DL1000 V-Strom

[mazz1972]

Hubby has a DL1000 which has hard luggage (top box & panniers) that was purchased with the bike when brand new....has Suzuki branding on it.

The top box is huge which is great. The side panniers are pretty big but a stupid rounded shape and not very water/dust proof.

The most annoying thing is the keys are always needed to to open them and/orrelease from the bilke - there are no separate latches or clips. Turn the key one way and it opens the box/pannier, turn it the other way and it realeases it from the bike. It is sooooooo bloody annoying and I would not recommend this luggage for that reason alone.

Recently have had some problems with the left pannier which keeps coming unclipped at the top, and hubby is riding along blissfully unaware that the pannier is hanging on only by the plastic notches at the bottom which the mounts fit into, and the notches are now broken.

Can't see why this is happening as the latch/spring seems to be fine, and it isn't loose on the mounts, even with the broken notches. Have resorted to a using a bungy around the handle to keep it attached to the frame.

[paturoa]

Stromtrooper people rave about a front fork brace eliminating the "vauge" front end.

[paturoa]

The Suzuki dealer in Palmerston North has a 'widget' that will lower a DL-1000, for under $200. Sorry, do not remember the correct name for the part but the owner/manager of the shop told me about it, saying that it fits in the bottom centre area (I guess the area of the centre stand); he indicated that this part is about the size of a person's hand. Anyhow I am sure someone on KB knows the name of this widget and where it installs.

Its a simple and quick change with new dogbones, and sliding the forks up the front clamps. There is another 10 mm or so to be had by hacking at the rubber feet thingies on the bottom of the seat.

[BuzzardNZ]

there are plenty of mods you can do to this bike to improve stock performance, just google about a bit.
I recommend TPS adjustment, TRE, snorkel removal and after market pipes, got to have them, without, a DL sounds like a sewing machine, not how a large v-twin is meant to sound