2006 Suzuki DL650 V-Strom
 

I started feeling bad about jumping herbies thread so I thought I'd start one.

This is a pic of the shakedown cruise after doing some initial work and stripping off unnecessary items. It ran great! Geared WAY to high though. The previous owner said he jumped a tooth on the countershaft sprocket (from 15 stock to 16). Up here in Canyonland, I don't need to do 130 mph.....but when necessary, I do need to get the front end up or pull out of a deep corner without having to downshift. The 14 tooth has been ordered. New tires and wheel bearing arrived today. Time for some surgery.

I had an 05 Wee-Strom for a while, great bike, did everything well....mine was blue....

So after years of owning a Swedish bike, American bikes and China bikes, this is my first Japanese bike in decades. Funny how these "vastly superior" Japanese bikes share some familiar parts! LOL!

Love the blue. Do you recall any dislikes about the bike or problems that stood out? All I ever read is how long these things are supposed to last.

Absolutely no issues with it, like I said it was a Great "Do it all" bike.....I sold it when I dislocated my knee back in 2010, was on crutches for 3 months, and couldn't bend my knee enough to ride it when I finally got off the crutches...sold it and bought a 600 VLX Shadow, as the forward pegs let me get back to riding, sold the Shadow as soon as I got my knee back to bending better and got me another Guzzi (750 Breva)

The "Only" downside to the V-Strom was, it didn't have the "Soul" that I find some bikes have, even though it did everything well, with the stock exhaust, the motor sounded like a sewing machine....I don't like load bikes.....BUT, I do want to hear (or "Feel")the exhaust.

You just have to twist the throttle a little harder :lmao: Just kidding
That's one thing I love about the bike is how quiet it is, I guess I'm getting old! :hmm:

2LZ, I'm interested in how you like the 14 tooth sprocket. I was on the fence about 14 or 15 and went stock with the 15. It suits me pretty well.

Considering I rarely hit 60 and only in short bursts, the 14 rocks for where I ride.

Here she is after some TLC.

Valve Check/Adjust
 

This makes the "difficult RX3 valve adjustment" look like child's play. Sheesh...
Waiting for my shims to come in......

Dang, you are more meticulous than I am and I thought I was OCD! Good on you for taking such good care of your machines! Part of the fun for me and motorcycling is the maintenance, it's almost therapeutic.

It's the trade off. Cam on bucket style setups are a bit more time consuming due to having to figure out what shim size you need and then waiting for them to come in.

The upside is, they don't usually need correction as often. Japanese manufacturers tend to be conservative with their valve checks, often stating every 16k miles, but the actual need to make an adjustment is easily past 30k in most instances.

I knew there was a reason I didn't get to the valve check yet, I just didn't know what it was! :lmao:

My bike only has 18k miles on it so I'm probably good but plan on tackling it some time later in the year

Dan makes a good point regarding the valve styles. The bucket/shim setups are more stable for the longer haul, albeit vastly more time consuming and technical to service.

The scary part is my bike ran perfectly....with a rear exhaust valve that had zero lash and probably never closed all the way.

Herbie, this article was a WEALTH of information (linked to me from Gert @ Stromtroopers) and will save you tons of heartache with the tensioners, especially the rear cylinder. Feel free to bookmark it for future reference.

https://www.circlenz.co.nz/Library/s...and-adjustment

Thanks 2LZ! That looks like a good article, I put it in my favorites and will use it. I read on stomtroopers about what you found on your check, that's crazy. I'm like you as I have adjusted many many screw type valve lash adjusters and this would be my first bucket style check. I'm not afraid to tackle it as I've done lots of mechanical repairs over my 60 years :D

Yet another reason to do a baseline maintenance on a used bike. I changed fork fluid today.

Fork #1 - I dumped out ATF.
Fork #2 - I dumped out fork fluid.
Both different volumes.

My guess would be the fork with the ATF had a seal changed at one time.

After a quick flush, I refilled both to spec with my favorite Bell Ray 10w and reset the preload. Much nicer now!