Australasian Dirt Bike — January 2018

D

eepinthecorridors

of power at

Suzuki’s global HQ

in Hamamatsu,

Japan, there must

be a squad of

white-coated

engineers and collar-and-tie product

planners who deserve to be kicking

back, puffing on stogies and quaffing

fine malt whisky.

Inatimeofglobaleconomic

uncertainty, these men are gold-

medal performers who have long

been adding black ink to Suzuki’s

bottomline.Andthey’vedoneit

with one of the most unassuming

motorcycles known to man: the DL,

or V-Strom.

Mild,meekandClarkKent-likein

everyway,theV-Stromadventure

bikeshavebeensuperperformersfor

thepastdecadeandahalf,the

V-St rom 650 notch i ng up 172,300

salesglobally,andtheV-Strom1000

adding64,900salestothetally.And

thosefiguresareonlyuptothe2015

models.InOztheDL650issitting

well inside the top-10 adventure

touringsaleslist.That’sbig-bucks

business in anyone’s language, so

give those blokes a payrise!

THREE VEES

What makes the V-Stroms such a

showroom success for Suzuki? You

can put it down to the three Vs:

V-twin, versatility and value. On all

three counts the V-Stroms smash it

outofthepark.

The V-twin motors in both DLs

have always impressed, delivering

big, fat spreads of power that make

them equally at home serving

hum-drum commuter duty Monday

through Friday, before eating up the

open road on the weekends.

As for versatility, the V-Stroms are

the living definition of all-roads

capable. Some might even call them

the ultimate all-roads adventurer –

yeah, that’s a very bold statement,

but hey, all those V-Strom 650 buyers

can’tbewrong, can they?

And when it comes to value, the

V-Strom 650 is a gold-medal winner.

The standard DL650 has been priced

at $10,990 plus on-roads forever and,

given what you get for the bucks,

that’s a cheap admission ticket for

unlimited visits to the fun park we

know as Adventureland.

This year both the V-Strom 650

and 1000 have come in for a major

make-over, so when the offer came

ADV TEST I SUZUKI V-STROM 650XT

victory

When it comes to soft-roaders, Suzuki’s

V-Strom 650 has been kicking up a storm for

almost a decade and a half

WORDS // ANDREW CLUBB PHOTOS // MITCH LEES

92 | JANUARY 2018 http://www.adbmag.com.au

ABS is intrusive under heavy braking

Local reptiles laugh at Clubby’s big feet

Big skids are easy with road-biased rubber