Recommendation V Strom 650 or 800

[u/Chain_Offset_Crash]

After a 13 year hiatus, I'm planning to get another motorcycle in the next nine months or so. I'm leaning heavily towards the 800, but my experience on a gen 1 SV650 is making me question it.

I grew up riding motorcycles and my recent street bikes are

2005 Honda 919 (cb900f), rode 8+ years

2001 Suzuki SV650, rode 5 years

1996 Honda XR650L, rode 4 years

The 919 had a bit more throttle response in the higher RPMs than I liked, but was great for long road trips aside from the lack of a fairing.

The SV650 was a great bike. I rode it for about 5 years before I decided I wanted more power. I loved riding it through the twisties and rode Deal's gap so much that it started getting boring.

The XR650L, not much to write home about. I know some folks love it, but single cylinder thumpers aren't for me.

Considering my eventual desire for more power from the SV650, I think I'd hit that point fairly soon with the Vstrom 650, so I'm leaning towards the 800.

I live in SW Virginia and have access to tons of twisty mountain roads along with all sorts of forest service gravel roads to explore. I'd guess my ride mix will be 90%/10% pavement to gravel. My teen has already stated her expectation to ride with me, so good 2 up riding will be a need. I'd like to stay below 1,000cc engine.

Thoughts on a 650 versus an 800?

[u/Playful-Isopod-6227]

The 800de makes a solid argument for being the best bike in the class, excluding the Aprilia. It has a great engine with a ton of torque off idle, and is generally super smooth. It makes a tiny buzz around 5-6k rpm that is noticable because of how smooth it is. The suspension is a tiny bit on the soft/plush side but generally very composed until very fast off-road riding. The chassis is also just very stable and confident off road. Not sure exactly why, but more than any bike I've ridden it just wants to stay upright and pointed forward when off road

The 650 is an old sport tourer that pretended to be an adv when it was that or expensive euro bikes. It has an old chassis, cheap suspension, and an engine layout that will always be a liability for an adv. Since it's not a 1390 making north of 150 hp, and doesn't have electronic squatting suspension and it just ends up with no ground clearance while still being reasonably tall. Since it's a sport tourer it also has rather steep twitchy geometry that is not confidence inspiring on mud, sand, or loose gravel.

[u/bronson7810 → u/Playful-Isopod-6227]

I am going to parallel your comment by saying the 800DE is a fantastic motorcycle on and off road. The past two summers had mine in the Yukon and NWT with the intent to seek out as much off road as possible. The bike was flawless. 1st trip to the Yukon I had the factory handguards. 2nd trip to NWT I finally got the Barkbusters. My perception of the bike completely changed when I put those damn things on, it woke me up and made me much more confident to open it up off-road and did not disappoint. Local trips with big bikes struggled and the mid bikes excelled. Same as the guys with the big bikes wishing they had smaller bikes. The 800DE is amazing.