Bonneville America Forums Forums General Motorcycle Forums Other Bikes v strom

i have a buddy who is a first year rider. he took my old suzuki 450 off my hands to learn (the bike has actually passed through 6 of us as a learner bike) and is now considering a suzuki vstrom as his bike of choice.

does anyone know anything about these bikes?
any recommendations for or against them?

I've read from many sources that the V-Strom (if you can get past the name) is absolutely the best biking bang for the buck you can get. It'll do everything for you and you'll have a great time doing it. If I were a few years younger I'd get one. As it is, with bad back, knees, wrists, shoulders, neck, and almost everything else bad to a degree, I'm relegated to riding around on something closer to a lay-z-boy. Tell him to get one and have a great time!

Everything I've read says it's a great bike. I heard it described by somebody as being a bike for guys who really ride. It's a bit like a swiss army knife, it can handle just about any situation well. The only downside I can speak of is height. I sat on one at a bike show and it was tall! I'm sure that gives you alot of clearance in the twisties, but might be a bit tough at low speeds or at stop signs.

I looked at one before buying my America. The salesman at a honda/suzuki/yamaha/kawasaki dealer was really pushing it as an all-day/long distance rider and compared it to more expensive but comparable BMW models. Did not ride it but sat on it. It seemed comfortable enough for my xxl frame. Sat on a Triumph Tiger a few weeks ago, it seemed about the same fit and position. The salesman owned the 1000cc model himself and claimed to get "plenty of air" over rail road tracks and that he routinely rode it from Ohio to the D.C. area and back in the same day. It may possibly be, as nuthin said, a "swiss army knife," but not for me though.

The V-strom 1000 is a bike I've been thinking about as a 2nd one for 2 up riding. I'm assuming your buddy is looking at the 650?

There's a couple of good forums out there for these bikes. One is V-Strom and the other is Stromtrooper. The first one seems to be the better resource. There's a good FAQ here, and another good site with everything under the sun including this list of reviews .


From what I've read, the 650(aka Wee Strom) looks like it has less problems than the 1000. There's various ways to fix the ride heighth...from lower seats to lowering links. If your buddy doesn't need the mild offroad capabilities of the V-Strom, then check the SV650. Basically the same motor in more of a street setup.

There's plenty of good national forest roads in Arizona to ride on, so that's why I'm giving the DL1000 some serious thought. Been on quite a few of them on camping and fishing trips in a cage, and I'd like a bike that's capable of tackling them too.

Everything I've read says it's a great bike, I've taked to one guy who owns one and he loves it. However, IMHO it's one ugly bike.

thanks for all the advice. i have passed it on to my friend (while also sneaking in a few plugs for the tiger)