After waiting impatiently
for a week, my new 650 finally arrived today - hooray! Went out for a quick spin - it's always a bit different to the test ride being
your bike and all that. Not that I'm a stranger to Stroms, having ridden several thousand miles on my 'old model' a couple of years back. But the new bike feels more sprightly and refinements like the gear indicator and plush seat make it seem a bit posher. I like the finish too - Suzuki seem to be upping their game a bit and the matt grey paint scheme I opted for seems very nice indeed. The same good handling is there but the engine is smoother and the vibes virtually absent. The exhaust note is not bad at all, with the visor down, removing any engine clatter. I'm limited to 5k revs or thereabout for a while but nevertheless, progress through the gears to there is smooth and fairly rapid. Tyres will need breaking in obviously but already I can see I'm going to enjoying throwing this one into corners. Coming from a sportsbike, I was a little concerned it might not match up but I need not have worried - despite gaining 40kg over the Triumph, the V-Strom feels lightly well balanced and leans into corners remarkably well. After returning, I decided to put the screen up from the stock mid to upper position. I had a lot of problem getting my old model to cut through the wind and finally arrived at a very satisfactory arrangement using long bottom bolts to rake the screen back quite a bit. Early days with this model but on my second run tonight, despite a gusty 28 mph wind, I experienced little movement at 70 mph. This may partly due to my Shoei XR1100 which has an aggressive profile and seals the visor tight with a lock. I may well try the lowest setting one time too .....sometimes 'less can be more' surprisingly. For the moment I am getting none of the strong wind blast in the chest I experienced on the GSX1250FA I parted company with earlier this year. If the wind drops tomorrow I will do a motorway blast. No doubt various trials will follow but I'm determined to get the airflow right for my 6' height, using just the stock screen, which I think I like the look of more than the two piece jobbies. Slight niggle is the footpegs which seem to get in the way of putting my foot down when coming to a standstill - perhaps I need to sit further forwards. The brakes need quite a bit of pressure to make the bike stop quickly but are effective when they finally bite.
Well that's it for now. First impressions are...what a stonking bike
