I know I am going to catch much static but here goes.
I cannot get myself to ride my SD on any trip that would require two fuel stops in one ride out.
This is not the prerequisite for leaving it in the garage, it is merely the way to describe the condition to which the riding adventure takes.
I went on a loop on Monday and for just the briefest moment i entertained the notion of riding the SD. I may have pretended to entertain that notion knowing all the while i would put that sillyness to rest. Ir is just too plain easy to grab the VStrom. It gets over two hundred miles to a tankfull. It is all day comfortable. It turns in quicker than the SD. I can ride standing up for long stretches, relieving the ache in tge right knee. It makes no pretense as to what it is and asks not out of me what I would feel had to be ridden like to be treating the bike in the manner to which it had been built. If I am not pulling wheelies down main street or smoking up the rear at a stop light or launching it over my favorite brassy knolls on the SD I somehow feel like I am not worthy of its company.
I took the Strom. To relieve myself from heavy guilt while I was out i pretended that my battery needed some tending and never looked back once the light was blinking.
I did ride through a beautiful salt bed valley on a dirt road as part of the venture, so all rhe reason to leave it at home.
Two hundred sixty miles two hundred sixteen of which were on the first tank. Man we talk about soulless jap steeds that leave little passion in your heart and narry skip a beat or make you wonder will she blow a gasket or a regulator or a BGC flairup. The bike that is harder to get out of the garage is the one I swears I cannot live without and the byke that moves me far more is just a motorcycle, go figure.

You lost me when you said the Strom turns in quicker than the SD. Your suspension needs to be adjusted.

Other than that, you seem to be describing the "right tool for the job" theory. I love the SD, but there are times I want a bike that is better suited for touring / longer trips. I've never ridden a Strom, but I'd bet it protects better from the weather and that alone makes it a better choice for long distance riding. Now, if the choice in your garage was a GSXR 750 as mine was, then you'd probably be grabbing the keys for the SD more often, as getting out of the wind does not make up for the cramping that occurs during long sport bike rides (or, in my case, neck pain). On the track, I preferred the GSXR and its incredible Ohlins suspension. Its all relative. Like I said, the correct tool for the job.

Yes the right tool, but there are few times when the /
SD ends up being the right tool.
Commute to work thirty miles with lunch and coffee, nope
Run a trip to the store for barbeque, nope.
So I am left with the crazy seventy two mile nutcake canyon cracker and the sneakback into the garage before all hell breaks loose.
The turn in line is a quick description of haw well the Strom handles. It truly is SD's jap cousin.
Power wheelie in second gear wide barred carving tool that has a chasis that is as stable as they come and for the cash you get a bike that leaves sooo much confidance under you I am not sure that I am not riding it just as spirited as the SD.
It is my third one I have owned. I keep getting rid for greener pastures and find myself back on top with a smile.
I am looking for a replacement in the form of a BM or Triumph. Funny how I'll keep the SD for the twentyeight hundred miles a year she gets used and replace the steed that sees fourteengrand a year.
Probably an orange thyng, You would think my initials were KTM or something.
Bye the weigh, are there any KTM's out there?
DKB

Ahhhhh it all makes sense now, yo have a Vstrom

Come on the Suzuki SD can only be the TL1000s