New V Strom 1000 or 2nd hand VFR Crosstourer?
Since I retired I have been fortunate enough to be able to do a couple of long trips across Europe each year including the Arctic circle and eastern Europe etc. I used to have V Strom 650s which were excellent tools. However, I found the Strom 650 did not handle strong cross winds at all well so I went for a Suzi GSF 1200s (Bandit). Utterly superb. Steady as a rock in near gales.
Unfortunately my old knees can't take the sports tourer bend any more so I'm back to 'adventure' bikes. I don't want a GS (I've had GSs - great bikes but no good for me as I can't afford a new one and if there's a problem I live miles away and a ferry crossing from the nearest BM garage). I've boiled it down to either an ex-demonstrator V-Strom 1000 or a second hand VFR Crosstourer - they're around the same price.
For me, reliability and stability in strong winds are the key things. Anyone got any thoughts, observations? Please, no advice on how to ride in strong winds - I've been biking for 50 years and read everything on that. I just know that some bikes perform much better than others in strong cross winds. I am aware of the slight glitches with both models: V Strom: fuelling at low revs and electrical connectors (all done); Crosstourer: shaft recall (done on the ones I'm looking at). Anything else? Anybody out there own either and either love or loathe 'em.
Cheers and thanks a lot.
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