Hi everyone,
I have just become the proud owner of a K8 DL1000. I was an Africa twin owner for many years but they are just silly money now and the vstrom seems like a bullet proof option. I think I have made the mistake of getting the Vee when I should have gone for the wee, but I just liked the solid feel of the vee. Anyway I only bought it last week and have a couple of problems. Firstly I didn't get to use it for the first 5 days and when I finally jumped aboard the battery was flat. Took it out for a bimble and all good, then next time I got on, it only just had a charge and then this morning nothing. Saying that the last two journeys have been short around town journeys, anyway the question I have is....the Africa twin had a known rectifier problem, does the vstrom have any known similar problems I should know about? Also the bike came with a spare set of keys with a datatool fob on them, but when I press it nothing happens, my worry is that the alarm is draining the battery, where would I find the bits to know whether the datatool alarm is still on the bike?. Thirdly, is there a way to turn on the ignition without the lights coming on so that they don't hammer the battery before you have even fired up the bike?
To make matters worse, I get back from my third ride(dropping son off at school after bump starting the bike to start it) and I notice a load of liquid down my leg, looks like its dripping coolant from the hose connected to the radiator on the right hand side. I am going to check later to see if it's just a loose jubilee clip or something, but just wondering if there are any known probs with radiators, coolant that I should know about or if bumping the bike is a bad idea and could have caused this etc.
Thanks in advance chaps