Not a VTR, but she's mine

[Pete.L]

Sweet
Nothing beats a new toy feeling.
Enjoy!

Pete.l

[bigtwinthing]

£9450 today at Crescent Suzuki with the Adventure kit on. Seems a bargain.

[Virt]

Did about 240 miles on the V-Strom yesterday after collecting her from the dealership.

Little bit of my thoughts so far, if anyone is interested:

Engine:
Engine is very, very similar to that of the VTR in how it feels. She pulls low rpms infinitely better, from 2k upwards she's smooth as silk.. Exhaust note is beautiful with the Yoshi R-77 (I've only removed one of the two baffles inside it, so far). Can't go above 6k rpm currently, but there's plenty of power up to that point and she can still pull off stupid overtakes with that restriction

Handling:
Amazing. The high and wide bars let you just throw the bike into corners and the bridgestones it comes with stick to the road like sh1t to a blanket, checked tyre heat after about 30 miles riding and I couldn't keep my hand on the tyre!

Brakes:
Once again, amazing. Radial front brakes that inspire heaps of confidence and stop the bike pretty quickly, haven't activated the ABS on it yet (and don't really intend to..) but I can imagine it being very easy to accidentally lock the wheels, gonna need to practice some emergency stops on it.

Comfort:
Really good, didn't feel any discomfort after 240 miles in the saddle. The screen I got is adjustable while riding, via pushing it away from you, and it completely removes wind buffeting on its highest setting.

Fuel economy (this one is important!):
Averaged 50mpg from all my riding yesterday, that's from a mix of twisty roads (between 60-95 km/h ) and motorways (85-95km/h), with the panniers equipped too and me experimenting with the acceleration and braking quite a bit. It has a real time fuel usage calculator that I experimented with on the motorway, doing 60mph in 6th is apparently 85mpg, this will need to be tested properly at some point.

Cubbington, after my first 20 miles of ownership:


My Dads CrossTourer, my V-Strom and my Brothers' Tiger.

[Ckennedy]

So that's why you did it. You felt left out

Good to hear your review of it. Now let's just see if you can ride

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[lloydie]

Tbh its the right sort of bike for you Virt !.
Tbh Virt it's a more suitable bike for how you ride , just look after it or I'll slap ya

[AMCQ46]

I like the practicality of it, and it is always fun to have a new toy, lets see it in the flesh in Wales ........... and the bike too

[Ckennedy]

Tbh its the right sort of bike for you Virt !.
Tbh Virt it's a more suitable bike for how you ride , just look after it or I'll slap ya

It should be ok for 3 years. Shouldn't really have anything go wrong in that time. But this is virt will be good to see it but I doubt it'll grown on me any.

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[Virt]

[bigtwinthing]

looks good, i like the cross tourer too, bit dearer though eh!

[Virt]

Much dearer, so nice to ride though! Not as nice as the Strom, but very nice.

Went our for a 60 mile jaunt yesterday, somehow did 300miles and I'm almost ready for the first service. Looking forward to being able to rev past 6000rpm

[Virt]

At least you can keep riding when the road says stop for a VTR.
I'd have one, i just wouldn't tell anyone ;)

Hope you get many years of smiles out of it and it takes where the VTR couldn't ;)
Can you turn the ABS off on your bike?

ABS can't be turned off, only traction control. To be honest the ABS isn't intrusive at all, even in the wet, so I'm not really bothered by it. The traction control on the other hand... Could probably give you a seziure if you watched the TC in the wet, bloody bridgestones

[Stu9]

Well