Over the last few years i've started to move further and further away from a car as my primary form of transport. The problem has been that none of the bikes i own are at all practical as everyday transport/car repacements:

• The V11 is too much like hard work over distance with fairly extreme ergo's. I've done a few 500 mile days on "Britney" and always needed a chiropractor the day afterwards :)
• "Margaret" - my 1976 Convert is currently broken, but the main problem with her is that shes a vintage bike, she's comfy for distance but not the kind of bike that i'd want to sit at 80mph on the freeway anytime soon.
• "Steve, my Bonneville is raucuously obnoxious and geared too low for freeway riding, plus my hearing is something i covert, the non existant wind protection beats you up on the Bonnie at anything above 70 mph. Plus refueling every 120 miles gets old after a while.

....So what to do ?  Well, i'm in process of selling my truck, (anyone want a 2003 Hummer H2 wih 40,000 miles on the clock ?) and really needed something rock solid for daily transportation, something with a great fuel range, decent economy, room for luggage and good wind protection.

Aha time for a Moto Guzzi Stelvio !! no wait i cannae afford one of those this year as i'm recovering from financial disaster, ah must be time for a V-Strom 650 then !

The V-Strom 650 uses a detuned SV650 motor. It comes in a "half dark" model in 650 guise. Once i figured out it'd do over 200 on a tank of gas courtesy of the 5.8 gallon tank, that it'd cruise at 85 mph all day, has an adjustable screen and that I can attach tasty "Long way round" style aluminium luggage, I was pretty much sold. 

  So now the problem was finding a non-ABS model somewhere close to me. Turns out that Berts MegaMall in Covina had one. A wee bit of haggling later and a price was agreed upon. I hopped a flight the next morning to LAX, where I was picked up by Stoafo and off we went to the dealership.

 The first ride home was during breakin period so i was pretty gentle with the bike. Plus I hadnae named him/her yet! First impressions were all about the super neutral handling, the comfy seat and very linear power delivery. The adjustable screen was set in the lowest position though and i was getting quite a bit of buffetting on the ride home.

There followed a week of commuting on the  "wee strom". I quickly found that it's easily the best handling bike i own, lane splitting is nice and easy becasue of the high seat and upright riding position. Raising the windscreen, reduced the helmet buffetting above 80mph, but i still get noticeable buffetting at 70 :( Other than that the big thing for me was how well the stock OEM Bridgestone Trailwings work on this bike. I'm getting enough lean angle to scrape pegs and the bike always feels planted with a high level of grip. Initially i'd been worried about the relatively tall seat height (i'm a short ass), but it's not been a noticeable issue. 

  The first accessories that i've ordered have been the Suzuki handguard set and a carbon fibre tank pad (the dealer accidently put a scratch on the tank before i took delivery). I do however have a set of Krauser luggage on order and at some point in the next few months i'm goign to be adding engine guards, a sump protector and heated grips.

The Krauser luggage that i've chosen has a long delivery time though and lsat week i was jonesing to take a road trip so i swung by the Suzuki dealer in San Mateo and while they were 600 mile servicing the bike, I bought a tank bag and some coretech soft luggage. (to be reviewed seperately :)   )

So equipped it was time for a first ever road trip and two-up we headed off to Santa Monica as I had work at my companies LA location and it seemed like a good excuse to put some miles on "wee Billy" as he's now named. Riding down was "ok", basically a blast down the I5 in the evening. Riding home however, on the hottest day of the year, in fully lined textile black clothes and helmets, wasnae too much fun :)  Here's some pics of "wee Billy" as the heat started to set in. The heat up in topanga canyon was pretty intense so we headed down to Malibu and the alledgedly cooler climes by the ocean. 

On the way home the  Suzuki managed a respectable and comfortable 85mph for 3 hours at a time as I hauled ass to make sure i made it to San Jose in time for the George Michael concert ! Pulling up at the HP Pavillion Arena in San Jose with 5 minutes to spare, I barely had time to reflect on how well the Suzuki's performance is greater than the sum of it's parts. Suspension is a bit soft, i increased preload for the ride home, but the brakes and chassis work well, even two up. My only grouch is i'm used to more fire breathing motors, but hey, the vstrom can even power the gerbing heated vest i brought along for my pillion! 

Finally at the concert, we had barely enough time to change (mental note, motorcycles get rockstar front and center parking at the HP pavillion, great for parking not so great for changing in privacy), before heading on in to watch George Michael rock out. Seriously he did rock out, i was majorly shocked at how good he was live!

 
As I write this I have 1500 miles on the bike in just under 10 days. Next blog will be a review of the soft luggage that I bought as a makedo for the trip.