Suzuki V-Strom 1050

This entry is part 9 of 21 in the series Adventure Rider Issue #42

The good ol’ V-Strom is the Swiss army knife of dualsporters. It’s incredibly versatile, but for 2020 Suzuki has sharpened its edge and added a couple of very nice features.

Suzuki’s V-Strom has been a winner since its release in 2002.

Not everyone’s seen it that way, but those who’ve taken the trouble to discover what the ’Stroms can do have usually ended up firm fans.

That’s us.

Once we discovered just how damn good the DLs were – we don’t think they’re called ‘DL’ any more, but they were when we first rode them – we never hesitated. If there was long distance or tough terrain to be dealt with, we backed the V-Strom to do the business, no matter what.

In 2017 the XT – XT for ‘cross tourer’ – 1000 and 650 were released in the sexy yellow colour and we raged around the Bloomfield Track in FNQ and came away more impressed than ever.

For 2020 there’s now the 1050XT, and while the colour scheme’s new, and there’s been some upgraded tech, the heart and soul of ’Strom is as big and strong as it’s always been.

The 2020 colours for the XT: Pearl brilliant white/Glass Blaze orange, Champion yellow, Glass Sparkle black.

Mainly

Let’s get straight to it: the biggest differences between the previous 1000XT and this new bike are:

• A suite of electronic rider aids including cruise control (yay!)
• A gruntier motor at low revs (sort of yay. The old motor was a good one, but this one’s a snorter)
• Some new colours (yay), and
• An instrument display so frigging busy we didn’t know where to look on the damn thing.

They’re the highlights.

The bike is still a super-comfortable tourer with plenty of poke and great handling manners, is still well capable of covering dirt roads at a brisk pace and, if the rider gives the bike just a little leeway, will still pick its way through some surprisingly technical and challenging terrain.

There’s a bit more to the newest ’Strom than that of course, but they’re the things which we felt most.

The heart and soul of the ’Strom is as big and strong as it’s always been. We felt the motor had more low-down grunt, but Suzuki’s graph supplied with the media briefing shows that not the case. We’ll go with what we felt. We reckon it’s stronger at low revs than last year’s motor.

Upgraded tech

The spec sheet on the motor, clutch and gearbox reads pretty much the same as last year’s bike. Subtle changes include increasing the lift on both camshafts, setting the timing with less overlap and increasing the throttle-body bore size from 45mm to 49mm, resulting in increased peak power. Otherwise the liquid-cooled, 1037cc V-twin four-stroke is basically the same, but Euro 5 compliant for 2020. Fuel consumption is claimed to be the same as well – around 20km per litre – and the assisted hydraulic clutch is a slipper.

Cruise control is a very welcome addition, as is the ride-by-wire throttle set up. The new slope- and load-dependent systems, along with the combined braking system and ‘motion track’ braking, make for safer riding and we’re all for that. Traction control has three modes plus off, while ABS – one of the best ABS we’ve used – has two settings. In one of those embarrassing moments we’re getting used to, we couldn’t get the ABS setting to change no matter what we did. We were running through the functions of the bike with photo rider Matthew ‘Pottsy’ Potts – himself a V-Strom owner and one of those people with an engineering turn of mind – and he held down the lower button of the cruise control rocker and the cow of a thing changed straight away.

So that’s how that’s done.

An IMU does what IMUs do. Monitoring bike pitch, yaw and speed it controls the traction control and braking systems to ensure they can do their jobs when the ’Strom’s cranked over or off level. That includes ensuring the rear wheel doesn’t get airborne on downhill braking and adjusting traction control and ABS for the load of a pillion or luggage.

The new 1050XT isn’t giving away a whole lot to the competition in the tech department, that’s for sure. But still,the V-Strom philosophy of simplicity is still there. The rider can’t fine tune the settings through hundreds of different variations or menu pages. It’s essentially WYSIWYG – what you see is what you get.

The systems are mostly automatic, and where they can be adjusted by the rider the options are fairly limited.

We don’t think that’s a bad thing.

Sittin’ pretty

We really liked the new colours. That’ll be very much a personal judgement, but the Champion yellow keeps with Suzuki’s off-road colour scheme, the Pearl brilliant white/Glass Blaze orange combo – like our test bike – brought back memories of the DR Big and some of Suzuki’s ral-lye-racing exploits of the 1980s and early ’90s, and the Glass Sparkle black…well… that didn’t do much for us. It’s a bit Darth Vadery. Maybe if we’re being generous we could say it’s ‘stealth’.

Whatever floats your boat. If you like it, you go for it.

There’s plenty of information on the LCD display.

The seating position is very relaxed and can be adjusted 20mm higher for long-legged riders, while the ’bars sweep back just a little, and that makes for a really comfy, lazy posture. Standing up was no problem – we removed the rubber inserts from the footpegs – but the seating was so comfortable we started asking ourselves whether we really needed to stand. The more comfortable we became, the more we decided we could hack most of what was going on from the seated position.

Call us lazy if you insist, but…okay. We were lazy. It’s the bike’s fault. It encourages the rider to enjoy the comfort.

The V-Strom 1050XT sure does feel good to push hard on the throttle
through a loose turn.

All rounder

We’ve left this a little late, but what’s it like to ride?

Smooth, grunty without being scary, and very comfortable.

With the traction control off we got all playful on the dirt roads and swished the back end around a little. It was a lot of fun because power delivery is strong but predictable. When we were being sensible we were in awe of how well the ABS and traction control both did their jobs. The common perception of V-Stroms being a bit of a ‘cheap-o’ choice is given the lie by how good those systems were on the previous model and still are on this model. For the first time on a ’Strom we get a choice of three power-delivery modes, A, B and C. Peak horsepower is the same in all three, but with varied response and low-end torque being slightly reduced in B and C mode. Mode A gives a sharpish throttle response which we found a little grabby at low speed, B is less aggressive and C has a lazyish action.

And we have to say, there’s nothing budget about the finish, features or paint-work of the bike. Our XT had cruise control,crash bars, tubeless tyres front and rear – Suzuki had fitted Pirelli Scorpion STRs in place of the standard Bridgestone Battlaxs – adjustable suspension, hill-hold, the three ‘drive’ modes, a jabillion possible readouts on the LCD display and very nice paintwork. An LCD instrument dis-play is certainly far less expensive than a TFT screen, and there’s no arguing a TFT screen is easier on the eye, but this screen did the job once we became used to it.

In its natural habitat: a campground somewhere a long way from anywhere, with a beaming, happy rider nearby.

On the road the bike put no effort we could discern into speeds around the 150kph and 160kph mark, and had plenty on offer when we asked for more.

We don’t just mean the engine, the whole bike was remarkably stable and easy to ride at those speeds, even swooping through choppy corners where we were expecting to have to hold on tight.

Off road its nearly 250kg was surprisingly manageable. It’s still a litre-class motorcycle, but gee, it sure does feel good to push hard on the throttle through a loose turn.

Both switchblocks were simple and uncluttered. The cruise-control rocker doubles for scrolling through modes and making selections.

All systems go

We’ve already said the ABS and traction control are exceptional. Both work well and are very smooth in their intervention.

It would be nice to have the option to turn off the ABS for steep hills off-road, and we can’t help but feel that would be a problem for us at some stage if we owned the bike. Still, we expect most V-Strom owners would probably never find themselves confronted with that type of terrain. And if they did find that once-in-a-lifetime problem,they could always dismount, kill the engine, and bulldog the bike down like we used to in the good ol’ days.

Remember how much fun that was? The bike threatening to club you around the ears while you both slid down some shitty, greasy, mile-long near-vertical slope with zero traction and a load in your pants?

Good times.

The two levels of ABS were clear enough. We can’t remember which was which, but one was noticeably less aggressive than the other. It’s plain as day while riding.

Rear preload adjustment. When we were riding that meant the bike had two big knobs.

Picky

We’ve already mentioned the LCD display, and it’s one of the very few things on the 1050XT we weren’t keen on. Maybe it was the only thing.

There’s plenty of information on display, and that’s where we came a little unstuck.

There’s so much going on, all in the same panel and all in similar colours, we couldn’t settle in to finding information quickly and easily. We liked the old instrumentation better. Having the tacho as an analogue dial separate from individual LCD panels made it easier to flick the eyes to where they needed to be.

That’s what we found, anyway. Your experience may be different.

The other feature we didn’t believe an improvement is the new system for moving the windscreen up and down. The screen itself is a good one which sits solid and gives good protection, but to adjust the height the rider has to move around to the front of the bike, flick open a clip, set the height, then lock the clip again.

It’s an easy system and, as we said, the screen sits strong, but having to dismount to change it is a shame.

That’s it. They’re the only things we could find to whinge about.

The rack and grab handles made a good combo. It was easy to tie things down.

Overall

KYB suspension front and rear is fully adjustable and did its job well. The 43mm upside-downers are plush in the initial feel but the action is firm and coped easily with both spirited road riding and rough terrain, although it wasn’t hard to find the limitations of both. The thing is, we could find the limitations if we pushed hard and tried to make the components pack up or bottom out.

Neither end misbehaved once during what we think would be called ‘regular’ riding. The forks and shock, and their internal damping, are well-suited to the type of riding this bike is designed for. There’s also a big revolving knob to adjust the preload on the rear. It’s easy to get at and easy to use.

Suzuki has a stack of luggage, protection and comfort accessories available for the 1050XT. Over 50 of them.

Everything from a centrestand – which is standard on the XT, by the way – to a tank bag, and from panniers to fog lights are available. The panniers fit neatly into the build of the bike and fit onto the existing bodywork, so there’s no need for separate frames. Ask your local dealer for a rundown.

At the end of our time with the 1050XT we felt we were saying goodbye to an old friend as we handed it back to Suzuki. It’s so damn comfortable, easy to ride, and, although it sounds a bit goofy, eager to please. We found ourselves enjoying every minute we spent on it, on or off road, going hard or plodding along deep in thought, and when it was time to wave goodbye it hit hard how much we’d enjoyed it and how quickly we’d settled in to it.

It’s a bike for which it’s very easy to form a deep affection.

Perhaps photo rider Pottsy summed it up best when he offered: “It pushed the fun clean out the front of my pants!”

Suzuki V-Strom 1050XT

Web: www.suzukimotorcycles.com.au.
Rec retail: $20,990 including 12 months rego

Engine type: Liquid-cooled, four-stroke, DOHC, 90-degree V-twin
Displacement: 1037cc
Bore/stroke: 100mm x 66mm
Compression ratio: 11.5:1
Starter: Electric
Fuel system: Fuel injection
Lube system: Wet sump
Ignition: Electronic
Clutch: Hydraulic
Transmission: Six-speed, constant-mesh
Suspension front: Inverted, telescopic, coil spring, oil-damped
Suspension rear: Link-type, coil spring, oil-damped
Final drive: Chain
Front tyre: 110/80R19M/C 59V tubeless
Rear tyre: 150/70R17M/C 69V tubeless
Front brake: Twin disc
Rear brake: Disc
Overall length: 2265mm
Overall width: 940mm
Overall height: 1465mm
Wheelbase: 1555mm
Seat height: 850mm
Ground clearance: 160mm
Oil capacity: 3.5 litres
Fuel capacity: 20 litres
Kerb mass: 247kg