A visit to GC Ann in K Sgor on Sat revealed the news that Kawasaki is currently in the midst of taking over Suzuki Assembler Msia's operations. The dealership flat out told me, if I'm thinking of buying a V-Strom, hold the thought for now until they finalize the CKD version in the coming months.

He quoted me RM43k OTR as the current price for the 650XT, which suggests they might be clearing out the CBU stock to make room for the CKD production. Who knows?

Interesting news, nonetheless.

https://pandulaju.com.my/kapcai-suzuki-munc...ar-di-malaysia/

The wifu never cared much for riding the entire time I owned the TNT600. With the D400, she's now hooked..!

Took her to Melaka right after the hardcore MCO ended. A few weeks later, I took her up to Genting... but bloody hell, the place was packed despite half of Genting was closed. Even Gohtong Jaya was jammed up. A couple of weeks ago, I took her to Cameron Highlands via Pos Slim... also packed...!! So on Sat I took her to Pantai Remis... coz I actually wanted to go to that bike shop looking for a tourer that won't numb my ass with all that buzzing after 2 hours...

Yeah pretty much. Noticed that the key Suzuki dealerships (Sin Seng Huat, GC Ann, Eang Chun) are slashing price of the V-strom on Mudah, so I decided to make a trip out to K Selangor to check what's up.

D400 is more than OK when riding solo, but when touring two-up with luggage its lack of displacement and cylinders quickly become apparent. There's nothing below 6000rpm and above 8000rpm it runs out of puff while its fuel economy goes to shit shockingly fast. Exploiting the few overtaking opportunities on the tight twisties towards Tapah for example got me bouncing off the rev limiter in 3rd gear a few times.

However, it truly shines when commuting and negotiating city traffic plus the lack of heft makes it super easy to muscle in and out of tight parking spots.

Funny that I had texted Gary of GC Ann coincidentally just yesterday to check on the news, specifically the CKD V-strom that he had mentioned late last year.

He said nothing could move due to the MCO (makes sense), hv to wait towards the end of the year at best.... so I'm not sure what Mr Ramanujam is talking about in this article. Pre-order to wait how long exactly and what's our incentive to do so?

Things should get interesting this year-end though, he said, coz if the kilang jalan then we can expect the V-strom 650XT Adventure (that's the version complete with the hard panniers) going for under RM40k. Plus the CFmoto 800MT should be due in at the time too.

Me, I'd take it with a fistful of salt. But what have we got to lose in waiting anyway, since this pandemic is getting worse and it doesn't look like I could go touring on a new bike anytime soon...

This post has been edited by ZZR-Pilot: Jul 17 2021, 07:43 PM

Apparently Wah Hong Motor in Klang says they're taking RM500 bookings for V-Strom 650 to be sold at RM38K (not OTR). Updates coming next month. Maybe this is the CKD thing GC Ann was going on about...

Interesting....

GC Ann guy got back to me today, confirming that the V-strom he mentioned months ago turned out to be CBU.

Long story cut short, I was offered rock bottom RM38,500 OTR (3rd pty insurance) cash price, minus the freebies.

I'm like DAAAAAAAAAMMMNNNN.... people were trying to sell their 2-3 year old V-stroms for that price in the used market!


But it left me wondering... if Suzuki can flog this bike CBU at under RM40k and still make a profit (pretty sure they're not doing it for charity at this point), imagine the profit margin they were raking in when they were selling it at RM45k previously!

This post has been edited by ZZR-Pilot: Aug 28 2021, 12:32 PM

So what happens to the Versys 650? Will they cut price to match?

Pandemic notwithstanding, at least now I got something to really look forward to in Q1 next year. Need to see the CFmoto 800MT in the flesh, see if I can handle the seat height and decide. Admittedly, although looking rather old fashioned by now, the V-strom does actually fulfil my needs to tour 2-up comfortably with the wife... and it does so with proven bulletproof reliability & at a significantly lower price. The pricier 800MT comes with the twin seduction of more power & more modern specs.

Definitely prefer the Suzuki. I feel it's narrower at the waist, making the bike more manageable for me.

Not interested in taking it off-road although having that limited dirt road ability in reserve is always a good thing when getting off the highway. I just want to tour with the wife & luggage in comfort, maybe head out to Laos or even China one day!

And I rarely pamper my bikes, so it has to look good & stay reliable while looking like absolute shit. LOL.

In a sea of parallel twin engined bikes, that V-twin now becomes something of a novelty.

How did you lower your V-strom by 15mm? New suspension links?

How much did the shop charge you for these links? Were you given a choice of link lengths?

The shop I went to did mention this option, but I had no idea how much ground clearance I would be sacrificing. I was thinking to take it to a seat shop to have it modified and reshaped into a lower seat instead - cheaper than the Suzuki item & tailored for the shape of my arse with full customization options.

The last time I owned a GSXR, I used to ride all the way down to that Suzuki parts dealership in front of Simlim Tower for parts. Stuff was relatively cheap... heck I bought everything from that area incl tyres, esp from Ahboy's.

But then that was waaaay before Ringgit made like Duit Daun Pisang and went down the Malaysia Boleh forex shithole.


Nowadays, I dunno about Suzuki parts supply in Msia but since there's better economy of scale now for big bike parts I wouldn't be too worried.

Taruk bakul kat depan la, atas mudguard.

V-twins are falling out of favour in the face of the rise of the parallel twin, except among manufacturers that hv made the V engine an inalienable part their brand identity such as Ducati, Aprillia, HD etc.

Tubed tyres are a dealbreaker for me.

Man... that's barely RM5k short of a Triumph Trident, which is a far more modern bike.

With its parallel twin replacement coming soon, that kind of pricing is rather optimistic.

Oh wait... the GSX-8S is the SV650 replacement.

No wonder they're pushing the ancient SV650 for RM39k.

Direct competitor to the Triumph Tiger 850. Too bad it's 2.5 years late to the party, otherwise... hmmm... who knows...!

The guys at Gene Batu Caves said it will be priced at around RM58k, just under the 800DE's price (RM60k). That's definitely the Triumph Tiger 850 territory, just slightly above the CFmoto 800MT's price (RM54k).

Fast Bikes also said the Honda Transalp 750 is coming next year. Dunno how much, but being a Honda it won't be any cheaper than RM60k for sure.

I don't trust 12000km oil change intervals even if that's what the manufacturer recommends, coz I can't imagine even synthetic oil going that long without having the oil level drop after the first 5000-6000km due to evaporative losses and normal oil consumption.

My manufacturer says my 3.2 litres of oil have to hold up for 10000km. In our hot climate? Hell no. The dealership says have to keep an eye on the oil level and top up when it drops. I decided not to bother and change the oil every 5000km anyway (keeping the filter), which is a simple enough job that can be done at any reputable workshop.

Major service intervals, now that's something else altogether. In my experience, valve clearance jobs may require a set of gaskets, seals and o-rings to be replaced, regardless of whether or not you need new shims. Pricey little buggers, these. Whether or not their costs are factored in up front by the dealer, that's the question to ask.

Bloody hell I would have bought this in a heartbeat... if it had arrived 2.5 years ago.

Saw all kinds of mid-capacity ADV bikes at the show on Wed. Really spoilt for choice now.

The Chinese offerings looked very convincing, the only problem is Mforce tapao all.