Motorcycle shopping

I went motorcycle shopping on Saturday. I thought I was going to get to test ride a Suzuki V-Strom that I'd found on Craigslist, but the seller never called me back. That post is gone now, so I suspect it's sold. While I was waiting for the call, I drove over to Aurora Suzuki to sit on a new V-Strom and just check it out in person.

It matched what I expected from the pictures and the only real point of difference was that the small DL 650 V-Strom just has one tail pipe and no lower guard while the bigger DL1000 does have the lower guard and twin pipes. The price of a new V-Strom isn't much more than the craigslist seller, but he had added luggage, so that was a small perk.

After I left the Suzuki shop, I walked up the street to Moto International to look at Moto Guzzi's and Aprilia's. The guys at both shops were really nice and helpful but the guy at Moto Int'l offered to let me take a ride on an '04 V11 Ballabio. I took it around Green Lake for a warm up and then short run down Hiwy 99 and back to the shop. It was the first V-twin I'd ridden in quite a while. I really enjoyed the torque and the ergonomics of the bike, but I wasn't used to that much vibration. I commented on this when I turned in the keys and the response was that Guzzi's smooth out after about 10,000 - 13,000 miles. I had to take the guys word for it; he has six of 'em.

Then, yesterday, I was looking on craigslist again and found a Guzzi version of the V-Strom. The Quota 1100 is a 90° V-twin 'Enduro' bike, much like the BMW GS or KTM Adventure (a.k.a. LC8). The greatest thing about this Guzzi though, is that it's considerably less expensive than the better known bikes. I hope to take it out for a spin on Thursday evening, after this seller is supposed to get home from Whistler (B.C.).