Hey Outwest,

Thanks for the response. It sounds like you and I have very similar riding tastes and abilities, and you bring up a good point. Almost all of my riding is solo, and I've watched a few YouTube videos of guys riding over some Colorado passes, and that gives me some pause. I'd hate to get in a situation that I needed help.

Actually, the DRZ was a big part of my interest in the DR650, and also my concern.

A few years ago, I had a friend/acquaintance with a DRZ400 who took some epic multi-month trip around North America. I really admired her bike; really got me interested in something like that.

But I noticed that she kept having problems with the bike. It seemed like it was breaking down every week. And then she had to have it in the shop for some major work at one point.

I asked her about it, and she responded with something to the effect of, "Well, it has 40,000 miles on it. Of course it's going to need some work."

...and that was kind of the deal-breaker for me. At the time, my V-Strom had nearly 100,000 miles on it, and it had never needed anything other than brake pads and oil changes. I would eventually put 40,000 more miles on that bike, again without anything but regular maintenance, before selling it. As far as I know, it's still on the road.

I realize her bike is just one example, and to her, the bike was still perfect for what she wanted, but I guess I got so used to the utter reliability of the big twin that the thought of a bike that needs an overhaul so "soon" turns me off.

It's hard for me to judge my own abilities... I feel pretty confident on a bike, and when I had my V-Strom, I took it in a lot of places where I was probably in over my head. Nothing dangerous, but just a lot of work. But I almost always made it.

I recall on my trip through Mexico, I met up with a rider on a KLR. We went up a rutted, gravel mountain road with tight switchbacks. On the way back down, the KLR guy said he was going to go on ahead because it was getting dark and his headlight was terrible. He wanted to get down to the bottom before dark. So he took off. I followed right behind him all the way down, and when we got to the bottom, he expressed shock that I was able to keep up with him on my "big" bike.

That said, I've never owned a real dual-sport.

In another incident, I led a group of riders on an afternoon ride through some moderately twisty roads in Tennessee. Several of the guys were on cruisers. One guy was on a sportbike. After lunch, I said to the group that the next section was especially curvy and I was going to pick up the pace a bit, and if they wanted to hang back, we'd all regroup at the next intersection. The sport bike guy was the only one who stayed with me, and when we stopped, he stated that he'd never leaned his bike over so far.

That's not to overstate my riding abilities, but it goes to show the versatility of the V-Strom. I'm kind of looking for the same type of experience.

As Snakeboy said above, I can't go wrong with either bike. But I'm just trying to narrow down the fine details to figure out if one or the other would be better suited for me.

Jamie