I just had to get this out of my system so I went on a 20 minute test ride of the S10 today. After this I can say with confidence that there is no way possible to justify spending $5000 to $6000 more for an S10 over a DL650.

Good Things :
1.The stock windshield offers very good protection and thought there is a lot of wind on the head there is no buffeting.
2. In either sport or touring mode the bike does not want to cruise at less than 65 mph indicated. You just don't feel like you are going that fast.
3. The seating position is good.


Bad Things:
1. It is not as smooth as the DL650. Vibes are there and though perhaps not intrusive it is just not as smooth.
2. The kickstand has a metal bar (used to lower it) that extends just in front of the left foot peg. This is a true ankle or leg breaker.
3. The seat is hard
4. The rear set is higher than the front seat and presents an obstacle to getting your leg across.
5. On the Wee your feet are a little bit ahead of the hips, on the S10 feet are pretty much under the hips.

Indifferent Things :
1. The touring and sport modes are as different as night and day.
2. Engine braking in touring mode is much more pronounced than in sport mode. This could lead to BAD mistakes.
3. I have a 30" inseam and my feet seemed to be a little flatter at stop than on the WEE

I might get flamed for it, but that's what I thought too, just based on looking at the bike. I am not saying it is not a nice bike; just that I also felt it seemed overpriced for what it is. It struck me as a nice V-Strom with a shaft and wire wheels. But again, no knock on the bike, just the price.

__________________
06 V-Strom DL650

The S10 has probably $1500 worth of improved suspension alone, not to mention the engine, traction control, electronics, etc etc. There's no escaping the fact that the strom is a budget bike.

__________________
DL650AK9
"I am enthusiastic over humanity's extraordinary and sometimes very timely ingenuities. If you are in a shipwreck and all the boats are gone, a piano top buoyant enough to keep you afloat that comes along makes a fortuitous life preserver. But this is not to say that the best way to design a life preserver is in the form of a piano top. I think we are clinging to a great many piano tops in accepting yesterday's fortuitous contrivings as constituting the only means for solving a given problem." - R. Buckminster Fuller

More power, yet better gas mileage than a DL650.. Tempting, but yep, the price is STEEP!

My best friend has an S-10. After having spent a lot of time on and next to the S-10 the novelty soon wears off. Don't get me wrong its a nice bike but.....
Some of the things that are a deal breaker for me were. The milage, seems like we were always hunting for a petrol station. And it only takes premium.

The heat from the engine is flat out miserable if its over 70f out.

The power seemed to be on par with a DL1K at best.

It is a freaken joke off road. Had to turn the traction control off and make a run at things my wee seemed to shrug off.

When we swapped bikes I was always more then happy to get my wee back. Like I stated earlier its a really nice bike and would make a great touring bike. But regardless of the price I would take my wee or a DL1K any day for the type of riding I enjoy.

__________________
K7 Wee ( Stormy ) Matt

I rode one today too and came away thinking Wow! Granted my time on the Vee is very limited so my comparison isn't very fair. I came away thinking it was a modernized 1000 Vstrom. The suspension on the S10 is really nice. I thought the engine was smoother than the Vee but not drastically so. In the sport mode, I noted a similar feeling to the Vee passing through about 2,500 rpm.

I agree that you feel like you're going a lot slower than the meter says. Shaft drive is a plus to me for the type of bike but you're stuck with the gearing if you wanted to change it. To me, it felt like it changed directions really easy but never felt unstable at all. Those really wide bars may play a part in that. Did I say I was really impressed with the suspension?

I wear a 34" inseam so I started out with the seat in the tall position. That would probably work for me if I was riding hours on the interstate. But it's a little high when maneuvering backwards. The low setting felt more familiar even with feet up and moving. The reach to the bars seemed a little long but probably like a stock Vee.

I think that the higher the speeds and rougher the ground, the more the differences in the S10 and Vee would show. But like others have said, you have to consider the price differences. The S10 has about 9-10 years on the Vee. Maybe we'll see an updated Vee in a year or two priced similar to the old one.

__________________
Mark

With the current gas price increases, that's gonna become a much bigger factor, soon.

Ya its already starting to go up on my side of the island too.

__________________
K7 Wee ( Stormy ) Matt

I rode one last December trying to justify the cost of it over a Wee. The OP thread could have been written by me. Bottom line I bought a new 2011 Wee with bags for a fire sale price. For me at the time because of the price of the Wee bag offer and what Yamaha wanted for their luggage plus a few other farklers the difference in money was around $7500 more for the S10.

__________________
Doug K9CRT
Decatur, IL
Member Of The Infamous Springfield Milers BMW Club
Yamaha Super Tenere 2013
DL 650 K11 (Black Wee)
DL 650 K9 (Orange Wee) traded
DL 1000 02 traded
Cage ** Honda S2000 Roadster**

I am sure it is a nice bike. I sat on one but no ride yet.

As for the budget bike......bang somebody hit the bullseye. I want a budget bike for the type of riding a strom is intended for. I do not want to have a Yamaha tech from Japan to fly over to BFE, where I am broke down, to help me troubleshoot my 2wheel version on Windows 7.

I could do without half of the electronic crap that even the strom carries. I know the EPA has sent us down this road....but sheez. All I want is a simple hammer.