I hear it all the time, can you take the Suzuki V-Strom offroad? I decided to put the bike to the ultimate test and prove once and for all that the bike can be an adventure bike by taking it through Africa.
In this article I will review the Suzuki V-Strom DL650XT from 2018 and discuss what makes it an adventure bike. The ins and outs of the V-Strom. What are it’s offroad capabilities and if you should get it.
Riding along the Skeleton Coast, Namibia
A one paragraph Suzuki V-Strom 650xt offroad review
I put the Suzuki V-Strom 650XT to the test in various offroad conditions to judge its capabilities. It handles will in sand, gravel, river crossings and rocky sections. It does terrible in mud. With the right modifications the Suzuki V-Strom 650XT is a very capable adventure machine that is able to handle most offroad conditions.
Does Suzuki make an adventure bike?
Yes, Suzuki makes an adventure motorcycle. The V-Strom XT models are considered to be adventure motorcycles within the line of models at Suzuki. The V-Strom models are considered to be adventure touring bikes.
The difference between the type of street legal Suzuki motorcycles models is big. On the left we have the sport bike models, designed to go fast. Suzuki also designs cruisers and street-sport models. All the V-Strom models get categorised as adventure on the US website. Last, the DR650S gets tagged as dual sport.
Sportbike models: Suzuki GSX-R1000, R600, 250R
Cruiser models: Suzuki Boulevard M109R B.O.S.S Suzuki Boulevard C50T Suzuki Boulevard C50
Street-Sport Models: Suzuki SV650 ABS
Adventure: Suzuki V-Strom 650 (XT) Suzuki V-Strom 1000 (XT) Suzuki V-Strom 1050 (XT)
Dual-Sport: Suzuki DR650S
With the V-Strom being put into the adventure category it automatically get’s compared to the BMW GSR, the KTM adventure and the Yamaha Tenere T7. Many will say that the Suzuki V-Strom cannot be compared to those legendary brands of bikes when it comes to its offroad capabilities. Which is probably true when your name is Toby Price and you have skills like him, but for the average rider and especially the beginning adventure rider. I would like to argue that the V-Strom is more than capable of taking you on a premium adventure. So if you ask me:
Is the Suzuki V-Strom an adventure bike?
Yes, the V-Strom is a capable adventure bike that will encourage the beginning to average rider to explore the backcountry and their own limits. It is a versatile bike that performs very well on- and offroad and it is not just a marketing tactic.
Off course it partly is, a marketing tactic. I’m not gonna lie to you because adventure bikes are all the rage right now and it would be bad for business not having an adventure line. Just look at Harley Davidson. But I am confident in saying that the V-Strom models also live up to the adventure label standard. Because we took them on a 43.000km / 27,000 mile road trip through Europe and Africa and they did great.
I’m not going to go into detail too much about the trip itself, but if you are interested I suggest you take a look at my YouTube channel. That is the place where I documented the African adventure on the Suzuki V-Strom 650XT as well as a previous trip on my trusty Suzuki V-Strom DL650 from 2005 with which I rode from The Netherlands to Indonesia. It shows the raw day to day challenges that come with traveling overland.
But the conditions we faced on this trip where incredibly varied, from easy gravel fire roads to deep sand and sticky mud. Later in this article I will share how the bike did in every condition but it tackled all of them, although not all equally graceful.
Is the V-Strom a dual sport?
No, the V-Strom not a classic dual sport motorcycle although the term is not strictly defined. Dual sports motorcycles that are intended for long-distance travel are usually tagged as adventure bikes which is a better category for the V-Storm.
The term dual sports just like enduro and adventure are marketing descriptions, not strict definitions of weight, power and intended usage. In general, duals sports bikes are street legal motorcycles designed for on- and offroad therefor you could argue that the V-Strom is a dual sport bike.
The difference between the lightweight dual-sport bikes, the middleweight and the heavyweight is the elegance that they tackle difficult offroad terrain with. The lightweight bikes can be taken almost anywhere and are easy to manoeuvre in tight corners and steep climbs where as the heavier bikes have to rely on brute force to climb up anything remotely similar. That is why some will argue that bikes such as the V-Strom are not really dual sport because they cannot do the really extreme stuff. In the end it is all semantics and it depends on your level of riding skills and your personal riding style if the V-Strom is your kind of adventure bike or not.
The proven history of the V-Strom and its build quality
Suzuki first brought a V-Strom on the market in 2004 as a sport touring motorcycle. It is a Swiss army knife kind of bike that does a little bit of everything. Commuting, touring, cruising, adventure touring and offroad riding. The bike has undergone some evolution over its production lifetime, with big visual changes between the generations, the mechanical side of the bike, the engine and the chassis have largely stayed the same. Because the original design has been so good, Suzuki didn’t need to change much to keep the bike up to date. The biggest difference is the tuning of the engine with the ECU and the dashboard controls.
What does V-Strom mean?
The name V-Strom combines the V that refers to the motorcycles engine configuration with the two cylinders positioned opposite from each other like a V together with the German word Strom, meaning stream of wind/water or (electric) current.
The V-Strom has a big worldwide fanbase and within the community the DL1000 and the DL650, have been nicknamed Vee and Wee, respectively (i.e., Vee-strom or Wee-strom).
As I mentioned before, since 2004 not much has changed regarding the design of the engine of the V-Strom. I know because I owned both the 2005 model and a 2018 model and did all the maintenance myself. The V shape of the cylinders delivers power smoothly whenever you need it. This is great for offroad riding especially for beginners who are learning how much throttle to use in which situation. It is fuel injected so the engine adjusts itself to the circumstances you are riding in. No need to fiddle with valves when changing altitude.
9999 kilometers on the clock
What is high mileage for a V-Strom DL650?
100k miles is where some bikes start to need more attention. Suzuki V-Stroms are known to keep running without issues remarkably long but it depends on the maintenance performed and where the bike has been stored (in- or outside).
The engine is basically bulletproof and rumour has it that there are bikes out there with half a million miles on the clock that are still going strong! I’m personally roughly at 100.000 miles so I’m expecting to get another decade out of this bike.
This is one of the biggest advantages of the V-Strom, for any type of riding but especially for long offroad trips. All other parts are easy to replace when they break, but buying parts to repair the engine are usually more expensive and labour intensive to install.
At the same time, the V-Strom remains a bike that is built to be affordable, meaning not a lot of fancy features. I view this as an advantage because firstly this means that those items cannot break and therefor you don’t have to fix them. Secondly, it makes the bike easier to understand and therefor easier to do maintenance yourself. Even if you are a complete beginner the V-Strom can give you the confidence to learn motorcycle mechanics. I learned to adjust the valve clearance within two years of changing the oil by myself for the first time.
Over the years the V-Strom got some more accessories like ABS, gear indicator and traction control.
When did V-Strom 650 get abs?
In 2007 the Suzuki V-Strom DL650 ABS model became available as an option. From 2017 all the V-Strom models standard come with ABS, including the XT models.
ABS, anti-lock braking system is a great safety feature when riding on the road. It helps to get to a full stop faster when you slam the brakes and the rear wheel locks up and starts to slide. The rubber actually has more traction when it keeps rolling. Therefor the ABS system unlocks the wheel and keeps is spinning slowly so you hopefully stop in time to avoid any accidents. A great feature to have for on the road, but offroad it quickly becomes a burden. You want to have full control over the back wheel and having it unlock while riding on a steep decline is the worst thing that can happen.
How do you disable the ABS on a Suzuki V-Strom?
The V-Strom does not have a button to disable the ABS, but by taking out the fuse that controls the ABS you effectively turn it off.
This can be an unpractical solution when you switch between the road and offroad often and want to keep the ABS engaged when riding on the road again. Some people install a switch by substituting the fuse and adding a switch into the circuit. This probably voids your warranty, so I did not recommend you to do this. This blog article however is very helpful in giving you instructions how to do this. https://www.stromtrooper.com/threads/how-to-install-an-abs-on-off-switch-for-under-40.429410/
What is the top speed of the V-Strom 650?
Depending on the year it was built between 115 - 125 mph (185-200 km/h).
But let’s be real here, you don’t buy a V-Strom for it’s top speed capabilities. Besides not being very impressing, the V-Strom is not intended to be a speed monster. It is an adventure bike or adventure tourer. So that is what it does best. Cruise at a comfortable 75-80 mph (120-130 km/h) all day long.
What is the difference between V-Strom 650 and 650xt
The difference between the V-Strom 650 and the XT model is that the latter has spoked wheels, plastic hand guards, heavier handlebar weights and a plastic skid plate. All other specifications are the same.
The most important of those differences are the spoked wheels, especially for offroad riding. They should be able to handle a lot more beating before bending or breaking compared to the bulky aluminium rims.
The other additions that are added the hand guards and the skid plate are both plastic and will not provide enough protection going offroad. Check out this article which modifications I recommend before taking your V-Strom offroad.
Summing up this section about the specifications and their implications on quality with a list of pro’s and con’s.
The pros and cons of V-Strom 650
CON’s
- Beauty is in the eye of the beholder
- Relatively heavy
PRO’s
- Boringly reliable engine
- Smooth power delivery
- Incredible fuel efficiency
- Comfortable on long rides
- A lot of space for luggage
When it comes to offroad riding there are a few more things to consider off which most I will discuss in the next section. Except this one which I cannot really find anything online about, but I’ve experienced it on both of my V-Stroms and heard it as a rumour from someone else. When riding offroad, with high vibrations due to the uneven surface, bolts tend to loosen up and sometimes disappear where I lost them completely. It has never been bolts or nuts from the engine, but the mud guard or a bolt from the battery holder connected to the frame.
So whenever you perform maintenance or notice a loose screw, take it out and put some blue loctite on it!
Now that all this talk about the V-Strom in general is done, let’s dive deep into its performance on the dirt.
A deep dive into the offroad performance of the V-Strom in offroad conditions.
Let’s get the first pointless discussion out of the way, what I mean when I talk about offroad. Anything that is not a decently tarred road is offroad in my opinion. So a gravel fire road? Offroad. A clear trail of 4x4 tracks through the steppe? Offroad. A sandy piste through the desert? Offroad. A slip and slide mud road in Africa? Offroad! I know there might be other opinions out there, but now you know what I use as a definition throughout the rest of this article.
In this article I’m also referring to the V-Strom in general, even though there are significant differences between the 3 generations in the way they perform. I’m basing my experience on two 19,000+ mile trips through Asia and Africa on a first and third generation V-Strom so I am really aware of the differences. If necessary, I will point out a performance gap between the generations.
So let’s start with a basic question:
Can the Suzuki V-Strom go off road?
Yes, the Suzuki V-Strom can be ridden on easy offroad tracks with the stock options, but it is better to add some protection before tackling longer stretches or moderate to difficult terrain.
So all the stock V-Strom models, regardless of the generation and XT model or not, lack decent protection for riding offroad. Suzuki does this because they know that 90% of their customer base will never take the bike offroad. And with the bike being so affordable, you should still have some cash left to add some modifications before taking the bike on an adventure.
I’ve written an extensive article about which mods are essential so check that out. For the rest of this article I’m assuming that you will or already have added those 7 essentials to the bike.
Is the V-Strom good off road?
The Suzuki V-Strom is a good bike to ride offroad with. It is capable of handling moderate single tracks, mountain roads and sandy pistes. It does not do well on mud. The V-Strom gets a 7 on the offroad capability scale.
Let’s unpack that statement from the back to the front.
I’ve never seen anyone do this, but let’s think of all the motorcycles out there and put them on a scale of 100% onroad to 100% offroad. Let’s only include bikes that are street legal because I’m assuming that is what you are looking for. I’ve even made a graphic that is below to show what I mean.
Most bikes are designed to stay on the road. Like any cruiser or race model out there you would never take one on these things and ride it offroad for fun. Besides the bikes not holding up in the smallest crash, the most important thing inhibiting you from taking these things offroad is the riding position. You need to sit upright to be able to move the bike in a split second and with the racing posture you are only able to make small adjustments, not big enough to avoid a big rock or rut at the last minute.
Then come the cafe racers and the street bikes. The riding position is already much better for offroad riding and with a proper set of tires I’m pretty sure they would do okay in most offroad settings. But lacking decent protection they would break with the slightest drop. And most cafe racer owners care a lot for the looks.
Most of these bikes come with 16 inch wheels. They are smaller to bring the centre of gravity of the bike down for extra stability at high speeds.
Now we get to the touring and adventure bike category where the Suzuki V-Strom fits in. With street tires it is a perfect touring bike for long distances through the rockies or the alps. That goes for most of the bikes in this category. The adventure bikes are usually a bit more offroad oriented and try to really look the part but have big (400cc+) engines to also handle smoothly at highway speeds.
The Suzuki V-Strom 650XT comes with a 19 inch front wheel (the back wheels are usually 2 or 3 sizes smaller). Much bigger than the racer bikes because for offroad you want your wheels to be bigger to be able to tackle larger obstacles. They are not as big as the dual sport front tires or the dirt bikes which usually come with a size 21 inch which is also the size that most Dakar racers ride with.
Next up are the dual sport bikes which are more offroad oriented than the adventure bikes if you ask me, although there are no official categories for these marketing categories. The duals sports are lightweight, less than 440lbs / 200kg and probably less than 650cc. A good enable is the Suzuki DR650.
Lastly you have the enduro/dirt bikes that are still street legal with the smaller engines but powerful torque that get up every mountain you can think off.
Now that you know what makes the different bike categories you will understand that the Suzuki V-Strom will never fall into the dirt bike category and if you are looking for an offroad monster that the V-Strom is not going to be your dream bike.
But if you would like to have a bike that is nice on both the tarmac and does well on offroad as well then the V-Strom is a nice Swiss army knife of a bike.
How does the Suzuki V-Strom handle on….
… gravel roads
Most bikes will do fine on easy fire roads that are covered with gravel. You don’t even have to have offroad tires to be able to take the bike on a spin there. So the Suzuki V-Strom handles fine and is a lot of fun when kitted out properly. Because it is lower then most adventure bikes it gives most riders the confidence to start exploring with sliding through corners and turning the bike around with skids. So much fun!
… sand
There is a big difference in riding through a shallow layer of sand and deep sand. The difference in how the V-Strom comes lies partly in the tires and partly in the skills of the rider. With good tires it becomes easier to ride when the bike is moving in all directions while you try to keep a line in the sand. Especially if there are tracks that you try to follow.
But the biggest difference is the skill of the rider. In Africa we got our chance to practice our sand riding skills on the V-Strom and as we got better, it became more fun to ride in the deep sand. The secret lies in using enough throttle. Speed is your friend and the V-Strom has more than enough power to deliver to get through the sand.
… mud
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. The V-Strom is terrible in mud. Offcourse, a little mud puddle is not an issue. Although it mostly depends on the tires if you stay upright when you hit a slippery patch in a corner. The trouble starts when you try to ride through rural Tanzania at the beginning of the rainy season. The mud was at least ankle deep and so sticky that is clogged up the front fender and blocked the tyre from turning.
It was a disaster. The front fender is mounted too close to the front wheel so the mud dries up because of the heat of the friction and cannot move anywhere anymore leaving me to take of the fender a few times a day to pry off the mud with a stick. Not ideal for an adventure bike but not uncommon. The Yamaha Tenere T700 has the same design. And if you stick to American or European adventures it will be unlikely that you will come across this type of mud.
… snow
I only tested my old V-Strom in the snow once, without intention, it just started snowing on our way back home and it was scary. I didn’t have the proper tires. I can imagine that with the right rubber the V-Strom will be fun on the snow, again because of its lower centre of gravity.
… rocks
What do I consider to be rock riding? A mountains single track with patches of rock here and there. In this setting the V-Strom will perform fine. Going uphill will be fine because the smooth power delivers even when going slow. Downhill, you will notice that the bike it quite heavy and on the steep parts it starts to slide.
Compared to other bikes in the adventure category the V-Strom will outperform most of them on the uphill when you are a beginner rider because you won’t do it at full speed (where you would want more suspension travel then the V-Strom has to offer). On the downhill a lighter bike would handle better, but most adv bikes are just as heavy as the V-Strom.
… river crossings
A dream, although you will get your feet wet because the V-Strom has the smallest ground clearance of all adventure bikes. But with the smooth power you easily get through a running stream.
… single track
Single track is a trail through the terrain that is as wide as a single file of tires. You could walk, ride the bicycle or motorcycle on it but it wouldn’t fit a car. Therefor it is usually more technically challenging because it can go through rougher terrain. However it doesn’t specify which kind of terrain. The difficulty of a single track depends on the track surface, the steepness and the angle of the corners. The Suzuki V-Strom is capable to ride easy to moderate single tracks (where they are allowed, some single tracks are for mountain bikes only). Not too steep and not to slippery but a skilled rider will be able to take the bike to its limits.
Now that we discussed all the different off-road conditions you might encounter, the last statement remains: “The Suzuki V-Strom is a good bike to ride offroad with”. It is a conclusion of all the words I wrote in the last paragraphs. It is not the best bike to go offroad with because it is not a 100% committed to offroading. It is not great to ride offroad with because it is too heavy for the difficult single trails. But is is good in riding easy to moderate offroad terrain and you will have a great time doing so if that is what you expect of it.
Should I buy a V-Strom?
Yes, you should buy a V-Strom because I’ve never met anyone who regretted buying a V-Strom and if you are asking the internet for advice then maybe it is time to book a test ride and find out for yourself.
Can a V-Strom 650 ride around the world
I chose a Suzuki V-Strom 650 to ride around the world with and so have many others. On my first adventure I took a 2005 model from the Netherlands across the Middle East and Asia to Indonesia. On the trip I borrowed a V-Strom 650XT and took it through Africa. Both trips together add up to more the 50,000 miles / 80.000km. The V-Strom is the perfect bike for a ride around the world because it is so reliable, we’ve never had any engine problems. Check out my YouTube channel where I documented both adventures to judge how the V-Strom did.
My 6 best V-Strom 650 offroad videos
Let me know in the comments below if you take your V-Strom offroad!
Related questions that might interest you
Does the V-Strom have an ABS switch?
The V-Strom does not come with a switch to disable the ABS. By taking out the fuse you can effectively turn off the ABS whenever you want. It is possible to install an aftermarket solution but this could void your warranty.
How fast is a Suzuki V-Strom 650?
Depending on the year it was built between 115 - 125 mph (185-200 km/h).
Is V-Strom 650 a good bike?
The V-Strom is a great bike for commuting, touring, cruising, adventure touring and offroad riding. It is very reliable and will easily last until 100.000 miles on the clock. Nobody ever regretted buying a V-Strom.
Is V-Strom reliable?
The V-Strom is a very reliable motorcycle. To keep it running without issues you will need to perform regular maintenance. There are very little common issues known for the V-Strom. Most bikes will easily make it to 100,000 miles on the clock.
Is the V-Strom 650 a good first bike?
The V-Strom is a very good first bike because of it’s smooth power delivery. It is powerful enough to have fun in the corners. For beginners it is best to be able to touch the floor with both feet, otherwise the bike will be too tall for you.
Is a V-Strom 650 a good first bike?
For people who just passed their permit the V-Strom is a great first bike. It is a very versatile and reliable bike to build your confidence riding. It is relatively tall and heavy so it’s not the best beginner bike for shorter people.
Does the Suzuki V-Strom 650 have cruise control?
No, the Suzuki V-Strom 650 does not have cruise control. There are aftermarket solutions available.
What is the most reliable adventure bike?
It is difficult to objectively score the reliability of motorcycles and compare them, but any Japanese brand outperforms the others. Kawasaki KLR, Suzuki V-Strom, Suzuki DR, Honda Africa Twin and Yamaha Tenere T700 are great examples.