Test fleet: Suzuki V-Strom 1050XT
It’s an adventure bike, so Mossy felt obliged to take it off-road
Ihave to admit, I wasn’t in too much of a rush to sample dirt riding aboard the V-Strom. I was more curious than keen, but with the weather being really dry for several weeks, making the ground much more supportive and easier to ride along, I thought I’d give it a go before things changed. Despite the more favourable conditions, it would have been foolish to try the test on the standard tyres. Impressive though the standard fitment A41 Bridgestones are for road duties, even when the conditions are dry, it would have been risky to ask them to cope with life away from the Tarmac.
SWAPPING TO MORE SUITABLE RUBBER
As Dunlop have a new dualpurpose adventure tyre called the Trailmax Mission, I thought I’d fit a pair to see how well they fared. Making tyres of this type is probably one of the most challenging tasks for any manufacturer. The roles of riding on the road and dirt are so contrasting, it’s simply impossible for any model of tyre to perform really well in both fields. I know from previous experience there are several to choose from, with the performance of all being very impressive at dealing with such differing duties, even if they vary slightly in what they’re biased at coping with best.
It pays to have some experience of any of these ‘50/50’ tyres though, as their road performance can feel a little less certain to begin with if you’re not used to them. The large tread blocks tend to move around a lot, and though grip can still actually be pretty good, that movement initially gives the impression adhesion’s poor and they’re letting go.
IMPRESSIVE FROM THE START
The first miles on the new Dunlop Missions on dry roads really surprised me. Ok, you can tell they have some off-road bias as they lack the more solid, planted feel of normal road rubber. But even so, I soon felt confident to push on pretty hard,
ultimately travelling along at a much swifter pace than I’d expected. And what the Dunlops lack in ultimate grip, they more than make up for in superb levels of feel, feedback and predictability. It’s a very similar story in the wet, with a 50-mile outing in the rain again leaving me feeling confident in the way they grip and communicate, boosting safety. There’s no doubt they can’t come close to matching the almost unbelievable wet-weather adhesion offered by the very latest sports-touring rubber, but the Missions are far better than I thought they’d be. It pays to adjust your riding style to be as smooth as possible, and do your best to stay on, and get back to, the fattest part of the tyre as much as you can. Do that, and you can brake, accelerate, and
even corner remarkably well. All in all, I have to score them highly for their road performance, and though it’s not usually a priority at all for me, I think their chunky appearance enhances the look of the V-Strom, making it look even more purposeful. To be honest, I expected only to want to use the Missions for a quick test of their dual-purpose abilities and then swap them back to more road-biased rubber. However, I’m happy enough to keep them fitted for a lot longer.
AND SO TO THE DIRT
More challenging, for me at least, was using the Dunlops off-road. I may have over ten years of experience riding on the dirt now, but since predominantly riding pukka enduro bikes, I’ve become much less keen on taking bigger adventure machines like the V-Strom 1050 on to the slippery stuff. Compared to the more focused machinery, the Suzuki feels so much weightier, more sizeable, and difficult to handle. In a bid to make life less daunting, I headed for the Salisbury Plain area, where its hard-packed gravel roads offer easier-to-manage terrain. But
even bearing that in mind, I was always worried about the possibility of a fall. Not only would the 1050 be likely to look pretty scruffy if it hit the deck, I doubt that even with my riding partner for the day helping out, getting it back on to its wheels would be anything less than very strenuous. Its fairly tall seat height, which even bothers me on the road at times, didn’t help much either. In the end, luckily, I didn’t come to grief, and the V-Strom generally felt fairly competent for most of the time. In saying that, I avoided any trickier looking sections, never went fast, and constantly noted the limitations caused by the bike’s weight and lack of
suspension travel. And though the Missions did a good enough job in keeping me upright, I’d really need to fit them to a more appropriate machine to test their fuller abilities. Mind you, none of the shortcomings stopped me having an enjoyable day, proving that with some caution at least, the V-Strom’s adventure capabilities boost its versatility all the more. I might have had a much easier time on the dirt if I was riding an enduro bike, but the long run back home on the Suzuki was a lot more luxurious.
WHAT OF FUTURE RIDES?
Now that I’ve got the obligatory off-road journey out of my system, I’m not sure I want to return to the loose stuff on the V-Strom for quite some time. The experience hasn’t put me off the bike though, and I’m still very much enjoying all that it has to offer. Bar the restrictions I felt at Salisbury Plain, I’m finding the Suzuki hard to knock and am really looking forward to spending a lot more time with it.