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I'm currently camped in the mountains with my family for spring break. Today I stopped on a trail and some guy popped out behind me on a yz250 who was trying to catch me for miles. I giggled and said on this big tank! He just shook his head in misbelief when he saw 1190 on the side. It sure takes some getting used to though.

Hello! David here from Camarillo riding my 2013 Suzuki DL650 V-Strom -- my first bike -- and I'm loving it. So my riding career spans all of one and half years. I really enjoy riding but hope to increase my off pavement time going forward. I found the forum through Laine MacTague of EarthRider where I've taken one class so far. Thanks for letting me in -- even though I'm on the small side of XL at only 650cc (I noticed I can't add the Strom to My Garage because the model years don't populate and it won't let you save without a model year entry.)

I may as well add my $.02 here as well... I swapped out my stock tires at 3079 miles with Mitas E07 F&R. I wanted something fairly aggressive that I could get some decent mileage with. The rear E07 was fine, but I didn't like the feeling of the front at all. It made the bike feel like it was "falling off" of vertical when going into a turn. (Closest thing I can compare it to is notchy headstock bearings.) I ran those for about 1800 miles at which point I was given a set of TKC80's. The TKC's are great aside from the fact that the rear is pretty much gone after 1100 miles. I'd say I have about 30% of the tread left. I ride my Tiger pretty aggessively on the street, and the TKC's don't like that one bit. They handle great and stick like glue, but I don't want to be swapping tires out every 1500-2k miles. I am going to run the TKC for a bit longer, then put the E07 back on the rear. I'd say the E07 I have still has about 75% of the tread left at 1800 miles. I've read a lot on other forums about guys having good luck with a TKC 80 on the front and Mitas on the rear, so I'm going to give that a go.

Right now I have a TKC 80 on the front and the Mitas/Savin MC60 on the rear. I can't tell the difference in handling when I put the Mitas on. Used the new Mitas in street orientation for the ride at TOD. Traction was great, no problems.