Regards various faults on various bikes:

The best I can suggest is to get involved in the popular bike specific forums. This is the best way to learn what is going on with a particular bike from owners. Follow some of the links I posted before.

Every time I point out a BMW failure Margus calls me a liar. Read the posts on the BMW sites and decide for yourself.
Now pick some other bikes. How do they match up?

Try BMWMOA site, and BMW RA. There are many other BMW boards as well, all staunchly pro BMW.

I've read the Vstrom boards since 2002 and can assure everyone that from this feedback and personal experience (60,000 miles 2 Vstroms) Vstroms have no endemic, repeating failures based on bad design. I can also assure everyone that the Vstrom was viewed with great suspicion by many new owners, given it's a whole new bike. So it had to be very good indeed to convince the skeptics. But after a few years it became clear the bike was basically very good.

Sure, there have been a few troubled Vstrom owners as there are with most any bike. But Margus's portrayal of "blown" clutches is total BS and he knows it.

The Clutch baskets on about 30% of '02 and '03 DL1000's got noisy. On the first Vstrom Yahoo List-serve we only had 2,700 members in 2003 and NOT ONE clutch basket ever left a rider on the side of the road. They were noisy and irritating, but the bike still rode fine and the clutch operated totally normally other than the sound and feel. I know, I had one and Suzuki replaced the basket .... free!

Suzuki took about 6 months to respond to this but by '04 the design was changed and anyone with a noisy clutch could have it fixed free. Many were
replaced ... free.... out of warranty. So in the end Suzuki did the right thing.

My Vstrom's have been the most reliable bikes I've owned. Period. I've owned about 45 bikes and tested many others for City Bike. Mostly Japanese bikes, starting in 1960. I've also owned Bultaco, Triumph, BSA, Norton, Husqvarna, Laverda and TWO BMW's ... and probably some I've forgotten.

Sure, guys complain about stuff on the Vstrom too but mostly the reports about long term reliability are very very good. Thousands and thousands of posts reflect this. Mostly what you hear are complaints about wind buffeting, tires, and what farkles to buy!

Search for Vstrom or Wee Strom .... and take your pick, lots of threads.
Beasts - ADVrider

or go to this Vstrom specific site.
V-Strom Forum - powered by Tex Arts

Post and ask about problems, breakdowns, blown clutches. The responses should shed some light on the truth here. There are some problems, but after 8 years of production mostly the record is Good!

Some BMW zealots are in denial and so are BMW corporate, but the truth is catching up to them. If anyone does a few simple searches the facts are all there ..... in spades.

The pics above are just me having a bit of fun. I could find pics of any bike on the ground, but since the GS guys are so brave and ride in such dumb places, it's hard to resist
(remember, in my local riding club we have at least 10 GS owners, although many have bailed on BMW. Some are buying the new F800GS, some have changed to Orange underpants, some even have bought Vstroms!


Patrick

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Patrick passed Dec 2018. RIP Patrick!