Questions...

[cactus]

I did.. I sat on heaps, fondled a few and come home with the vin number to a suzuki gladius. I butt tested a lot, and as soon as I sat on the gladius I was like oooooooooh..... 1% financing was the clincher. I was not as impressed with the vulcan 500 up close as I hoped to be. The throttle on the SFV650 is nice and smooth rather than jerky and abrupt, which is nice, I'll be spending this fall doing a nice slow breakin around my sleepy town since I'm told I need to do 500 miles below X rpm's.

Dealer told me to ignore that tho, and just ride around the block a few times, get it all hot and then let it cool down so everything seats in, and to do that a few times, and get a good oil change after 400 or so miles to flush any junk out of the engine from the gears meshing etc,.

[burkbuilds]

Congratulations on your new bike! When you can post some pics for us to see!

[dhgeyer]

Motorcycle Consumer News did a 3 way model evaluation in the August 2009 issue. The Gladius compared to the Yamaha FZ6R and the Kawasaki ER-6n. All similar price points, style, displacement, weight, etc. All "naked" bikes with a "standard" riding position. The Yamaha came out on top, but does cost a little more. I didn't read the whole thing, but the Suzuki didn't fare too well overall. Not sure this is the time to tell you that. Sorry.

Anyway, congratulations on buying a bike. It's definitely big enough to be the commuter you're looking for, and has the standard configuration of the TU250 that you originally were looking at.

You will probably want to do something about the seat, as all the reviewers complained about that. And you will probably want a windshield for the length of ride you want to do more or less daily. Other than that, I'm sure you will enjoy your ride for years to come. Comparing three bikes can be misleading, in a way, as I'm sure you'd be happy with any of them in the long run. You've definitely got a lot of motorcycle for the money.

You'll get different opinions about the break in procedure - all the way from "By the book" to "Ride the Hell out of it right away". For what it's worth, I'm a "By the book or at least as close to it as I can stand" man myself. That initial oil and filter change after a few hundred miles is very important, regardless of what else you do or don't do.

[burkbuilds]

I'm with dhgeyer on the break in stuff. You might not do any damage doing it according to the way the dealer told you but the Engineer's at Suzuki were convinced that you definitely wouldn't do any damage if you followed the recommended procedures, therefore, the recommended procedures. Plus it gives you an excuse to ride some nice back roads and just get to know your new bike. You'll have the 500 miles on it in about a week to a week and a half if you ride every day. I'll also second his recommendation of making sure you change out that oil from the "break in" period, it is down right nasty after only a few miles of riding. When I bought my 09 Vulcan I changed mine out at 200 miles and then again with a new filter at 500 miles, then at 1,000 miles and then at 2,000 miles on the odometer. That might be extremely excessive but I got over 200 psi at each cylinder at 3,000 miles when we put the gauge to it, it's tight! There's a lot of crap in that oil when it's breaking in and I didn't want to leave anything in there that might scar my cylinders or mess up my valves.

[Water Warrior 2]

A brand new Gladius, far out dude. You will love that little V-twin. It has the same bloodlines as the SV and Vstrom. Don't be surprised if it wakes up and really wants to go after approx 5000 miles. For some reason a lot of the 650's grow extra muscles about that mileage. A real kick in the pants at 7000 RPM.
Also do the above mentioned oil changes. I did about the same thing and my Vstrom runs very well. Having a 90 degree V-twin is as smooth as it gets with almost no vibration at all, nothing comes loose and falls off. Light bulbs will last longer too with no vibs to loosen the filaments.
Do we get some pics in the future ??

[cactus]

Pics? ok The double garage can at least right now hold the bike, if nothing else

[burkbuilds]

Awesome pics! Nice bike, enjoy the heck out of it!

[Water Warrior 2]

The name of this thread is "Questions". It has been answered in a fine fashion. Good looking bike Cactus. Seems like just 4 years ago my bike was that new and clean. Should be a very nice handling bike.

[alanmcorcoran]

Anyone else thinking "Tron"? Very cool looking bike - I don't remember seeing that model before.

[music man]

Originally Posted by alanmcorcoran

Anyone else thinking "Tron"? Very cool looking bike - I don't remember seeing that model before.

viewtopic.php?f=20&t=1698 There ya go.