Australasian Dirt Bike — January 2018

D

irt riding legend

Vince Strang

recently celebrated

a major birthday

and took the

opportunity to

show off his latest

girlfriend, who’s barely 21. Now,

before you get agitated, the birthday

was his dealership’s fortieth and the

love interest was his latest DR650SE,

a Suzuki model that first landed

here way back in 1996.

It was love at first sight when the

former enduro star arrived in

Sydney from his motorcycle shop

in Inverell to pick up two DR650s

fresh off the boat to prepare for

Swedish riders Robert Gronlund

and Olle Ohlsson to race in that

year’s Australian Safari. Vince

Strang Motorcycles has been

building trick DRs ever since and,

21 years later, he’s adamant that

they’re still the best blank-canvas

machine available.

From rugged cattle station bike to

super motard, stylish ride around

town and bush pig, it can do it all

but, Vince says, it’s still the best

rough-road outback adventurer

around. It might not do anything

better than a specialised bike but it

does everything as well as many

bikes while offering legendary

reliability and great resale value.

“It’s more fun per dollar than

anything else,” he says.

The early ones were torture

tested in our desert races by riders

like Ohlsson, Mike Shearer and

Vince but when the racing got too

hectic they became the bike of

choice for adventure riders

travelling around the world.

When Vince wasn’t happy with

what was available for DR650

adventurers, he got parts made. His

shop stocks a huge range of DR bits,

as demonstrated by my old bike and

Vince’s new one over the page.

He has a huge passion for the

brand that has helped carry the

shop through the years.

VINCE STRANG HAS PUT A LOT

OF LOVE INTO SUZUKI’S DR650

http://www.adbmag.com JANUARY 2018 | 147

WORDS & PHOTOS // MARTYN BLAKE & ADB

Crossing rivers hasn’t changed much for Vince since 1997 (above)