Sparkly farkle-y, Ginger gets dressed.

Alas, Gen, my faithful 2008 DL1000 V-Strom has gotten a little long in the tooth. 

We two have shared 98,000 miles of harmony and bliss together....at least on my part. Oh sure I had some complaints, the gagging goose sound she made via the air intake nearly drove me batty on occasion. And her seat, actually a corbin seat, while very comfy was TALL, I was on my toes at stoplights. So, even though those are minor issues I figured it was time for........a change. Trust me, that was not an easy thing to do, or even think about.

I struggled for a minute deciding what to do.

Those are not raindrops...

And there she goes, hesitating for only a second before riding out of my life with her new partner, Nate.

So anyway meet Ginger.

You can tell she is a true Ginger because all of her red paint matches..

Following are the changes Ginger has made since the four weeks we've been together.

This is Ginger....naked. 

Pretty nice eh??

 Tankbag.

 Engine guards, skid plate.

 Top box.

 Center stand, bark busters, headlight protector.

 Grip heaters, auto chain oiler.

And finally....all luggaged out. We are ready for a trip!

Some detail shots.

Head light protector.

 Installing the skid plate. My poor man's bike stand....a ladder to hold her up without a kickstand.

 Another view of the bark busters.

 The farkle filled boxes.

 Chain oiler. The vacuum tube and oil feed line on in the 3 feet of 7/16 ID fuel line for protection.

 Grip heater control.

 Some farkles are more important than others... Good friend Ken, aka Basecamp gave me this Gremlin Bell several years ago. Yes yes....I don't like the blue wire tie either, but I ran out of black...I'll change it when I get another bag of black ties.

 A view of Gingers other side....damm she's hot!

So...my impressions of the DL 650.

As mentioned before the DL1000 is a tall bike. On the 650 I can flat foot easily..that is SOOO nice and confidence inspiring when off pavement. I've taken Ginger a couple of places I would not have tried with Gen. The lighter weight and lower seat are a definite positive.

The gagging goose air intake sound is replaced by nearly silence on the 650....VERY NICE!!!

The seat is reasonably comfy, not corbin comfy, but so far I'm not planning on the 4 to 5 bills to get a custom seat.

On the other hand...

The throttle is twitchy....real twitchy.....annoyingly twitchy. And oh by the way, the throttle is twitchy!

The bike is a little buzzy at speed, but to be fair that might be a result of the GIVI engine guards I installed.

Power and mileage.

Yes, the DL 650 has less power, but it has plenty for me.  I've had her about a month now, and have ridden 3100 miles. The mileage is starting to improve a lot with the breaking. All in all I'm pretty happy with the bike.

Time for a ride.