2014 Suzuki V-Strom 1000 Abs

2014 Suzuki V-Strom 1000 ABS

CW FIRST RIDE

BACK IN BEAK: EVERY DAY IS AN ADVENTURE FOR RIDERS OF SUZUKI'S REIMAGINED V-STROM.

John Burns

The adventure doesn't really begin, they say until something goes wrong When we combine adventure bikes with guys who've seen too many BMW commercials, this inevitably entails picking adventure bikes back up from the dusty trail (or in my case, having them extracted by helicopter). Suddenly, it's very clear why weight matters. With this redesigned 2014 V-Strom 1000, Suzuki seeks to split the difference between big, heavy adventure bikes and the smaller ones its 650 competes with in the US. At a claimed 503 pounds gassed up, the new V-Strom is 23 pounds lighter than a BMW R1200GS, 75 pounds lighter than a Yamaha Super Ténéré, and 31 pounds heavier than its 650 sibling. Suzuki says it was after a compact, lightweight package it calls a "Sport Adventure Tourer."

Suzuki thinks few buyers of the V-Strom will be wheelying through mountain streams and bunny-hopping through boulder fields, so rather than trying to build a dirt-first bike like the KTM Adventure, this Suzuki is more intended to be a really comfortable long-distance tourer with looks that only imply its rider might be off to North Africa. In contrast to the typical BMW R1200GS rider, the Suzuki is more likely to serve its owner as everyday transpo, a beast better suited to the urban jungle.

For that, the V-Strom will be tough to beat. It offers up a tall (steel) handlebar, a thick, cushy seat, and rubber-covered footpegs right where you'd rest your slippers if you were home watching a Love Boat marathon. The 5.3-gallon fuel tank directs wind around your thighs, and the cool new three-position (and 30mm height-adjustable) ratcheting windshield pokes a large, quiet hole in the air; 6,000 rpm and 100 mph works well on the A7 in a hurry back to Almeria, Spain, for cocktail hour at the end of a long day slaying curves.

For a bike with 6.3 inches of fork travel, the V-Strom works okay for curve slaying. The frame is all-new, with a longer swingarm and sportier rake and trail figures than before. The wide handlebar and upright riding position give plenty of confidence, and brake calipers from the GSX-R1000 give plenty of stoppability. No radial master cylinders or braided steel lines here, though, which means braking feel is not quite so sensitive. So what? The standard ABS is nice and smooth. Mainly, you want to get to the part of the corner where you can point the beak out and get back on the V-Strom's most excellent gas pedal; this is the first production Suzuki ever with traction control. Once you can transfer weight to the rear contact patch, the computer does the rest and does it well. Naturally, we got rained on a little in a part of Spain famous for its lack of precipitation. In the wet, I left it in TC2, grabbed increasingly gluttonous amounts of throttle, and learned to stop worrying after about six or seven corners.

The original, long-gone TL1000S was a crazed wildebeest eager to bang up against its 10,500-rpm redline. Suzuki changed things up for the first V-Strom in 2002 and has again pushed the torque hump lower for the 2014 version. The previous Strom made max torque at 6,400 rpm; this one makes a couple more pound-feet—76 claimed at the crank—at just 4,000 rpm and bullmooses its way out of corners in a way reminiscent of the dearly departed Honda Superhawk; it's easy to forgive the fact that the show's over at 8,000 rpm, which happens to be right where Suzuki says max power is being made: 100.6 horses.

For its intended role, the V-Strom's got more than enough of the right kind of power, and Suzuki's old SDTV (Dual Throttle Valve) delivers it smoothly. New heads with two plugs per (each with its own coil), io-hole injectors, and a 32-bit ECU all add up to better power, along with 16-percent better fuel economy, says Suzuki: 49 mpg Seems optimistic, given that every time I looked at the average fuel-mileage number on the LCD panel, it read between 38 and 42 mpg.

You could definitely fill the optional saddlebags (standard on the Adventure version) and the big tank and spend some quality time on this one. The grips have been moved 1.3 inches and the pegs just over half-an-inch rearward compared to the old V-Strom, for more upright seating and more legroom. Suzuki hasn't announced a seat height, but my 30-inch legs had the balls of my feet touching on both sides simultaneously.

A new LCD panel next to a big analog tachometer provides lots more info than before—all of it adjustable for brightness. And there's a 12-volt outlet right below it, powered by a 550-watt magneto that's 15-percent heavier for better off-roadability.

We didn't actually go off-roading the day I got to ride the bike, but I did find some rocky dirt behind a gas station, replete with some mangy dogs. There, the TC felt like it worked as well as that of the BMW F800GS I had off-roaded a couple of months earlier. To the average off-roader like yours truly, any TC is good TC, though the V-Strom 1000 is really not intended for challenging terrain. It's more for exploring dirt roads and avoiding double-black-diamond runs, where I bet it will be great for the average riding stiff. And if it's not, at least it'll be easier to pick up.

As they say in the infomercials, how much would you expect to pay? An MSRP of $12,699 doesn't seem bad compared to the $14,990 you'll pay for a stripper BMW R1200GS without ABS. Then you've got your V-Strom 1000 ABS Adventure, which adds saddlebags keyed to the ignition, a touring windscreen, hand guards, accessory bars, and an under-engine cowl (not to be confused with a skid plate), for $13,999. Accessories: heated grips, centerstand, top case, actual 2mm-thick aluminum skid plate, the list goes on... as does the beak. Speaking of which, if anybody on a Eurobike looks down their beak at this one's, remind them it was Suzuki which appended the first motoproboscis—to its DR750S, circa 1988.

SUZUKI V-STROM 1000 ABS

ENGINE TYPE

dohc 90-deg. V-twin

uIfl-1~Jg'~1~I1.l

SEAT HEIGHT

est. 32.0 in.

FUEL CAPACITY

5.3 g~I.

CLAIMED DRY WEIGHT

•:11I1~

$12,699