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After a week that can only be described as fooking hectic, we were finally ready on the Friday of the Rally weekend.

In part 1 of our long-term V-Strom update, we went over the fitting of a whole host of SW Motech parts (kindly supplied by Twisted Throttle), before Mr. Seck took it out on its inaugural dirt ride at one of Rally Connex's dual-sport events. Everything seemed to hold up well, but then he was babying it … somewhat.

After our initial test (and brief off-road excursion) of the V-Strom last year, we were left with the impression that with the fitting of some aftermarket mods, the 650 V-Strom could be effectively coaxed into the world of dirt.

New Zealand is a motorcycle paradise — a country with a temperate climate, breathtaking scenery and roads of seemingly endless twists and curves. This all results in a riding experience similar to that found in Europe – but without the same level of traffic or speed enforcement although, as my travel companion discovered, that element can still be found!

Bloody cold it was ... With one eye on the Aprilia’s ambient air-temp gauge and the other scanning the road ahead for ice, I realized that a late October tour in the northern Appalachians was somewhat of a challenging idea.

With the madness of Daytona behind me, I found myself riding west towards the city of Tallahassee, where the map indicted that Hwy 98 would fulfill my first American Dream requirement - a ride along the Gulf of Mexico.

Although we’ve only just got our hands on the K1200GT CMG long-termer, I got my grubbies on one courtesy of BMW USA, way back in March for my US Tour. After racking up a total of 4000 miles in ten days I’d gotten pretty familiar with the bike’s capabilities. The following is my account of how it performed, although I should probably clarify that this is based on the bike I had in the US, not the actual CMG long termer.

The first time I saw the new Kawasaki Vulcan 1500 Mean Streak I thought that it was one of the coolest cruisers I’d ever seen. Low slung, drag style handlebars, lots of eye catching chrome bits…and 6-piston front brakes off the ZX9R! Hey, are those Dunlop D207 Sportmax tires as well? What the ... ?

Go east, young woman! Cathy Merriman heads to the Maritimes.

During the early hours of the next morning, passengers were awoken by the announcement of our impending docking at Bella Coola and we duly arose from Camp CMG and shuffled – weary eyed – out to the front deck. And what an awesome sight!