 in Oct. I too was toying with the BMW 1200GSA. I am glad I opted for the grape kool-aid rather than the fruit punch. Sadly I only have 1600 miles what with the winter and all. Now that it's nice out, I am sick. No justice I tell ya!

I'm 1% there in one month of ownership.

Right on

Thanks for sharing, I bought my Strom thinking 50,000 and trade, that has been my motto on all previous rides, two or three years and a new ride...

But then along came the Strom.......The more I ride the Strom, the longer I want to own it and now I am thinking 100,000 and beyond, I have never had so much attachment to a bike.

Glad to hear the someone has surpassed 100k, with mild to minimum breakdowns.

I have replaced quite a few things on my Strom, but nothing that abuse did not attribute to, and still THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS less spent then my previous ride..............a bmw gs 1100.........not bashing the bmw, but at 52,000 I was ready to part ways

Any how, thanks again for the superb write up, Much appreciated

Yes, I'm sure that's the logical conclusion.

congrats, i love hearing about bikes hitting 100k

Wow. Thanks for the great writeup. I've always felt that you get a lot of miles out of any bike with a little regular maintenance.

Have you posted this over on the VSRI forum yet? http://11109.rapidforum.com/

Great write up

Keep on

Very good.
Thanks