Hello to everyone.
I have spent many hours over the last couple of weeks reading most of the forum and thought I had better join.
I am a returning biker, haven't had one for around 18 years and never thought I would again. I bought a car in August that I don't want to use for work more than I feel I have to so I thought I would get a scooter. I have only ridden sports bikes, my last bike was a ZX7R and I passed my test (part 1 and 2 - I'm old!) on an RG125. I sat on a scooter and it just didn't feel right with my legs in front of my bottom and not being over the front wheel so I bought a brand new motorbike instead, but the wrong one.
I bought a Honda CB300R but didn't test ride as I had no gear and I was convinced it was enough of a bike, and it was.
I did no research and didn't really know anything about how bikes have changed since I bought my ZX7R new in 1998. I then started getting curious and started reading and then I rode the CB300R and realised I had made a mistake.
I didn't want a sports bike , my wife would kill me if I didn't kill myself first so I bought a new Duke 390 and then added a Duke 790, sold the CB300R and then decided I didn't want to ruin them in the winter so I looked for something Japanese for the winter, something used and that I would care too much about.
I thought I would by an older bike, something like a Hornet or Bandit but I kept reading about how good the V-Strom is. At first I thought it was a funny name and a bit of a strange looking bike but virtually everything you read is good, really good.
Then I went to the dealer to look at them and I was almost at the point of buying a new one, they were quite cheap with £1,000 off(actually cheaper than the demo they were selling!) but the salesman showed me a used one, it was perfect, so I bought it.
So, I bought a 2016 DL650 XT, it's red with about 12,000 miles, one owner, seems well looked after, they serviced it, mot'd it for a full year and taxed it for a year for me, pretty good. It has the usual XT bits plus it has a Givi screen, Oxford heated grips and a full set of aluminium luggage (it's the oem Suzuki stuff, seems good to me and nicer than the plastic Givi box I bought for my CB300R).
So far I have added a centre stand and I am waiting for my kit to arrive from Eastern Beaver to add headlamp relays.
I am really happy with the bike and I feel I got a really good deal from Orwell Motorcycles in Ipswich.
I have learnt a lot about the bike from reading the topics on the forum so than you to everybody that contributed.
Matthew.
