‘The Strom still does everything I need’
“With 10,500 miles on my V-Strom 1000, I am honestly still loving it. It does everything I need it to without any fuss – from a moped CBT ride to advanced tuition and touring, it does it all for me. I think my only gripe was the Bridgestone A40 dual-sport tyres it came with as standard which, being the hybrid road/trail tyre, weren’t good enough for me. I’ve since plumped for Michelin Road 5s and it has transformed the bike and given me much more confidence in the front-end, which I must admit I had been struggling with. Reliability has been faultless, with nothing that’s broken or needed replacement. Plus, servicing through our local Suzuki dealer – Johns of Romford – has been spot on and not too wallet damaging.
I know a lot of V-Strom owners have an issue with buffeting from the screen, but I think I’ve found the solution – and it’s nothing to do with the screen; it’s the mirrors. The standard mirrors are very good – probably the best I’ve used on a bike – but they’re big and square and generate buffeting at speed. If you’re sitting at 70mph for any length of time it’d cause that weird jiggling which disturbs your vision. I read on the owners’ forum that universal-fit Halfords mirrors were the solution, so I fitted pair and they’ve made a huge difference.
At 20 litres the tank’s pretty big. The trip says it’ll do 200 miles on a tank but I think it’ll go further. I’m currently averaging 49.7mpg – impressive for a big V-twin. Some guys say they’re getting 60-70mpg. The riding position is brilliant for making progress through traffic; the view of the road is great but it’s taken me a while to get used to the wide ’bars, especially when filtering traffic.
“Suzuki always got a bit of flak for their build quality but this bike RICH WOOLGAR appears to be holding up pretty well. I ran it through winter and always hosed it down after a ride, and there’s no obvious rust. I think the people who complain the most are those who ride it every day through winter but only wash it once a fortnight. I’ve got no plans to get rid of it, it’s succeeding in doing everything that I need it to do.”
‘I rode it all winter and there was no rust’