New Ride- 2014 Vstrom 1000 first impressions

[racebob 0]

Just turned the odometer to 600 miles today, Made the first payment too.

I finally sold my trusty and faithful DR 650 and went down and bought a new 2014 Vstrom 1000. A shout out to fun bike center. they gave me a great deal on the bike and I was happy with the people and the service. I had never bought from FBC before because I had heard some not so nice reviews in the past. I will tell you now that I was very pleased with the whole experience. Additional shout out to Amanda, JT, Jasper, and Brandon. I add in the optional hard cases and knuckle guards at least for now. Im eyeing some other farkles in the future.

First impressions: LOVE the bike Very comfy to ride, good ergonomics, geometry and power. The bike is effortless to ride. I bought this bike mainly for a street -travel bike. I don't intend to off road it much. Mainly because it is too big a bike for my short legs to handle in serious off road conditions. I used to have a 2006 KTM 950 and I did ride it off road on some pretty challenging stuff. I did ok with it but struggled a lot with the size and height. This new strom is not really suited for serious off road mainly because it has a low ground clearance, even though its marketed as a dual purpose bike by Suzuki. I wanted to be able to ride down dirt roads on my travels and its well suited for that. In fact the total feel of the bike is good on the dirt. I don't know what it is but every Suzuki Ive every ridden off road cornered very well. They have something figured out. One of my prior bikes was a Kawasaki 650 Versys. I know some people have set them up for off road adventure type riding ( twisted throttle ) But that bike was like a fish out of water. Scarry uncomfortable on a dirt road. Other than that I loved that bike on the road, it was one of my favorite bikes Ive ever owned.

Overall the bike is great so far. I will be commenting in the future more as I ride it more. Any one considering possibly buying one in the future feel free to contact me for more information. as of right now I am very happy with it. Bob

[Afry 1]

Nice, that sounds like a "ride to Alaska bike"

[Vacman 0]

Needs a skidplate immediately even for street use IMO. Van Joosten and I checked one of these out at the shop near his house and I was shocked by how exposed the oil filter is directly behind the front wheel. Not the smartest feat of engineering IMO...unless your goal is to sell an add-on skidplate with every bike I guess.

Grats on the new ride!

[paulmbowers 236]

Needs a skidplate immediately even for street use IMO.

Why, here's an absolutely beautiful photograph of one:

Ooo, look! Another:

[humptythumty 0]

Bob,

Great looking bike. Any big trips planned for the near future?

Wayne

[racebob 0]

Nice, that sounds like a "ride to Alaska bike"

I would do that. I did 250 miles 2 weekends ago and it was very comfortable on that distance. the seat is not bad. I would like to see if seat concepts has any improvements yet.

[racebob 0]

Bob,

Great looking bike. Any big trips planned for the near future?

Wayne

I might ride to Colorado with a buddy of mine with a 1200 GS in October. I don't know for sure.

Hi wayne how you been. Nice to here from you.

[racebob 0]

Needs a skidplate immediately even for street use IMO.

Why, here's an absolutely beautiful photograph of one:

Ooo, look! Another:

Is this for a new one. If so who makes it. The factory one is hidious

[paulmbowers 236]

http://www.weld86motoparts.com

But I'm not sure it fits the 1000.

[tsr 0]

Needs a skidplate immediately even for street use IMO.

Why, here's an absolutely beautiful photograph of one:

Ooo, look! Another:

Why, now, that's a might purty skid plate right there. The bike looks pretty good, too. ;-)

[ratz 0]

The bike styling is a nice change from Strom's past. It would look more versatile, with more ground clearance, as you said.

I think if you have some good riding skills, you can overcome many obstacles.

[Mikey777 44]

Looks a lot like the multistrada.

[racebob 0]

Believe it or not, I had a meeting to day with some Suzuki execs and engineers all the way from Japan, to talk to me, and I assume other recent Suzuki customers about my recent purchase. I was asked to meet with the regional sale manager, the north American sales manager, and 2 engineers who designed and worked on the new Vstrom. Of the 2 engineers only one spoke English, The one in the maroon shirt in the picture.

I filled out about 10 pages of questionnaires and then answered a load of questions rangeing from what I like, what I don't like, what other motorcycles Ive owned before, why I bought this bike and so on.

It was pretty interesting and fun to talk with them. It was obvious after talking with the engineers, they design them but they don't ride them. Some of their questions were a little dumb. One thing they wanted to know was why I wouldn't consider this a true off road adventure. I was really? look at the ground clearance for starters. They also wanted to know why I leave the traction control off. I told them because Im a life long rider and I know how not to spin the tire. and when they asked why I wouldn't us traction control in the dirt I responded, What the fun in not being able to break the rear tire loose around a corner.

They were very nice and appreciative of my feed back. The gave me a couple of parting gifts and took some pictures of the bike and were off back to LA.

[racebob 0]

Picture of the engineers from Suzuki from Japan

[racebob 0]

I don't know why this picture came out upside down. I tried to fix it but cant. It right side up in for album.??

[Vacman 0]

That's pretty cool! Did you ask them about the oil filter location?

[Afry 1]

Interesting, the fact that they don't ride explains a lot.

Exactly opposite of the Penton developement shown in the movie explains their immediate success.