Congrats DL 650

NOTICE.
I Just got the new Cycle World today and want to gloat in the news that the "baby strom" Suzuki DL 650 V-strom beat the Ducati Multistada 620 "hands down" in a head to head road test, and comes in like $2100.00 below the sticker of the Duc. Also, German Cycle Magazine Motorrad named the baby strom "Der AlpenFuhrer" (#1) in a 20 bike shootout through the mountains. The strom 650 and 1000 share the same egineering and chasis geometry. I love my mule but I am starting to wish I had bought the 650 and put the $2300 difference into, well, a second 650 for the old lady (aka my wonderful, loving and understanding wife).

The mule

Well since the goal here is to primarily cover my motorcycle travels and experiences I guess I have made a sizable omission. What do I ride? Since I have had a great love for the outdoors, often prefer the path least traveled and the utility and versatility of an object define its value to me there was really only one choice for me; adventure touring. Why buy an adventure touring cycle? These bike are designed to go anywhere, haul large loads, the engines have loads of torque, good horsepower and can tolerate just about any road surface or lack thereof.

Unfortunately I am not made of money so that eliminated all of the Euro tourers from my choices. As much as I wanted that BMW I lacked the $12,000 plus to close the deal. After some searching I found the Suzuki V-Strom Dl-1000. In German Strom means wind. The retail is about $8999.00 local and I did about 15% better than that. However, I have made some very dollar intensive upgrades to the stock cycle, some of which may have not been needed on some other bikes. I will detail the expenditures below.

Overall, I am finally appreciating this bike. The biggest problem was the fuel injection computer and just about everything in the fuel delivery system has had to worked on or adjusted. Fuel injection on motorcycles is still somewhat new territory for Japanese motorcycle manufacturers. This same bike was sold in Europe with a Kawasaki nameplate and carburetors.

After many, many trips to the dealer I finally bought the Power Commander III (PC) computer module to regulate the fuel air mixture. Finally the motor is somewhat smooth. This came at the cost of nearly 20% increase in fuel consumption. I have contacted PC several times regarding this development with no response. If you buy this computer just know that you are on your own with the tuning. Thanks guys, I hope you choke in the $350.00!

With the exception of the tuning issues this has been a great ride. Its highway manners are above average, it is not too buzzy until you really get into the top RPMs (7500+), great chassis stability and an all round good commuter bike. I ride it to work almost every day.

The additions include Givi monokey panniers & mounting system ($514.00), Givi crash bars ($129.00), Suzuki touring windscreen ($79.00), Suzuki center stand (197.00), Cortex tank bag ($79.00) and Power Commander ($349.00).

The attached pics show the additions minus the crash bars. So, don’t give up on the bike if it is not just right when you take delivery. I plan on riding this machine for at least the next 10 years or so. The extra money spent to make it right was just an expanded portion of the overall investment.

Hello,
Well it is hot here in TX so there is not too much to do or write about. However, I have reconnected with a few old friends this year and have been frequently asked what I have been up to. So, the next few postings will be a recap of this year. They will be short with maybe a picture or two.

In Feb I did a Bach trip to Portland. We only had 2 1/2 days so we wanted to make the most of the trip. Our main excursions were to Mt St. Helens and to the Washington coast. The mountain monument was amazing. If you are ever even remotely near the area I would recomend a vist. From the Mountain we went straight to the coast. It was a long haul through some really interesting country. We left Portland at 7am and the round trip from Mt St. Helens to the Washington coast via Astoria(sp?), OR and the Columbia river and back took about 15 hours. here are a couple of pics from the trip.

I have been away for the last couple of weeks so I have not posted anything here since setting up shop. Week 1 was in New Orleans at a work related conference. The city seemed like a ghost town with a big red-light district in the middle if it. Downtown and the French Q were in not bad shape. However, on the trip in from the airport I could hardly count the FEMA trailers still parked in the neighborhoods. There were many empty storefronts. We could not find any restaurants open after 6pm unless it was also a bar. A couple of evenings we ended up on Bourbon Street after 10pm and found it to be grittier than I remembered from my college trips there. Most of the regular bars seemed to have been replaced by strip clubs and what appeared to “massage parlors”. Also, with the absence of tourists the crowd seemed a little rougher as well. I must say that there was a very noticeable police presence in the FQ and Downtown. I never felt at risk walking the streets in the FQ or DT. The one time I felt a little spooked was during a conference sponsored sunrise walking tour through the FQ. It was really informative as well as entertaining. I just could not get over how empty the FQ is at 6am! It was al little spooky. I did find one coffee house and about 10 bars that were open. After taking the tour I realized that the cool bars were not on Bourbon Street but tucked away in other parts of the FQ.

Why is the city so empty? Questions I decided to ask anyone I met: Where is everyone and why haven’t they come back. The different answers were too numerous to list here. However, most at some level were related to either politics or money. I was frequently reminded that New Orleans was a very poor city before the storm and now the situation has compounded. From speaking with city officials (a guy fixing a stoplight), visitor bureau (a guy giving away city maps) and others the consensus is that about ½ to 2/3 of the people that have left have yet to return. A large percentage of the people there now are just there to rebuild and will probably leave when the work is done or the money runs out. If 2/3 of the people there do not want or care to come back and rebuild why should anyone outside of the city care? DT and the FQ are really unique and probably need to be rebuilt, but does the city need an urban residential population? Many large metropolitan areas have a vibrant tourism industry with a relatively small urban labor force.

I have always liked Now Orleans. This was my 4th trip there in the last 10 years. It was really sad to see the city and its people in the shape they were in. Most of the people I met there were celebrating life. A few were alive but seemed dead inside. The storm damaged the city in ways I will never know. I hope the people who want to return home will get to do so soon, and if you don’t want to come back, well that’s cool too.

I will post a few pics from the Crescent city here.