With the 21-inch front wheel 1050 and 800 V-Stroms about to hit the market , we take a look at Suzuki ’ s first gen big adventure-tourer that started it all .
V-Strom . The name ’ s been around a long time , but it ’ s a strange name for a bike , right ? When you know Strom is a German word for power and it was Suzuki Germany who originally came up with the concept for the bike ... then the name makes more sense . The idea was to take a modified version of the infamous TL1000 v-twin engine , wrap it in an aluminium twin-spar chassis , prop it up at each end with soft , long travel suspension - the V-Strom was born . Launched into a market segment which had historically been dominated by the legendary BMW GS and Honda ’ s Varadero ( KTM ’ s big adventure bikes weren ’ t even on the horizon at this point ), the V-Strom looked to ride on the rising wave of enthusiasm for adventure style machines . And ride it did , the V-Strom turned out to be a capable do-it-all multipurpose kind of machine - from commuting to and from work , through Sunday blasts to two-up touring , the ‘ Strom can do it all .
Engine Allegedly based on the infamous TL1000 engine , but in reality it ’ s the same as the SV1000 lump ( the crankcases , heads , clutch , cam drive are different enough , they ’ re not interchangeable - the only parts which can be swapped between the TL and DL are the crank , gearbox and barrels ). That urban legend out of the way , the V-Strom ’ s 90-degree v-twin lump puts out plenty of torque and more than enough power to carry two plus all their luggage . The big bore , short stroke motor combined with fuel injection and Suzuki ’ s Dual Throttle Valve System ( as fitted to the sporty GSX-R models ) gives a smooth unruffled delivery with more than
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