DL 14 SQ 4583 has left our long-term fleet and I must say, I miss it! What made the V-Strom so likeable is its easygoing character and breadth of abilities. Our jobs revolve around testing the newest and the most cutting-edge vehicles on the market, and despite whatever I’d been testing on a particular day, I’d always look forward to hopping on the V-Strom for a leisurely ride home.
The V-Strom spent around five months with us, during which it was largely with me. Over that time, the little Suzuki covered over 6,000km, including two long road trips. Let’s start off with that. I ventured out on my first ever solo road trip on the V-Strom, covering over 1,300km to Goa and back. And the V-Strom performed faultlessly and returned an impressive overall fuel efficiency of 35kpl. Mind you, this involved sitting at triple-digit speeds for a long time on the highway and some spirited riding in the ghats. Also, the comfy ergonomics meant that I could keep going for longer with fewer breaks needed to rest, and as such, I completed my journey back from Goa in only around 9 hours.
But despite its great touring capability, the majority of the V-Strom’s running was done within city confines. And to be honest, it’s not bad at all, but not ideal either – a feeling that grew as our time with the bike progressed. It’s quite long for starters, so you have to be mindful while filtering through traffic, and the non-adjustable windscreen is also a real pain as you get almost no airflow. Furthermore, the clutch lever also started to get increasingly heavy and the front brake needed a strong pull at the lever as well. However, the saving grace was its comfy ergos and good fuel efficiency.
Of the other things I noticed, the V-Strom’s 250cc engine, while smooth initially, started to feel quite gruff by the time our term came to an end. The bike was serviced as scheduled but despite that it started filtering through vibrations on the foot pegs and handlebar, especially higher up in the rev range. We also noticed some minor chipping of the paint from the engine casing. Other than that, our time with the bike has been trouble-free.
It’s not a motorcycle that’ll set your heart racing every time you swing your leg over it and that’s fine as it was never meant to be that way. What it is, is very good at almost all things and that should be the reason to consider the V-Strom SX; it’s such a great all-rounder. And at its given price, there are very few motorcycles that can do all the things as well as the V-Strom SX does.
Ved Janve
