pg wrote on 08/17/14 at 19:30:52:Rix, Can you give us an update about the V-strom? Just curious, thanks.
Well, Rix never replied, so I had to go out and buy one of these to find out
Here's what I think:
- This is a tall bike. I had to lower it, and raise my boot heals 1/2 inch to get comfy enough to flat foot at stop lights.
- the cool thing about the tallness is that I can see over cars now.
- Much fast.
- 53mpg in rush hour traffic.
- It handles well, but it's not as responsive as the Savage. If I had to do a cone test, I'd do it on the Savage.
- The brake dive is about 3" and it happens either braking or rolling off. This I may never get used to. I need to try to adjust the front pre-load.
- This thing loves freeways speeds, but it's not very happy with in town stop-go-stop. Mostly because of the brake dive.
- It has a built in gear indicator, fuel gauge, MPG calculator(conservative), and a TRIP METER!
- It is very top heavy - I've dropped it three times already - the drops happened right after a fillup. The tank holds over 5 gallons. Way too top heavy for my weak Savage arms. Now I only put in a couple of gallons when I'm running low.
- Much fast. Wow.
I got this thing to commute to work during the Seattle rainy season. The Savage doesn't like rain much, and the DL650 comes with dual rotors and ABS.
Givi also has luggage fittings for this, and having Givi luggage on this machine is about as close to getting a Goldwing as I'll ever get.
It is a very nice bike, and has a strong following among the moto tourers (which I am not). I've seen many of these machines with 30k miles and still running strong. I've decided not to get the extended warranty ($1,100), and plowed that in to luggage.
I'm not getting rid of my Savage. And if I could only have one motorcycle, it would be the Savage. You're stuck with me