Lou's Clues

Archive for the ‘Motorcycles’ Category

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.

So since I last posted we’ve put a contract on a house and am set to close on or around May 5th.  We are leasing a place until the end of June which is nice because that will let us paint, clean and work on the house.  It will also afford us the opportunity to move in at a slow pace which will be nice.

Well it is finally starting to warm up after a bloody cold snowy winter.  I brought the bike up from it’s old home in Franklin County to it’s temporary home in Hanover.  I’ll say this about riding around this area.  The back roads are well kept up and offer a lot of nice sweeping turns, perfect for cruisers and the like.  Where are the tight twisty more technical roads to ride??  Once we move I’ll probably get out and explore more and will probably venture back towards Nelson County and see what I can find out there.  Nonetheless it is great to be riding again.

So since the bike and I are back together it is time to order some gear for the upcoming rides.  Thus far I’ve bought a new set of boots.  The Tourmaster Solution Waterproof boot which I purchased from NewEnough.com.  This is my second pair of Solutions and I love them.  Good solid all round boot offering a decent amount of protection around the toes and ankle.  It provides excellent waterproofing as well.  My last pair never leaked and trust me they got wet.  The boots also hold up extremely well.  My last pair lasted 3 years and around 25k miles.  Since I commute on my bike as much as I can, often times forgetting to take a spare pair of tennis shoes, they got a fair amount of non motorcycle use.  They do get a bit warm after wearing them off the bike for a couple of hours but other than that are as comfortable as you can ask.  On the bike they have logged 400 mile days without incident or any kind of discomfort.  Due to my small foot size (8 1/2), I purchased a size 9 and use an insert from the fine folks at riderwarehouse.com.  The Low Profile Sizing Insoles are an outstanding option if you are lucky enough to be blessed with one of those in between sizes.  When added to the boots I’m able to get a perfect fit, with some added arch support.

Next up is going to be a new Tank Bag.  I’ve got my eye on the FirstGear Laguna GPS Bag.  I’ll let you know what I think of that in a bit.