Trading Motorcycles?
Thursday, August 10th, 2023
My V-Strom when it first arrived and became mine.
Item of note: Suzuki is doing a demo days event this weekend, Friday and Saturday, August 11 and 12, at Fay Myers Motorcycle World.
That demo days thing is of more interest than usual for me because for the first time in a very long time I’m giving thought to buying a motorcycle. And for the first time ever I’m considering selling a motorcycle. Or two. For someone who still owns and rides every motorcycle he has ever owned, this is unusual.
This all has to do with where I see the future going. I know that at some point I’m going to decide to sell my 1999 Kawasaki Concours because it is just so big and heavy. But it’s a great highway bike.
I really like my 2006 Suzuki V-Strom 650, and it does well on the highway, but having just been out for 10 days on the Concours it really brought home to me just how much better the Kawi is as a highway bike. Plus, I bought the V-Strom to be more comfortable off the pavement–and it is–but the truth is that I don’t really go off the pavement all that often.
Lately I had been seeing mentions of this latest Suzuki V-Strom 800DE. It occurred to me that maybe I ought to sell both the V-Strom 650 and the Concours and buy one of these larger V-Stroms that presumably would fill the niches both of the other bikes fill.
On the recent OFMC trip I mentioned this thinking to Bill and Dennis and they both responded enthusiastically. Both of them are the type who like to trade up for something new now and then just because, and they have a hard time understanding my preference for keeping the same bikes year after year. Plus, as Dennis pointed out, this new bike would presumably have cruise control, which would be so much better than my current throttle locks.
So I started reading more on the 800DE but what I read made me less, not more, interested in it. One thing I read said it was the most dirt-ready of any V-Strom ever, and since I’ve found that I just don’t get off the pavement all that much that was kind of a negative. Plus, the seat height is considerably higher than on my current V-Strom, which is already high for my short legs.
Still interested in the idea of a single bike replacing these two, I turned my thoughts to other bikes that might fill that bill. I looked around and came up with a couple possible choices but then on Tuesday I needed to go to Fay Myers to get a battery for my Honda. I talked about how a guy at Batteries Plus tested the one I have and said it was fine, just needed to be charged, and how Roy came over and checked it out and said he disagreed with that guy. When I tried to start that bike Tuesday it barely responded and I concluded Roy was the correct one.
Of course while I was at Fay Myers I looked at bikes. I hadn’t really thought about a used bike but they had a Honda Africa Twin that had all the extras already on it and that got me to thinking about going the used route: lower cost, extras already in place.
I climbed on the new V-Strom 800DE and found I could not get it off the side stand because of the seat height. So that settles that one point. Then I noticed a new regular V-Strom right next to it and sat on it. I instantly liked this bike. Is there anywhere within reasonable distance, I asked, where I could take a test ride on this bike? Yes, right here, on Friday and Saturday, was the reply. Oh my gosh!
How would the 2023 V-Strom be different from the 2006, I asked. It would be lighter(!), perhaps a little more powerful, and have upgraded electronics (i.e., cruise control and more). This is sounding better and better.
So that’s where it sits. I will definitely be over at Fay Myers on Friday, looking to do some test riding. But I’ve also looked at Craigslist, Motorado, and Cycle Trader to see what is available used. And there are a lot of nice-looking used bikes out there, many with all the gear already on them. Who knows, I may soon do the unthinkable and do some motorcycle trading.
Biker Quote for Today
“Two of the most important things to me; my wife & my bike.” — Anonymous
