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2007 V-Strom

1978 Enduro

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V-Strom Work (and repairs)

On this page, as many of my other pages, newest events appear at the top of the page, and push down older events, like a stack of plates.

Handlebar de-rusting

When I got the long handle bar weight screws in, I decided to try to clean up the rest of the corroded handlebar weight components on hte left side of the bike. Some soapy water for the rubber components, wd40 and sand paper for the metal components, a light coat of paint for some, and they were looking much better. Apparently, there was some water down inside the handlebars, and I got out as much as I could, but it seemed like there was some kind of stoppers deep inside the handlebars that prevented me from pushing the rag all the way through. Household wire seemed to be the best way to push something through the turns of the handlebars (thanks, grandpa!).

515_1506 rusty corroded handlebar counterweight	515_1507 rusty corroded handlebar counterweight	515_1512 rusty corroded handlebars
517_1783 parts drying	517_1784 drying the painted vstrom handlbar parts	517_1785 i blew this liquid out of my handlebars
517_1788 after I sanded out the handlebar	517_1789 use a wire to get deep into handlebars	517_1790 a screwdriver wrapped with fine grain sand paper
517_1791 sanding work area	517_1792 pieces all look much better	517_1794 rain beads on freshly painted newspaper
517_1795 rain beads on freshly painted newspaper, pan	517_1796 and then it rained on me

Autumn Repairs

Finally got all the parts, the time, and nice weather to fix up recent problems on the Vstrom.

514_1491 new parts	514_1492 broken blinkers	515_1501 a little rain and a few days of not riding and you get rust
515_1502 rust	515_1503 loosen faring, pull blinker gently, loosen nut	515_1504 blinker parts
515_1506 rusty corroded handlebar counterweight	515_1507 rusty corroded handlebar counterweight	515_1509 rusty corroded handlebars
515_1512 rusty corroded handlebars	515_1513 right side looks fine	515_1514 right side looks fine
515_1515 paint touchup	515_1516 removing rust for paint touchups	515_1517 rust
515_1518 use dremel to sand off rust for paint touchups	515_1519 rust removed	515_1520 rust removed
515_1521 removed as much as possible	515_1522 rust	515_1523 rust
515_1524 rust	515_1525 right handgrip rust removed	515_1527 touchup overspray protection
515_1528 touchup overspray protection

Left side drop

Sometimes even my own capacity for adversity amazes even me. While checking the pressure in my tires one morning, about a month and a half after my right side drops, I managed to drop the bike on the left side. At least I have matching side scratches on my plastic faring, now. :-( As in the right side drops, at least no one was hurt.
In hindsight in this case, I feel I didn't take enough precaution. I was checking the tires for proper pressure. The rear tire valve was inaccessible behind the frame supports. I stood alongside the motorcycle, balanced it off its kickstand, and moved it forwards a couple of feet to make the valve stem accessible. I had noticed problems with the kickstand not seating properly before, catching me off guard, but only when sitting on it. This time, I even let it gently back onto the kickstand, and then applied pressure from the handlebars in the direction of the kickstand, enough to be sure it was seated. I felt resistance, and so let it rest on that resistance and walked to the back of the bike to check pressure. Just as I was turning pivoting around the back tire to kneel down, I saw the bike already in motion, falling to the left side in time to see it crash against the ground. sigh.
I believe what happened is that the kickstand either brushed a bump in my driveway and / or I did not upright the bike to a fully upright position before I moved it, and the kickstand was moved to be right on the edge of folding up when I rested it back down on the kickstand. Enough that I could press against it, and it felt firm, but apparently the action of letting the handlebars go and the bike front wheel settling to the left a little moved the bike forward, and the kickstand past that support fulcrum to fold up and allow the bike to drop.
This left side freefall drop did more damage than both of the right side drops together. sigh.
In the future, I plan to further lower the chances of this happening again by resolving to only move the bike while sitting on it, and if there is ANY doubt whatsoever that it might not be set properly on the kickstand, before letting go of the handlebars and getting off the bike, I will fully double check the kickstand.
As for what you'll need to watch out for after dropping your vstrom, refer to my writeup for the right side drop, a little further down this page.

509_0941	509_0943	509_0944
509_0945	509_0946	509_0951 pieces

Heated Handgrips

One of the things preventing me from riding in cold weather was cold / numb fingers and hands. My friend Shane told me about heated handgrips, helped me pick out the right ones (the same ones he got), and helped me install them (since he had already done his own, and had some experience with it). So thanks to Shane (and the Stromtroopers Vstrom forum online), I was able to get enough information to help us get them installed properly. They're a relatively inexpensive upgrade if done right. Below are some of the photos from yet another motorcycle repair gone into the night. They work great, however, and are a key part to keeping warm hands that can react properly in cooler to cold weather.
They have a low and high setting. I used them that night I went home, and noticed that on high, the heat was distracting. My brain kept thinking my hands were going to burn. But after a couple of uses I got used to heated hands and it was no longer a distraction. Even when it's 20F, after about 20 minutes on high, I want to turn them down because they're getting too warm. They're great for COLD riding, or if you get caught with your summer gloves after sundown on an unexpectedly cool end-of-summer night, or anywhere in between. I do have separate gloves for winter and summer, though.
Here's a tip for Vstrom owners that I could not find in the manual or the service manual. Those little plastic black rivets in your faring... You have to push the center (button) further in to get them to loosen up and come out (then you can reset them to use again and again). I thought you had to get the center to come back out for it to loosen up, and nearly tore them up getting them to do so. They cost about $1.50 each to replace.
Here's another (unrelated, but no where else to put it) tip for Vstrom owners. When it was time to change the clocks for DST time, I had a heck of a time setting the clock. Following the instructions in the manual would not get it into time changing mode. Apparently, you have to have the bike running. I didn't test this completely, though, but I know I tried several different things to change the clock before going to bed on the end of DST. But I couldn't get it changed until I actually started it the next day.

505_0527	505_0528	505_0567 left handgrip off
505_0568 right handgrip off	505_0569 removing some of the faring	505_0570 left faring off
505_0571 left side dropping the radiator	505_0572 right side faring off and radiator dropped	505_0573 front, radiator dropped and rust
505_0576 shane's fingers looking for wires	505_0577 here's the extra connector	505_0578 planning the left wire path
505_0580 dropped radiator and the connector	505_0581 all wires lead to the switch	505_0582 wires
505_0583 the wires are long enough	505_0584 steve soldering	505_0586 soldering
505_0587 Shane working near darkness	505_0588 tight quarters	505_0589 fuse with cover, not included
505_0590 fuse uncovered	505_0591 wiring the switch was very interesting	509_0947 the switch with a new rubber cover
509_0948 switch and wiring	509_0949 right hand wiring	509_0950 right side wiring grip
509_0953 toggle switch cover from Lowe's

Right side drop

Dropping any motorcycle (let alone your lovely new one) can be a frustrating and embarrassing event. Hopefully, other Vstrom owners can benefit from my mistakes.
One of the neat aspects of the Vstrom is its versatility. However, it can also be a weakness. I was told this bike was a three-way cross between sports bike, street bike and off road bike. One of the off-road features is the clearance (height) of the bike (undercarriage) from the road. Unfortunately, I found that at lower speeds, this can add to instability and balance issues. I noticed it from the first day I sat on the Vstrom, and every time afterwards that I would maneuver the motorcycle with my feet while sitting on it or standing next to it. You have to be pretty careful with the Vstrom at low (foot maneuvering) speeds to maintain you balance, probably especially if you are a shorter person. I'm about 6'1" without my motorcycle boots.
The Radian I had sat much lower, and was easier to maneuver by foot. The Enduro sits higher than the Radian, but is much lighter than both the Radian and the Vstrom, and is easier to balance.
So with the Vstrom, you'll want to watch out for loose materials or slippery materials (gravel, leaves, seeds, cold metal, road paint, oily spots, water, etc) under your feet when maneuvering the vstrom at foot speeds, or even just waiting at a traffic light. Another thing you will want to be wary of is inclines. We live in the hilly, mountainous area of the Blue Ridge Mountains. My first Vstrom drop took place as I was coming to a stop on a road turning into an unpaved driveway on an incline. I came to a stop perpendicular to the incline. I wasn't paying complete attention to the incline, and as I put my feet down, my right foot did not touch as soon as the left foot, and the bike started to fall to the right side. I was not prepared for this, and caught off guard, all I could do is try to prevent it from falling. But since it was falling towards the side I did not have good footing on, all I could do was slow its descent somewhat. In this case, the incline was enough that I also could not upright the bike on my own. I could only get it upright so far. My friend had to help me get it to rest of the way. Fairly awkward.
About an hour later, I dropped it again on the right side, while very slowly and carefully coming down an unpaved, steep inclined driveway with a passenger. I think we hit a rock about the size of a fist, and dislodged it from its dirt impression and this caused a sudden shift in the balance of the bike that I could not correct, and over we went. This particular event makes me wonder how in the world this bike could even be considered a dirt bike, or who would even try to use it as a dirt bike. But as another person said, it may have the properties of three different bikes, but isn't necessarily exceptional at any of them. This definitely seems true for the dirt bike aspect.
In my experience, when you drop the vstrom, you are almost certainly going to break the front turn signal light housing, and that will run you about $50 to replace. You may also end up bending or breaking the hand lever on the side you drop it on; about $15 to replace. You will likely scratch the pretty plastic faring and stickers on the faring (depending on the surface dropped upon). And you may notice that the weighting mechanism at the end of the handlebar on the side you drop it, is now misaligned. In my case this was always just the long screw that holds the weight on. This screw only costs a few dollars to replace, and I would highly recommend it. As I found, (see photos and accounts higher up on this page), if that screw is bent it may misaligns the rubber stoppers that keep water out of the inside of the handlebars, you'll have a corroded, rusty mess on your hands. Also, any painted surfaces that get scratched will need to be sanded and repainted. As you will see further up on this page, I found several very small abrasion points later that began to rust.
As a result, I have been much more wary and cautious while performing low speed maneuvers on the Vstrom. Hopefully I won't be dropping it anymore in these types of fashions.

498_9880	498_9881	498_9882
498_9883	498_9884	498_9885
498_9886	498_9887	502_0208
502_0209 temporary blinker fix while waiting for replacement parts

Center Stand

I had a center stand on the Radian, and it was invaluable for doing work on the chain and rear wheel, so I wanted to get one for the Vstrom as well. The Suzuki centerstand is fairly expensive in my opinion, but I wanted original equipment for something that would be holding the bike up. It came with several small exposed areas of bare metal, so I actually ended up adding a coat or two of black paint to it in an effort to keep rust low. I had to get a spring puller from my suzuki dealership. Pulling the spring was the easily hardest part, as there is actually 2 springs (one inside the other) to pull, and no good way to get leverage for the pull. Not to mention that the direction of the pull was somewhat into the back tire, making it harder to get good leveraging and a good pull. My wife helped with the positioning while I pulled, and eventually we got it. The spring puller wasn't much help, either. Not sure if they make better ones? The small metal grip transferred a lot of the force over too small an area of my fingers, and cause fatigue and bruising making it difficult to maintain a pull very long for good positioning. I ended up using vice grip pliers to help grip the puller better. Maybe towels or gloves would have worked better.
Once the center stand was on, I had difficulty using it as I had on the Radian. Thanks to Shane, he showed me the proper way to do it. You stand alongside the motorcycle, and step on a special footpeg and your weight (and a little help with your hands that are steadying the bike), will pull the bike up onto the stand. It's a little worrysome because you think the bike will drop, but after practicing it carefully a couple of times, you get the hang of it.
I was also disheartened to find out that raising it up onto the stand pretty much knocks a lot of paint off of the bottom of the center stand, where the metal rests on the concrete. Sigh. So I'm going to have to repaint as often as after each use possibly.

496_9636	496_9637	496_9638
496_9639	496_9645	496_9646
496_9647	496_9648	496_9649

Book an MSF motorcycle safety course at NRV Community College. You won't be sorry.
Shane's New River Valley Motorcycle Forum here (New River Valley, Virginia).
most of these photos by Steve Warrick, with thanks to others who contributed
Steve's other photos may be found at PictureTakingFreak.com
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