DM
New Member
the inaugural first naked bike ride. by Deadmeat50, on Flickr
Hi All,
I hail from Vancouver, BC and I started street riding almost 4 years ago, besides the obligatory dirt riding I did under the age of 16, there was nothing until recently. I might be making up for lost time but the S10 is my 4th bike. After I got my license the first short season was on a 1999 Yamaha V-Star 650.
Nope not a cruiser guy. Next I jumped on a new 2009 V-Strom 650abs. I like the bike and farkled it up nicely, loved those SW-Motech racks ...
but a year later in July 2010, the stars aligned. My experience and confidence up, a haunting post on Stromtroopr.com saying “DL 1000 Vee Strom the final step up” and a local Suzuki dealer going out of business, I got a great deal on a DL1000 with bags. Loved that bike had a great run with it, put 20,500 km on her until that fateful day January22.
I have been admiring the Tenere and for the second year, it was at the Motorcycle show all decked out. I recently came into a little money and if I sold the V-Strom, I could potentially pay for most of the price of a new Tenere. A little research here and there and a great review by Dirt_Dad, and other Vee owners I met on the road last year (up by Joffre Lake if you are reading this) my target was fixed. But Dam the Tenere up here is expensive and the dealers were not eager to deal. 16,500 plus another 615 for freight, pdi, docs and taxes on top of that put the bike months out of reach and I would have to give up the beer. Yamaha touted at the show how they were lowering the prices on many models to a more North American pricing scheme, except the Super Tenere.
Resigned to just doing research, I stumbled across an offer that was too good to a Canadian that wanted the S10, a fully loaded, brand new Super Tenere for 16,500 with 0 miles sitting at a dealer in Moses Lake, Wa. Target locked, just had to figure out how to import and importing was easier than I thought.
So now I have been on the bike commuting for a week and, well you all know how you baby it during the brake in. I am just waiting for a nice day on the weekend so I can put in more miles and get this break-in over.
Impressions… After almost 3 years on a V-Strom frame the Yamaha felt different but good. So far all my miles have been city commuting. Power delivery is different but right there. I have that “stumbling” issue that has been mentioned where the bike feels like it is going to stall when I am doing real slow speed turns, u-turns and off the line if I don’t get the revs up. Weird feeling. I am going to wait until the first Oil change to do the air screw change. The kick stand is annoying.
See ya around.
) I too have had different bikes starting with a 450 Nighthawk,,, a Suzuki Gs 650G, a Kawi KZ 750, a Virago 750, and finally my current Bike the VMAX. Between the wealth of info (post 's on here) and the chance to actually ride a VMAX I know this is the bike for me.
