Hi everyone,

My boyfriend and I are planning to buy a V-strom DL650 in South-America to travel around with. We will ride two-up and we both want to ride (to share the load). We are both quite inexperienced drivers but fairly adventurous as compensation. Also I'm quite tall 5"10 and not too fragile. But still, I have no idea what's it going to be like to drive around two-up and with luggage.

So are there any women that have experience with this? Or any opinions?

Furthermore, we might have a possibility to buy a DL1000, but since that's even a heavier bike, I'm worried if I'll be able to handle it, especially on dirt roads, with tight curves and slow driving.

So any experience/opinions on this as well?

Thanks a lot!

Cheers,
Suzanne

You were requesting comments by females......but. You might want to check out this website: Micadu International It's the blog of a young Romanian couple who have travelled across Canada to Alaska and then down through the USA to almost the tip of South America aboard their faithful DL650 named "Gunnar". So far the only problems with the bike, if you could call them bike problems, has been the availability of tires, sprockets and chains. A bike the size of the V-Strom is very rare in South America, and it's hard to find even common maintenance items down there.
BTW, stick to the 650, the Romanian couple have had to carry spare gas on occasion, and I suspect the 1000 would be much worse for gas usage.

Regarding you riding with your boyfriend as pillion. Only you will know if it's going to be comfortable, or even possible. You will need some practice before you take on a passenger. Is there anywhere in the Netherlands (or perhaps the UK) that you could rent a V-Strom. That would both give you some experiance, and a chance to decide if travelling two up on a Strom is going to make for an enjoyable trip for you. I don't think you could pick a better bike for the job.

PSST its riding

Just start off with shorter duration rides like an hour and work you way up

Give yourself a break every couple of hours regardless of distance.

Sit calmly centered on the bike and don't help him lean or anything

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8/2/2013