New Ride

My 05 Rocket has served me well for 97000 miles. The only significant problem I had was the ignition switch. Despite this reliability I have not ridden it very much in the past three years because I figure my time is due for failure of either: the output shaft bearing; the shaft drive splines; the cam chain; the heated grips throttle tab; the clutch lifter shaft, or all of them at the same time, somehwere out in the middle of the desert in the early morning on a mid summer day 50 miles from water and shelter. But I am keeping it as a local bike and stripping it of all the touring garbage I put on it and selling the garbage on ebay.

I bought this bike today for the touring duty.



Yeah at a mere 650 cc's it is torque and hp challenged but I still have the Rocket for that fix. Gas mileage is good at around 50 mpg, and range at around 240 miles. Took it for a 75 mile ride today and I think the stock seat and windshield will be fine, but I will be putting on a large trunk. I am much more comfortable splitting lanes with this bike than the Rocket. The handlebars are only 32 inches wide while the Rocket's are 38 inches. The bike also has ABS which I am very glad to have especially for riding in the rain.

I considered several bikes before deciding on the 2014 v strom. First was the Honda CTX 700. I actually made an offer on one but the dealer wouldn't take it so I walked. He ended up calling me at home the same day but did not budge on the price, neither did I. He called me again while I was in the process of buying the v strom.....he should have taken my first offer, it was only 400 bucks less than his. Also seriously considered the Yamaha FZ 07 or FZ 09 but nixed both when I found out how much the insurance was for them, at least 800 bucks more per year over the v strom. Forget it. There was a used 1250 Suzuki Bandit that looked inviting but again the insurance was too much, though less than the yammies. The Street Triple was a candidate too and surprisingly the insurance was reasonable compared to the yammies. Insurance was too high on the Speed Triple. Who can figure out motorcycle insurance companies?

Thanks 1olbull. I did a lot of long rides on the Rocket and enjoyed every minute but sometimes there were skinny single lane potholed roads with ditches on both sides that I wanted to check out but was uncomfortable taking the Rocket down them. The drawback for the v strom is it won't handle strong crosswinds or truck turbulence like the Rocket does. I had a KLR 650 for a while but it just didn't have enough power for my liking plus I prefer tubeless tires.

That buggy looks like a lot of fun!

I'll take the white knuckles over gaining more weight.

Hard to find a bike that will do it all .. meandering down narrow pot-holed tracks is not Rocket territory as you say .. enjoy the new bike .. me I'd have sprung for the Triumph 800 Explorer. Insurance must be a bigger deal in the States that here .. never been a factor in my choice of bike to be honest.

Enjoy your new bike. I've been avoiding the Triumph shop since Vanco and I checked one of these out at the Laverda Concourse. Same engine as the speed triple with a more comfortable bike.

Yep Tomcat the Triumph 800's are mighty fine bikes and were also considered. But I had an upper limit on what I was going to spend for the bike, then add the much higher insurance and it was a no go. Plus there are Suzuki dealers all over the place but Triumph dealers are sparse.

I went for the Rocket nearly ten years ago because nothing was going to stop me from getting one, not price, not insurance, not sparse dealerships. Fortunately the price turned out to be less than I thought it would be and the insurance was actually very reasonable. I was very surprised at that, I figured the insurance companies would see 2300cc's and go nuts. But it was classified as a cruiser which in the insurance companies eyes meant an old man going on a slow stroll through the countryside, what could go wrong?

The Rocket is the only bike I have ever been "gotta have" crazy about, all the others are just motorcycles. Who is going to come out with something so unique and outrageous yet so functional and practical?

Had a few rides on a couple of Tiger Explorers recently. What an awesome bike. Have to say though that I'm eyeing off a gorgeous Tiger 800XC. Once I get the go ahead for a Speedie I'll start pumping for one of these too.

I made the mistake of sitting on a Speed Triple R at the dealership when Nolton's better half was buying her Storm...and got caught by Nurse Ratchet...I am now no longer allowed to go to dealerships without adult supervision