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Windmills and farms all along the way
It was the last night of our ride and we saw the chain were very dry. We got the chain lube out and I was done within 2 mins as I had the benefit of the main stand. We slept the night early and as we had a decent amount of fuel we thought of doing a fuel stop just as we left. The last day commenced, we left the place at 8 am and stopped at the first fuel station we saw. After the refueling was done and as it was the home run the riding pace was above average. We did the 200 kms stretch at one go and within 2 hours and 15 mins. Google estimated this stretch would take a little over 3 hours but it didn’t. We were rather very quick.
[flickr size=”center” float=”medium”]http://www.flickr.com/photos/motorbeam/49057950137/[/flickr]
Some internal roads of Karanataka felt like home for the V-Strom
The 650 V-Twin had enough oomph to keeps things interesting while still being under control
We managed to finish our breakfast quickly but as we went out the rear tyre of the Street Triple RS had a puncture and we wasted another hour finding the puncture repair guy to fix it. We were running before schedule but such events balance out the pace we had. Luckily we didn’t have any such events in the whole trip and it was just one puncture on the Street Triple. We had our last fuel stop right before Satara and now it was the final stretch to Pune and then Mumbai. The visor on the V-Strom was adjustable but not on-the-fly. I had set it to the most comfortable position where I could see the road properly while it curbed the air well.
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The topbox did swallow a lot of luggage and came in very handy
We reached Mumbai earlier than expected all thanks to the less traffic during the weekday and the powerful motorcycles we were riding. There was not even once where I felt out of place with the V-Strom. It was easy to park even in the small streets, a gem on bad roads yet can comfortably cruise at triple-digit speeds on normal roads, perfect ergonomics with a very comfortable seat and returned a mileage of over 21 km/l for the whole trip! It definitely is the costliest middle-weight adventure-tourer but it justifies its price as a whole package. After 2700 kms in 5 days I barely had any ride fatigue and that’s something to say!
[flickr size=”center” float=”medium”]http://www.flickr.com/photos/motorbeam/49057215053/[/flickr]
The last picture right before Mumbai, it was a crazy adventure
Further Reading –
Suzuki V-Strom 650XT Review
Suzuki V-Strom 650XT Video Review
Benelli TRK 502 vs Suzuki V-Strom 650XT – Shootout
