RE: [ST] new models

[Paul English <tallpaul@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Fri, 16 Sep 2005, Marc Van Est wrote:

> IMHO - don't do the Vstrom thing -a middleweight Tiger would be so much better.
>
> One of the guys I rode with had a 650Vstrom for a year, and eventually sold it.

OTOH, I know someone who had a 1000 Vstrom and couldn't wait to switch to 
a 650. I guess it depends how you ride...

> It is one of those bikes that doesn't do anything particularly well, doesn't really have any soul, and it gave him trouble.
>
> As a gravel road bike it is useless, to easy to damage the oil cooler etc from bigger stones. It makes a reasonable road bike, but what's the point -the SV does that much better.

For either Vstrom if you are actually going to take it on the dirt you 
should invest a few more bucks in an oil cooler protector and engine 
guards. The SW Motech ones come recommended and crash-tested.

A bash plate is also a good idea.

Some kind of protection is a good idea for any dual-purpose bike. What 
protection exactly is needed will depend on the layout of the bike.

> It has such a great motor in the SV, somehow it suffers in the Vstrom translation.
>
> The GS Beemer is a better dual purpose bike. (I did 30 000kms on my F650 before seeing the Triple-head light)

I always thought that the bigger bikes would be more of a burden in the 
dirt, but since I have no firsthand experience, what do I know? I do know 
that people *love* their GS's, Tigers, VStrom 1000's and I also know a lot 
of people that *love* the Vstrom 650. Yours is the first account I've 
heard of someone who really didn't like the Vstrom 650. So...to each his 
own, but there definitely is not a consensus that the VStrom 650 sucks.


Paul


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