Doesn't seem to be any specific thread on here about the Wee-Stroms so thought I might try to get one going.
I picked mine up yesterday from Auckland and rode it home... She's an 05 with 36000km on the clock.
Observations so far:
- It's a little quiet... I'm used to riding bikes I can hear. At the moment she sounds about as virile as a soft sneeze into a thick hanky. I assume you can de-baffle them a bit?
- Performance is great and they like being wound up. You can putter but the fun starts when the revs build - so twisty roads are good because speeds can get silly otherwise (
).
- Six gears (if I'm counting right) are probably unnecessary with the wide range of power. Mines also been geared up a bit with a larger countershaft sprocket. I'm thinking I might take it back to stock. The previous owner did this for economy apparently.
- They are quite a big bike for a 650. The weight isn't huge but the tallness and bulk just feels big.
- The bars feel too far forward for me. Anybody experimented with other bars?
- The aluminium rack is corroding a bit. Anybody else had this problem and successfully treated theirs?
- Mine has the mad-stad screen adjuster. When I first started riding I actually found it hard to breathe there was so little air movement! My Shoei helmet has the whisper screen thing to keep it quiet and wondering if I may need to remove to get better air flow. I did angle the screen down a bit to get some air underneath it and that helped a bit.
- Apparently they have a buffeting issue with the standard screen. I noticed a bit of side buffeting on SH16 but not sure if it was just because it was that kind of day or whether this was what people talk about with the V-Stroms?
So that's my first experience on a longer ride (I'd already had a brief ride on a mate's before deciding to get one).
I'm keen to get out again (heading down south later in the week).
Also keen to get feedback from other owners...
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Originally Posted by CRM
allover the road and slide around corners 
trying to keep up with the litre bikes on the Coro loop and it used to amaze me and the other riders what it was capable of. just remember this is an sports enduro type machine not a trail bike & not a sports bike, it is what it is and does a good job all round.
:
But on the other hand neither do I feel young enough to fall off it doing wheelies and stoppies 
... there's not a lot of clearance. I might have to amend my riding style after the XR where the rule is basically 'ignore curbs and enjoy judder bars' 
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I FEEL THE NEED, THE NEED FOR SPEED 
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