Motodisiac

To wee or not to wee, that was the question. And here is the answer. For the last few weeks I have been semi-frantically looking for a good deal on a used Wee-Strom. I have found a couple of really good offers neither of which was within a 600 mile radius from my house. I was totally open to a fly and ride option, i.e. fly into a city, pick up a new bike from its owner and ride it back home. Motodisiac has done it a few times.

While I was looking for a good deal I kept reading various information sources on the bike. Advrider.com and stromtrooper.com were the best resources. The more I read the more I became infatuated with the Wee. Tons of farkles, ease of maintanence and versatility made it a great bang for a buck. I was dead set on the purchase.

Last night I went out to look at this one Wee-Strom some 20 miles away from my house. The ad said it was a silver 2007 non-ABS model with 1400 miles on it. The bike was all stock except for the added handguards from the DL1000. The original owner had purchased it because a couple of his neighbors owned motorcycles and wanted him to ride with them. The mileage shows that this idea did not really come to life. The bike was in an absolute showroom condition and the owner was very much open to part ways with it right then. We made a deal and I rode it back home. This is how I have become a one happy strom trooper.

I decided to take it for a spin today to see what this machine is like. As already proven in my trial run of my friend’s Wee the bike feels solid and well built. It did not feel foreign while I was lane splitting on my morning commute. The engine comes alive at around 6000 rpm. In other words you will not feel a decent acceleration unless you rev the engine a bit. No problem there as it redlines at 11000 rpms. As mentioned in my earlier post the brakes are so so. So is the suspension in comparison to my other bikes. The stock exhaust is really quite which made me suspect I was absolutely invisible to the cagers. I did not have any close calls though. Just from my experience an aftermarket exhaust would enable cagers to hear you coming a bit earlier. Note to self - order a Yoshimura slip-on.

All in all this bike reminded me of a Honda Civic or a Toyota Corolla. Can’t really say too many bad things about it. At the same time far from being spectacular. Just a well built good bang for a buck kind of machine.

The only thing that was pretty annoying was the wind noise. I believe I get less wind noise on my KTM that does not have a windshield at all. No wonder virtually every used V-Strom that was for sale had some sort of an aftermarket windshield. The factory windshield is adjustable and per owners manual “can be adjusted in 3 positions”. I am yet to try that though I am suspecting a purchase of an aftermarket solution is imminent.

I am really excited as I am about to venture myself into the world on adventure riding on a proper machine. My adventure motorcycle project has started. And if you thought that my semi-frantic online searches were done you would be horribly mistaken. My Wee is pretty much rigged the way it came out of the factory. Translation - nowhere near ready for an adventure trip. An adventure motorcycle is the one loaded with various farkles - crash bars, skid plate, luggage, GPS mounts etc. Luckily there are plenty of aftermarket solutions for a Wee-Strom. I hope I don’t max out my credit card in the next few months to come.

This entry was posted on Friday, May 22nd, 2009 at 12:45 am and is filed under Motorcycles, Street, Travels, Offroad, Riding. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.