Wee Strom DL650

+1

Purchased my 2009 DL650 last fall with 350 miles on it. So far have added about 1200 miles and several farkles. Extremely happy with the Wee, definately the best bike I have owned.

Nice! Looks almost the same as mine!





Russell seat will be here Friday. SO ready to experience that luxury!

Jesse racks will be here Monday. Going to attempt to mount some ammo cans to them until I can afford the Jesse panniers.

Love this amazing bike. Wish I would have discovered it a long time ago!

I agree here's my contribution...

http://advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=767107

Are those the Suzuki hand guards, and if so, how do you like them? I'd like to get some and I was looking at the Barkbusters. They have a aluminum bar, do these?

Dave

They appear to be the OEM guards, which are only plastic. They are fine for deflecting wind and tree branches but won't do a whole lot in the case of a tip over.

I haven't been too disappointed with the stock front brakes but I am sure the rear brake is made of a block of 2x4. How Suzuki could manage to put such weak brakes on a fine bike is beyond me.

Fitted some of the above mirrors last week , in a bit to cut down on the wind buffeting. Quite pleased with the look less elephantine than the stock ones. The buffeting has decreased around the top of the arms and shoulders, the rear view isn't as good though.

I purchased mine from E-bay for the pricey some of £24. A cheap mod that helps and is aesthetically pleasing to the eye.

DWC

Did you get OEM or the Asian OEM knock-offs? How is view? I really like the view in the stockers but agree the dumbo-mirror look is square times two.

Picked up a new 2011 Wee a couple of weeks ago. Only have a couple hundred miles on it so far, but I really like this bike! The farkling has commenced. I was a little worried about it's 2 up ability, but so far it's been fantastic.

There is a Honda part that will fit for improved rear brakes.
Cbr600 rear pads I believe. Somewhere around 2002-2004

What he said...yes, plastic only. They are more wind and bug deflectors than anything else, but work great for my purposes. I think that if I was riding more dirt/woods, then I would want something stronger that offers more protection to my hands and controls.

Here's a shot of my 2011 with Barkbusters installed. They've saved my levers a few times already, but I was going places and doing things that are more off-road oriented than some think the Wee is intended.

I just ordered these... figure for 32 bones it's worth a chance. I'll let yawl know how they work...

http://www.ebay.com/itm/28082884368...tem=&sspagename=ADME:L:OC:MOTORS:1120&vxp=mtr

I'm continually amazed at the ability of the wee. It does everything, yet excels at nothing. Thereby being amazing in it's ability to do everything! Yet excelling at nothing and being amazing at the same time!

Because some of us actually ride them in the dirt and DO NOT WANT road racer brakes or ABS on them! The stock brakes are perfect on gravel surfaces on my 07...

So dirt bike brakes need to be weak, non-modulating, non-feeling blocks 'o wood? Nay-Nay my dear bull-guy. Ride a KTM dirt bike or any other bike set up for a mid to high-level off roader and you'll see that great brakes are good for thee.

The correct answer to the "brakes of wood quandary" is: Suzuki and all MFG's of so-called Adventure bikes (and their attorneys) make the brakes the way they do so that the newbie, (aka spode, aka noob, aka weekend warrior) doesn't go ass-over-teakettle the first time he grabs a handful of front brake at 80 mph on a dirt road.

It's all about reputation, laws suits, and pain and suffering.

The above mentioned spode, noob would only do that ONCE.
Along those lines, after doing my suspension, I was able to SMOKE UP my front tire the first time I grabbed the front brake on my DL650. Not sure if that is a good or bad thing yet.

You will probably note that said KTMs have very small rear brakes on them . Dirt riding most of their life is the reason for that, especially for rears.This non-noob knows that most of your braking force is on the front wheel not the rear. You do not need ultra powerful rear brakes and they need not be powerful or have a "wooden feel" to be effective.
The correct answer is that Suzuki,s engineers know more about how powerful a rear brake should be for occasional dirt riding (given dirt/tire traction ability) than you do and build their bike to that spec. They do not expect you to go 80 mph on dirt with a WeeStrom.