The affordable adventure bike
Suzuki calls the new £9639 V-strom 1000 a ‘sports adventure tourer’. But what is it really good at?
Suzuki V-strom 1000
IT’S THE LEAST expensive litre-sized adventure bike – so if you’re in the market for a big-capacity dual-sport machine, you have to be interested in the new Suzuki V-strom 1000. Suzuki has restyled the top half of the fairing and seat, sprinkled on cornering ABS, then painted the end result bright yellow.
It doesn’t sound much but it’s the second V-strom revision in three years, so these are several moderate refinements to accompany the tedious but necessary Euro4 engine adaptations. And the asking price is £9639, against £11,210 for Honda’s Africa Twin, £10,439 for Kawasaki’s Versys, £11,900 for the most basic Triumph Explorer and a lot more for the glamour stuff from BMW, KTM and Ducati. Only Triumph’s 800cc Tiger is less: they start at £8800.
But what’s it actually like? Most of the 1100 miles I rode on the bike were two-up, heading with my wife to the Spa Bikers’ Classic in Belgium. We were acting as the catering wing of the Classic Suzuki race team (riders: Guy Martin and Peter Boast), which in the true spirit of racing, gave us unlimited pit access and cheap accommodation. The journey there and back was 800 motorway miles, half of them with heavy luggage as we were carrying all the cooking gear we forgot to put in the van with the bikes.
With a passenger, two crammed panniers and a vast roll bag containing various precarious items, I
opted to ride to Spa smoothly and not too quickly – though we had to take a direct and mostly motorway route to get there on time. The grunty V-twin motor shrugged off the weight and the hydraulic rear preload adjuster kept the steering more or less accurate. Leaving Northamptonshire, we arrived at the track after eight hours, saddle sore but otherwise cheerful.
Riding back was a different story. Profiting from experience, we’d chucked all our luggage in Boasty’s van, so the bike was far lighter. We started off riding with two friends but the V-strom, like many tall bikes with upright screens, picked up vision-blurring turbulence from the rider in front. After 100 miles, we agreed to split up and rendezvous at Calais. That let me pick up cruising speed to an easy 100mph (6200rpm) but the experience was a lot harsher than the outward trip. Riding pillion-smooth was hard and riding in a crosswind left us both knackered. Worst was the seat, which went from firm to unpleasant to must-stop inside 200 miles.
It is, however, an economical bike. I may have been riding two-up and heavily laden, but sticking to an 80mph cruise gave 180-190 miles to a tank (50mpg). Even thrashing it gives 140 miles (38mpg). So it’s a shame that the two of you have to stop every 100 miles and walk around groaning. Fiona, on the back, is a veteran of many big trips on various BMW GS models. This is how she saw it:
“It felt like two different rides. Heading out, the engine felt smooth and I could lean on the bag. I had sore hips and bum by Dover, but we got to Belgium OK. I liked being able to see the time and speed, and the sat nav. The return trip was windy, buffety, faster and jerkier. I didn’t use the grabrails, because they are precisely under your hips, so you still hinge forwards and backwards under weight transfer. It was OK on the motorway, with not much turbulence considering the speed, but riding really fast on A roads felt like I would topple off the back. The seat looks big, but it doesn’t feel it. There’s no room to wiggle about. It needs to be an inch longer.” Basically, she wasn’t impressed.
While I rode the bike solo for the next week I tried to figure out why the V-strom had felt like Dr Jekyll on the way out and Mr Hyde on the way back. My theory is that Suzuki has chosen to make the ’Strom more Ktm-sporty than Gs-tourey. It has a snappy, responsive motor and stiff springs, which make it a giggle on smooth back roads. It’s also smooth as silk round town or when you are riding like a policeman. It’s when you get a bit more enthusiastic that it gets jerkier. That doesn’t register when you’re on your own, but shut the throttle at 80mph with a passenger and they’ll lurch forward. A GS, on the other hand, has more flywheel mass, which damps engine response out so the whole thing feels syrupy and soothing. Suzuki’s bike is faster revving, wanting to go, but is lumpier at low speed. A GS will drag itself
“The grunty V-twin motor shrugged off the weight”
to the redline if it has to, like an old man complaining about having to answer the front door, but it really excels at running like a watch from way down the revs.
So there’s the explanation: on the trip out I was riding gently and the weight of luggage was masking the engine’s desire to take off. On the way back, the opposite. You don’t notice the snappiness riding solo (except in a good way). But on a big two-up trip, it gets pretty damn annoying. The engine itself is a beauty. It makes 99bhp, which might not sound much next to a 150bhp KTM but honestly, it’s plenty: a V-strom 1000 is not short of grunt.
So we have an adventure bike with a hard seat, useless grabrails, a snappy motor and suspension that rides better with 25 stone pushing it down rather than 12. That’s the headline finding. What about the detail? Well, if you do weigh 12 stone in leathers, you can take the edge off the choppy ride by adjusting the suspension. I went back three clicks on front compression and half a turn on the shock’s combined rebound/ compression adjuster. The bike got a bit lively being thrashed on bumpy lanes, or
during mid-corner braking, but I thought it was a fair price to pay.
I also found the front brake lever didn’t adjust far back enough to suit my mediumsized hand and, to a lesser extent, the clutch lever too. Perhaps V-strom 1000 owners need to be huge people, though I found the riding position excellent. The Strom is noticeably lighter than a GS (about 12kg, according to the spec) and a lot easier to get into a normal-sized garage (an important point which few people appreciate).
The new-for-2017 electronics are easy-start and anti-stall (who needs either of those?) as well as new cornering ABS. I didn’t try a mid-corner lever grab, but in normal braking the ABS is reasonably good. The pulsing is jerkier than the near-seamless response from the latest BMW and KTM systems but if you’re coming into a corner hard on the road, it won’t suddenly extend your braking distance like the ABS on the old 650 V-strom did. Though it might be a bit of a bore on a trackday.
The traction control (present since 2014) is a head scratcher. You can switch it off or select one of two modes. Mode 1 is good but Mode 2 cuts the ignition and flashes the light even when you just rev it to 4000rpm away from the lights in dry weather. It might be about right in January, on heavily salted roads.
A few points about the V-strom surprised me. The first three gears usually go in with a clank and the slipper clutch (which is very handy for fast riding) makes a disconcerting knocking noise on tickover. And after two weeks, that yellow seat had already picked up oil and coffee stains. But my biggest puzzle was the rack design. Besides the wrongly positioned grabrails, its limited mounting points mean that when you strap a big bag on, it tends to creep forwards onto the pillion seat. The bike needs to offer better strap-mounting points so that bags stay centered on the rack.
On the plus side, the bike feels instantly familiar and steers lazily but accurately. The panniers are a pleasure to use – fully waterproof and aerodynamically sound. They don’t wobble the bike, even at 110mph. And each one can take four days’ worth of clothes plus some light shoes. I really liked the Tokico front brakes, which combine a soft first kiss with serious stopping power. And as long as you’re not
following another bike, the new adjustable screen works pretty well. Occasionally I’d get a little bit of a thrum from the turbulence riding fast, but a bigger rider (I’m 5ft 9in) wouldn’t be bothered. The OE Bridgestone Battlewing tyres gripped fine wet or dry but seemed to be wearing quickly. The rear was visibly squared after just 1800 miles.
So is the updated Suzuki V-strom 1000 a good bike? I’d call it workmanlike. It’s not engineered with the artistry of a Ducati or a KTM, but I bet it’ll last for years. It’s great fun to throw around on wiggly A and Broads and, compared to its big-name rivals, it is good value. But on long journeys? You’d be better off with a used GS…
“Sticking to 80mph gave 180-190 miles to a tank of fuel”