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Suzukis VStrom 800 Is The Best Alternative to The Tnr 700 The Motorcyclist Podcast
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00:00is two-wheeled fun we've got editor adam waheed we've got photo director jeff allen who's back
00:07from a long vacation work trip yeah good to be back no i'm just kidding i'd rather still be uh
00:14riding the alps riding the alps in uh in italy yeah and then you got me uh executive editor
00:20justin dawes today we are going to talk about suzuki's vstrom 800. there's a bunch of different
00:26variants uh but they all are powered by the same 776 parallel twin it's a mid-sized adb bike and this
00:35latest version of the 800 was introduced in 2023 so fairly new it's only been out for a couple years
00:41uh and it's starting to become more more popular and you're starting to see them a lot more than you
00:48did in the first year so uh there's four variants of the thing there's the de which is the um you
00:55know the dirt enduro or dirt you know it's like a 50 50 bike at as it comes uh you've got the de
01:02adventure which has like a bigger screen and some crash bars and some panniers and that kind of stuff
01:07you've got a touring which has cast wheels um and then you have a base model which also has cast
01:12wheels so uh a lot of all of us have some experience with these bikes but we're probably going to talk
01:19mostly about the de but most of the attributes that we're going to talk about this bike
01:24cross over to the other motorcycles i think adam's written some other variants as well
01:29so uh before we get into that we have to get into the details of the bike and i'll be quick about it
01:34i don't want to lose you but like i said 776 parallel twin dual overhead cam liquid cooled makes 72.2
01:43horsepower on our dyno 50.2 pound feet of torque uh as it sits stock it weighs 507 pounds it's fitted
01:54with uh show a fork and a show a shock uh the rear shock has no compression adjustment but the rest of
02:00the rest of it is fully adjustable and it's got 8.7 inches of travel so it's not a short travel bike
02:06but it's also not a long travel bike it's it's kind of that normal sweet spot where you the bike's not
02:13too tall too jacked up but it also has enough travel to to have some fun on uh seat height 33.7
02:21inches uh wheels are 21 18 uh spoked on the de models and the touring and base of course have cast
02:29aluminum wheels it's got a tft dash on it it's got tc it's got four modes basically uh one two
02:36three and a gravel mode and you can turn it off so really five modes uh abs is switchable to turn
02:43off the abs on the rear it's got suzuki drive mode selector which has been on suzuki's forever at this
02:51point um which is their ride mode um and it's basically a b and c which is mainly throttle response
02:59um and some some power tailoring but it's it's very kind of simple but it works um
03:07pricing on it is eleven thousand seven hundred and nine dollars for the de the adventure model is uh
03:14the touring is uh 13 159 uh sorry the adventure model sorry the adventure model is 13 159 the
03:24touring model is 10 499 and the base model starts at 10 000 uh and 109 dollars so those are the facts
03:33on the bike so let's talk about it uh since you just mentioned it what's the difference between
03:38the the base and the touring is that basically it's uh bags and stuff like that okay windscreen
03:44i don't have much yeah it's time on the touring it's fit for for some other stuff adam you've ridden
03:49the touring yeah i've ridden the touring bike it's really nice yeah so we can talk about that when we
03:55get into writing impressions but um it's basically just like a more comfy comfy base model i mean it's all right
04:02i have one more question since we just sorry what's the difference between the de and the adventure
04:06uh kind of the same thing that from the base to the the touring you're talking about some some bags
04:11bigger windscreens that kind of stuff so um it kind of takes that uh i guess bmw kind of started it
04:19with having an adventure model that has more stuff added so it's a the adventures and the touring are sort
04:25of the the accessories you would likely choose anyways and it just comes as a yeah very much so
04:31yep exactly that's the best way to put it it's the kind of the stuff you would automatically buy if you
04:36were wanting to do longer distance riding on both of them so um vstrom's been around for quite a while
04:45the first vstrom was uh the 1000 vstrom in 2001 so we're going on 24 years of of vstromage god that's
04:54crazy that's hopefully it doesn't yeah it doesn't seem like that long ago i rode that that first
04:59vstrom 1000 yeah and man it it looked like basically a street bike on stilts like the front of it was
05:05like all swoopy like a sport bike and they had these big huge headlights and well and and it had at the
05:11time what we thought was just the dumbest name yeah like what is drum what does it mean yeah yeah i'll
05:18say that original one is the bike that changed my opinion about the looks of bikes because it was
05:26not very i mean now it's pretty common to have that sort of beak look but that was the bike i was
05:31like i didn't think it looked good until i wrote it i was like i love this bike and the and it actually
05:37i do like the way it looks it changed i didn't have to love the way it looks in the beginning yeah
05:42yeah you didn't have to look at it if you're sitting behind the bars anyways because it was nice
05:46yeah so uh then in 2004 the vstrom uh 650 came out um and that was the you know the basically the
05:56engine that you you found in in other uh 650 uh v twins of suzuki's so uh that was a very popular
06:05bike still is um but it hasn't changed actually i think since like i want to say it's got to be 10
06:12years unchanged maybe i don't i'm not sure um but it it still it still sells and still still people are
06:20into it and then 2023 the 800 de came out and that was a big deal for suzuki one all new power plant so
06:30uh parallel twin 776 cc is like we said but it was it was a unit construction or i should say a uh
06:38uh uh an engine that's used for many other models so it's in the eight uh gs x s models the you know
06:49the eight s the eight are now going to be the eight t and eight t as well as all the v strong models so
06:56they're using it in like i think it's almost like eight or nine models at this point that that bike is
07:01that that bike is or that engine's used in um and it's a it's a super awesome engine we'll talk about it
07:08here in a second um so with that you know that the the vstrom kicked off the introduction of that engine
07:15and of a whole new mid-sized uh suzuki adventure motorcycle but um it takes cues from or i should
07:24say styling cues from uh what could be uh the the the granddaddy of vstrom's and that's the dr big
07:33um that was a that was built in uh 1988 750 single it was one of the first adventure motorcycles with
07:43a beak with a front fender that came out um you know and and stuck out that almost everyone's running a
07:50beak style front uh now like tenere is not but bmw uh suzuki you know um ktm ktm you know they're all
08:01they're all running some sort of beakish setup so uh it it all goes back to dr big um so especially
08:10the 800 and the 1000 have very you can see a direct line from the dr big to those those vstroms and
08:18styling and i dig it i i it really has a throwback to like the car style like yeah now like any bike
08:26it's like if it doesn't have the beak is it really an adventure bike yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah no beak
08:32no go um so anyway that's uh that's kind of a quick history lesson um so uh yeah uh not much else to say
08:44about the history of it besides 25 years going on 20 24 going on 25 years of vstrom and they're still
08:52doing it so uh well am i i mean in my opinion the 800 it was sort of the first thing that that
09:03suzuki showed it sort of brought them out of some dark times you know that was that was the the the
09:10first light that things were going to get better yeah very much so uh you know they had that that push
09:17in 2022 they started showing off some new stuff and that was one of them they showed off the engine
09:23in 2022 and you're like oh definitely this is going in a probably a naked bike probably a little sport
09:28bike and definitely an adventure bike um and then you know they showed it off and it's like oh okay
09:34suzuki's back you know so uh same time that same time frame was when they redid the hayabusa as well so
09:41um you know they kind of had a little bit of a a boost in 2022 2023 so um let's talk about writing
09:52impressions um you know what i was going to go first but i'm going to let jeff and adam go first
09:58and then i'll i'll talk about my thoughts because i've been talking and yapping and yapping and yapping
10:02and we don't want to make this a a 30 minute monologue on yeah adam did you go on the original press
10:08launch for the v-strom for the 800 no no no no no no no i i've only ridden the 800 touring bike
10:17so i rode that to laguna seca to weathertech raceway last summer uh yeah it's an awesome bike dude like
10:24crazy like it's one of those understated motorcycles and suzuki's you know 2024 at the time and now 2025
10:33model lineup they're awesome you have you ridden one i've not ridden the touring but i have ridden
10:39the de and uh yeah i think i think it's uh a very nice motorcycle it's sort of it's sort of like the
10:48the the uh drz the 4s where it's it sits in a in a different place you know it's not quite all street
10:56bike it's not quite all dirt bike or dirt adventure bike and it they've they've sit in a pretty nice
11:03spot and it does a lot of things well you know in in that spot i kind of think of it as like the 4s
11:11yeah i i i just love that touring variation that's just like it's insanely comfortable it's got great
11:18range just gets decent gas mileage the engine just chugs around everywhere i mean honestly just
11:24the level of comfort it has is just like for ten thousand five hundred dollars you get a bike that
11:30that that's that comfortable it's pretty crazy you know yeah yeah it's uh the bike is is definitely
11:38comfortable and it kind of like splits the difference between like the ktms that are like
11:42super hardcore dirt and then maybe something that it's very street focused like and like
11:48like a vstrom 650 or even a vstrom 1000 in a way like or versus you know or versus yeah yeah versus
11:56650 like it it kind of splits the it's kind of where bmw's f850 used to be like if you ride a bmw f850
12:08and this bike back to back they there's a lot of similar feel to them um they're not super sharp edged
12:15they're not super hardcore but they get everything done and they can do it with with pretty good
12:21comfort you know um so you know the suspension is is pretty decent it's adjustable you can you can do
12:30stuff with it um you can tighten it up you can you know stiffen it up you can make it softer if you need
12:36be so um but it does i feel like when they were starting that project they were looking at bikes like
12:44the f850 and then the whole segment kind of moved another step up and they came out with the vstrom
12:52at the time when everyone else had made another step and so it's like a half step behind to me
12:57in some in some regards you know what i mean but the but it has i mean for what it is it has a sweet
13:04msrp like uh yeah yeah for what that is yeah i mean it's got a nice msrp and
13:12it has i say i i keep saying this the best parallel twin ever yeah it's got a really nice
13:20motor and and i feel like the aftermarket has embraced it so if you do buy one to yeah yeah
13:26there are there are some options out there yeah there are some options there's all kinds of stuff
13:31now popping off for it um when we first got our hands on one um that wasn't the case but now yeah
13:38yeah yeah you the one are you the one we got our hands on any time about your uh your your dr big
13:45yeah yeah 2.0 yeah i would say okay so um that bike uh the the vstrom 800 is like i said it's like
13:55a half step behind until you start modifying it and then it comes alive and it can be really really good
14:01and you know we built a race rally race bike out of one where you know we stripped it down and pulled
14:07a lot of weight out of it we removed the abs we got rid of all the ride modes all that stuff because
14:13it was a race bike and when it was done it weighed you know 470 pounds so we took like 35 pounds off of
14:20the bike and it totally transformed it you know we added long travel suspension had a special shock and
14:26all that stuff made but i think if you pulled off all the racks and you pulled off um the passenger
14:32pegs and you did a little weight reduction on the exhaust and that stuff and then you just got a drop-in
14:38kit for the forks and maybe a new rear shock the thing becomes epic yeah it really wakes it up quick
14:46yeah i i got to spend a little bit of time on your on your bike your race bike and i was really
14:51impressed that thing was really really nice in fact we even let some of the suzuki guys ride it
14:58and they were pretty impressed yeah they were they were really impressive that we let um
15:04those guys ride it and they were like oh we got to build one of these we got to get them to build it
15:08but you know that probably won't ever happen but it's good to dream you know like but if you want
15:14to build your own you know um you can go mild to wild and it really does make a difference it wakes up a
15:20lot when you change the exhaust and you get rid of the snorkels and the airbox cover and put a
15:25different air filter on it without even re-mapping it it gets really snappy or even torqueier than it
15:32was stock which i think it's one of the best torque deliveries from a stalker and then you do that it
15:39really wakes it up yeah it's grunty it's very sounds cool too so yeah your your race bike sounds
15:46amazing nothing yeah i think sounds good yeah i think we we got like three quarters of a million
15:52views just on me revving the bike on instagram yeah yeah yeah cool yeah but uh i think it i think it's a
15:58great it's a great chassis i think it overall it you know especially for the price you know um the de
16:07like i said it's 11 11 grand 11 8 but i've been seeing 2024 models like on the dealer floor you can get
16:15them for like 8 500 9 grand you know if a dealer's desperate to move one um and if you can find one
16:23at that price then you've got a smoking deal you got a really good smoking deal like you know like
16:30the competition you know like we should talk about the competition a little bit you've got like
16:35um the tenere 700 obviously it's a parallel twin most of the bikes actually in in the midsize are
16:43parallel twins almost all of them are 270 degree cranks um so you got the tenere 700 that's 11 grand
16:51one dollar short of 11 grand um but it doesn't have as much it's getting close now i mean it's it's
16:58yeah they added some features they added some features they have some some throttle map or ride
17:03mode type of setups and they you can have the button for abs now so it's it's more similar than it was
17:10so i think that's its closest comparison um out of anything um you know and we we went and rode them
17:19in colorado you know the tenere and the uh the vstrom and a toureg one time and um they kind of
17:29excelled at different things and when it was at the end of the day it was really hard to decide out of
17:32those two bikes which one was better yeah because one was better on the road one was better in the
17:38single track one was better in the rocks one was better in the sand you know like they just it just
17:43swapped back and forth on which one was better um so i think uh that obviously is as close as competition
17:50then you've got the f 900 gs obviously quite a bit more expensive um you know base bases you know you
17:58can never find a base model bmw so uh most commonly you know the base is 14 275 but most commonly you'll
18:07find them outfitted at about 18k to start yeah wow that's a huge difference you know that's a huge
18:15difference i mean that's seven grand seven grand more for the f f 900 gs and the f 900 gs really stepped
18:22up its game uh from the 850 totally different bike much more hardcore than it used to be and
18:31but i don't know i don't know if i could spend 7k more um yeah i think that's different i think
18:38somebody looking at that is thinking at it like an option for the the uh r1250 or r1300 you know
18:46they're thinking oh i i don't want to spend that much and they yeah um then of course you got the
18:52ktm 890 adventure that is uh 15 799 um you know and that one's done to the nines uh in terms of
19:01off-road capability and then there's an interesting one the cove 800 pro um we rode that last november
19:10a little bit it's uh 10 999 um and it's a pretty interesting bike i don't know if i'd want to
19:17be an early adopter but overall it rode pretty well yeah yeah i would agree with you i don't know if i'd
19:24be an early adopter on that and just like to see how things shake out yep very much so so uh i don't know
19:35like there's there's a lot of competition in that space it's very competitive and there's a lot of
19:42um different ways the companies go about building their mid-size adv everything from you know super
19:48hardcore like ktm's 890 adventure r to like we said like maybe a versus 650 you know like there's a big
19:57swath in there and i think that i think that they were smart in that they they kind of aimed right for
20:02the middle with uh the v-strom yep yeah so that's a good spot for them it's a nice yeah yeah yeah i
20:11know i think it looks cool i think it's one of the better looking bikes especially in the yellow like
20:15you were saying like the the the uh camel racing dr big esque looking uh colorway that thing looks
20:24really good yeah it does look really good i like the blue and the yellow one a lot um but i think just
20:29the overall shape like that front beak is really cool the the the windscreen the front end you know
20:34the two stacked lights all that looks that looks great it really does yeah the gold wheels yeah it
20:42doesn't have a that really doesn't have too bad a bad angle looking at the thing and that's good to
20:48know i mean like when you buy a bike you want one that's good looking right you want to go in your
20:52garage and look at it and be like yeah that's cool you know so um it looks a heck of a lot better
20:59than the original ones yes it does don't talk don't talk badly about that i love i i ended up loving the
21:06way that thing looked just because it was such a great motorcycle i i put a lot we had a long-term one
21:12and i put a lot of miles on that thing wow yeah i see one every once in a while i'm like oh god but then
21:19i'm like yeah that guy's enjoying it like the guy you know whoever owns that bike loves that bike
21:25as it is right now 20 years old you know what i mean so you can't hate on that so
21:30well it's a great motor too it wasn't it wasn't a parallel twin but that was yeah no it's a great
21:35motor yeah so here's a question uh would it be on your guys's list for a mid-sized adv say you're going
21:44shopping right now because people always ask that like if you're going shopping what would you buy
21:48you know so if you were going shopping and you had a mid-sized adv in mind would it be on your list
21:56would you would you shop it i would i would i would it would it would it would for me because of the
22:05the price it would be between the tenere and the suzuki it would just i would just have to decide for
22:13myself if if i'm looking at like lots of miles or dirt miles you know the tenere is great but if you
22:22were really gonna you know do big long trips with lots of not necessarily even highway miles but just
22:32faster back roads it would definitely be on my list yeah i would buy that vstrom 800 touring bike i'm sure
22:39you can get those probably for a really good deal but i wouldn't really buy it necessarily as an
22:44adventure touring bike i'd buy it as a street bike just a versatile street bike that you know yeah you
22:50can do a little bit of dirt biking on it if you wanted but mainly just for street biking just because
22:54it's comfortable and good suspension just big gas tank yeah right on i think um i would
23:03i would consider it i don't know if it would be my my choice um and that's because i'm trying to i'm
23:13trying to remove bias because my race bike i love and it's the greatest adventure bike ever built like
23:19that thing is so sick and so i know what you can do with one but i always go like i could probably do
23:25the same with a tenere i could maybe do the same with a bmw um you know and once you spend all that money
23:31it's like okay then i'm in the the ktm bmw range price range so which do i do you know um but i think
23:39if uh if i was just gonna leave it stock it would be it would be a really tough choice like i said between
23:46the the tenere and that bike for sure um i think i would i think i would go with what dealer gave me a
23:52better deal to be honest between yeah yeah for sure the the price plays a part so yeah but if if i
24:02was going to go hog wild like i often do with my bikes i would absolutely buy it because i know what
24:08it can do and it's insane what can what the how much that bike can be woken up you know so yeah well
24:17it's hard it's hard nowadays like to to narrow down what it was what it is you would actually
24:22spend your own money on because there's a lot of good motorcycles especially especially in adb
24:28in mid adbs when you decide do i want a more power or do i want less weight yeah yeah yeah exactly and
24:36and i i'm coming from the angle i owned a ktm 790 that was done to the nines like it had everything done
24:43to it you know wp suspension all that stuff and i still say that my vstrom is better than that ktm was
24:52really yeah the vstrom is nice the vstrom is better than that ktm was once they were both done
24:59as far as you could push them the the the vstrom actually is better than that ktm wow
25:06that's something to set to be said there's so much potential on that bike it's crazy
25:10so and there's there's people that are untapping that potential right now you know like uh stefan
25:18hessler who helped me a lot with the the build on on my bike uh when we did the rally bike um you
25:25know he's got all kinds of stuff for that bike and he's constantly finding new ways to make it lighter
25:31make it faster make it better he's got like a super awesome front end on the thing now with uh
25:36uh you know it looks like even more like an old dr big it's got the same windshield shape and it's got
25:42you know uh a rally tower built into it he's got steering stabilizers he's got chain guides he's got
25:49you know all this stuff so there's people really doing it right now you know and people are starting
25:53to race them too like there was one in africa eco race there was one um i think there was one uh at
25:59romaniacs this year oh was it really oh yeah because they added the they added an adventure
26:05or twins class or something two of them they had uh ultimate adventure and then uh the silver class for
26:12adventures oh i did not know there was a beast on there yeah that's crazy obviously i saw pull taras on
26:18his tenor raven yeah and sam sunderland won on a um triumph tiger oh wow yeah pretty crazy so but um
26:31it just goes to show those bikes are are very capable if you're willing to put up with the weight
26:35you know they don't they don't replace a dirt bike but they can they can stand in when needed um so
26:42i don't know i really like the bike uh i think it is a very smart buy for people um and i think that's
26:50that's the strong point of that bike is they really made it a uh attractive to all types of
26:59adventure bike riders as it sits stock so yeah i don't know what do you guys think any other thing
27:06we need to add about this bike or talk about
27:08the good and the bad to be an adb rider it is a good time to be an adb right it's been a good time
27:17for the last probably three four years it's a good time to be a motorcyclist in general but yeah
27:22it's always a good time to be a motorcyclist yeah i mean just options galore yeah options galore for
27:27sure that's good a lot of good motorcycles yeah so if you had one criticism of that bike what would it be
27:34well this is this is my criticism of every adv that doesn't have these things i think and every
27:45adventure bike should come standard with a center stand and heated grips i just those are things you
27:52you just shouldn't have to add to it so you know heated grips like adventure bikes the whole
27:59not the goal but you're you set out to put in long miles go to elevation you know like uh longer days
28:08get up early all this stuff heated grips is just it's just basic for me and then also i've i've ridden
28:16adventure bikes solo off-road and you know in sort of remote places and without a center stand and it
28:23makes me really nervous to figure out how i'm gonna you know fix a flat if i have to so blood
28:30kit blood kit man but sometimes a plug kit doesn't do it you got to get it and they don't they don't
28:36they're not all too blessed either yeah exactly yeah yeah what about you adam what's your what's your
28:42main criticism because we've been singing the praises we got to be balanced here and say some
28:48what we don't like as well i'll take jeff's heated grips and then raise cruise control you know they're
28:54both accessories but that would all bikes should have heated grips and cruise control i totally agree
28:59yeah yeah i love the crew i love the cruise control for you know avoiding speeding tickets when you go
29:05when you're rolling through the small towns yeah i agree cruise control comes in handy in that
29:10environment for sure we just want to not deal with any problems yeah yeah sure yeah i so i will build on
29:17that and say that my main criticism is that the electronics are maybe a little bit dated you
29:25know they're very simple and maybe for some people that's what they want they want just like simple
29:29like you know you don't want to have 12 layers of trash control slip control and engine braking changes
29:36and all that stuff and and that's cool but i think um at the same time uh it's missing it's just
29:45it's such a simple system which it makes it really easy to adjust like you just go i want trash
29:49control one two three or gravel or off and then i want a b or c power and a is the most aggressive
29:56b is chill and c is for like rain so i mean it's all it's very simple but at the same time it's
30:04it's not flashy and i don't
30:08it is nice to have the 12 levels of trash control like on the ktm where you can be riding the thing you
30:13can dial in the slip in rally mode while you're riding you go oh here it's nice and tacky i can
30:20make it a one and oh it's getting loose and skatey i'll back it down to a five while you're moving
30:26that's pretty rough you know that's pretty rad but there is something to be said about simplicity
30:30yeah very much so but um i don't know it just it just feels maybe a tiny bit dated compared to other
30:38things i mean it's it's tenere is one of the most popular mid-sized adventure motorcycles and it's
30:45very simple as well so you know i i'm i'm probably outlier here on electronics where people want them
30:53simple yeah so but at least they offer something yeah at least they offer something so i think that
31:01might be my own criticism and my other only criticism is the the foot pegs the stock foot
31:06pegs are terrible yeah that's the the rubber on them is very slippy when it gets wet and then
31:14when you take the rubber out they're still not very big they're kind of they're not small but
31:19they're not very supportive and after a day of standing up your feet start to hurt yeah they're not
31:25very sharp either no they're not very sharp so yeah for um those are my my complaints they're not
31:32like if i could take that engine and put it maybe in another frame it would be the ultimate bike but
31:40um that engine gives like is 70 of the reason i would buy that bike because it is so dang good i love
31:49that engine to the moon to the moon to the moon so um i think we gotta wrap it up we we've hit time uh
31:59so um takeaways from this one the v-strom it's competitive with the very you know with all the
32:06other uh mid-sized advs it really hits a sweet spot it's attractive to a lot of different buyers
32:13um it's a good all-rounder and with some mods it can be a shredder so find one on sale
32:19and you're gonna be very very happy that you got you got one you'll have a winner so
32:24with that thanks for listening leave some comments like subscribe let us know what you think about
32:31the v-strom and what else we should talk about so thanks for listening see you next time
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