Yeah yeah alright there unreliable blah blah and twice the price of a strom , I myself have read through the pages of uk gsers with stories of all kinds of mechcanical failures...........engines falling out bike snapping in half, final drives ending up wrapped round the mirrors blah blah...... yes I agree it doesn't look good and I have come from a whole list of the mega reliable jap bikes 4 of them being vstroms with no problems what so ever.
In my case I just wanted a change, something different that sums it up really ,plus I only keep my bikes for 2 years so it still has 17 months warranty on it so its not so bad for me if the drive shaft snaps and hits me in my shin so it will get fixed ( the shaft not my shin).
Regardless of the faults the gs does grow on you and they have a massive following , its one of the strange "in the club" things................its like Harley Davison squad, for me there a vibrating pile of american nuts and bolts where the owners are brain washed into thinking and living with.......no brakes, doesn't handle, 1 stroke engine (1 stroke every lamp post) cannot find neutral coz of the dragging clutch..........."yeah that's how they are buddy"......what ever ,face bovvered! but the owners love them and won't hear a word slating there chrome beauty, so leave em to it each to there own.
I have always rated stroms there really good bikes and excellent value for money, I think there are better adventure style bikes out there but there's nothing as good as a strom for the money, a very capable bike alround period.
The gs has got good road manners ,suspension and brakes are great without mods the vstrom has a great engine.......there's areas where the strom is better than the gs and vice versa.
A freind of mine had one of them KTM 990 adventure ,I really liked the bike good engine , powerfull, great suspension , looked the biz but my was it heavy on fuel and it kept going wrong........starter motor, oil leaks and other faults but I cannot remember and the service from KTM was abismal waiting weeks for parts to come ect. ect. but I liked riding the bike ,pity really about the faults but that's how it is.
I am riding to Austria next week on my gs with my other 800 gs freinds ( that's BMW 800gs not 800 freinds !!) is there any vstrom riders who want to come along but you must bring a tow rope as you will be required to bail us out when our bavarian panzas go kaput
Anymore critisism for the gs please take it up with Kawasuki...........or big Liam who also has a gs , oh yeah hes a big fecker as the name states and he will administor the fatal head stomp with his highly polished knee high German boots on...( heel click ZEIK HEIL)
