T
he Suzuki V-Strom 250 is a new and slick
looking addition to the entry level adventure
market. In recent years this market segment
has really blossomed and, frankly, it’s not
before time, or without good reason. Call
me adventure bike biased if you will... but
they make a lot of sense for the young and not
so young rider of all abilities. To start with they
are the most practical and comfortable every
day riding solution with their relaxed and natural
riding positions. All offer comparatively effortless
and secure handling, along with decent weather
protection. Plus the adventure genre generally have
larger petrol tanks and therefore a better range than
most. Then you get versatility in spades, from the
daily commute, to gravel roads and light off-road
work, not to mention wide ranging touring - yes,
they’re a bike for all occasions. I witnessed a stark
reminder of the comfort disparities just yesterday.
Following a group of riders in to town on a variety
of machines, all the sports bike riders leaned back
one handed and dangled their legs to stretch
while the adventure boys just sat there in comfort.
You know I’m right, we’ve all seen or done this.
Anyway, back to the baby ‘Strom. Our yellow and
black machine was quite a looker and very nicely
finished. It has a 248cc liquid-cooled parallel-twin
engine which produces almost 25hp at 8000rpm.
Being a twin it is rev happy and smooth compared
to the single cylinder opposition, but does give up
some torque and punch, however that does come
with the configuration. That’s not to say it’s slow, it
will happily sit on 120km/h all day and do it relatively
vibe free. While it will go faster, that is the effective
limit if you don’t want to sit with the throttle on the
stop. Having said that, it was a lot of fun to hold
it pinned while slicing up the back roads. For hills
you will be chopping down a few gears to keep the
speed up, but that’s no chore from the smooth-
shifting gearbox, and is actually all part of the fun.
Given our speed limit, a well ridden one will have no
ADVENTURES
KIWI RIDER 79