Lou's Clues

Archive for May, 2010

You read correct,   I’m now a multi-bike family.  Back in the beginning of May I picked up a 2007 Suzuki Vstrom DL-1000, with get this ZERO miles.  I bought the bike from GiviUSA in Charlotte NC, who had used it as their show bike.  Needless to say it was loaded with accessories.  I took a couple days off work after finding this on Craigslist and hopped a train down to Charlotte where I met up with the fine folks at Givi who I can not say enough positive things about.  They were truly a pleasure to deal with.  They had the bike setup and ready to go, so after the obligatory paperwork, I climbed aboard and headed toward Roanoke, VA where I had a place to stay with some friends.

The first thing that I noticed was WOW this thing would eat some miles and comfortably.  I was stuck with slab until Winston-Salem but what would have been brutal on my 02 SV-650, this lady took in stride and didn’t mind at all.  Since I was breaking her in we kept changing gears, speed, RPMs etc.  In Winston-Salem we jumped off of interstate and began navigating some two lane up into VA, and more familiar territory.  After hitting Stuart, on 57 I pointed the Vee towards a brilliant stretch of highway, Route 8, up Tuggles Gap and to the Blue Ridge Parkway.  I took the Parkway on in to Roanoke where a friend had picked up everything I needed from StarCity Powersports to change the oil.  Oil Changed and rested the next day we headed home.

I really like this bike.  I plan on using her primarily for Sport Touring and already have a trip planned for June 10th-14th.  She is a totally different ride from my SV, something I’m still learning.  I’ve already ordered a Corbin Seat for her,  got black braided lines installed both front and rear, installed an SAE plug for the battery tender.

I’ll update more after the June trip.