UPDATE: Here’s my review on RevZilla’s Common Tread.
As you probably know by now, I’m a huge sucker for adventure bikes. If I could only have one motorcycle in my garage, it’d be a big dual-sport. For several reasons, I’ve never had to the chance to ride Suzuki’s offering in the market, the V-Strom – mostly because people I trust call it “extremely competent and amazingly boring.” But that changes this week, as I’ll be attending the launch of the V-Strom 1000 and the V-Strom 650, affectionately known as the Wee-Strom. I appreciate that Suzuki calls it a “Sport Adventure Tourer” – it’s not really designed to tackle gnarly off-road bits (even if the XT model comes with a little bit of crash protection and spoked wheels). It’s a sport tourer on stilts, but with a 19″ front and 17″ rear wheel you could easily get some knobbies on it if you wanted to get dirty.
There’s a few features on the 2018 models that I’m intrigued by:
3 Stage Traction Control – Level 1, Level 2, and Off. It’s basically unheard of on 650cc bikes.
Cornering ABS – They call it Motion Track Braking System, and it runs off a 5-axis IMU (Inertial Measurement Unit). However, for some reason the Traction Control does not have an input from the IMU.
Easy Start – You can start it in neutral without holding in the clutch by just pressing the starter button – you don’t have to hold it down until the motor turns over.
Low RPM Assist – The V-Strom will automatically increase RPM at idle when you’re pulling away from stops (or just hovering at low RPM) to minimize the chance of a stall.
Both bikes seem like competent all-arounders, and I usually adore the power delivery of a V-Twin motor. This is also the first year that I haven’t found the styling of the V-Strom in either size to be depressingly bland – it’s still a little simple but I like the looks of the adventure-inspired XT trim (see above). Seeing as the smaller version used to outsell the bigger bike nearly 2-to-1, I’ll be spending my time at the launch on the DL650 but then I’ll take a 1000 home for extended testing. So if you have questions on either model, let me know and I’ll do my best to answer them for you!
UPDATE: Here’s my review on RevZilla’s Common Tread.
Photos courtesy of Suzuki.