Farewell, dear friend
The V-Strom has performed admirably but has it won some affection?
In a typical year, a long-term test bike in my possession would be looking at double the miles on its odometer at this point. Most of that time is spent dashing around the country on motorways and big A-roads, so it makes very specific demands: Is it comfortable? Does it have a decent range? Is the screen any good? Is there a cruise control? (Incidentally, four big ticks for the V-Strom here.) But this year it’s all been about trips to the supermarket and the odd weekend or evening spin when restrictions allow. And how has it fared at that? Just fine.
The V-Strom makes a lot of sense as a tourer, with its big seats and ample luggage capacity. Even though the motor just creeps over 100bhp, there’s plenty of torque for lugging your bits around. Loaded up it’s as stable as you like and the fact it’s hefty to begin with doesn’t matter quite so much.
Take it out to scratch up your local twisty roads and it will do a decent job of keeping up, especially with a change of tyres to something like the Dunlop
‘It’s done the job almost without fault’
Trailmax Meridians I’ve fitted. However, for all its competence, it’s just never quite won me over. If I opened my garage door on a warm weekend morning, it wouldn’t be the one I was instantly drawn to and I haven’t spent my time dreaming about riding it. It’s not that it’s a bad bike (far from it) and I wouldn’t be upset if I found myself owning one, it’s just not the bike I’d pick if I was spending the best part of £12,000. But for all my knocking its lack of zing, it does the really important job of actually getting you from A to B almost entirely without fault.
At no point, even after months of lay-up, has it shown any hint of failure; no rough starting, no drained batteries, no seized calipers. It’s not used a drop of oil and, quite possibly thanks to the Scottoiler, I have adjusted the chain precisely once in 12 months. Even now, after months of crap weather and no proper corrosion prevention to speak of, it remains almost as lovely as the day it was delivered.
So I’d say it like this: if you’re after something comfortable and reliable, that’s at home on the commute, sunny Sunday blasts and two-up tours then you could do a lot worse than the V-Strom.