Well that's a cockup from the start, sending my introduction to a person instead of everyone. I'll start again. Hello everyone, 'why' haven't I found this site before!! Its brilliant. I live in Southport, NW England, 20 or so miles north of Liverpool. I've been biking since a teenager, now 75 and needing something a bit lighter bought a DL650AL3 last June, down from a GSX1250. I love it, so much easier to move around compared to the GSX. Done quite a bit of touring over the years on the bigger bikes, through Europe but stick to UK now. Off up around Dumfries & Galloway in a month or two. Now racking brain to think of Vstrom questions in the forums!!