Ride Report On 2023 Suzuki V-Strom 650
Thursday, August 17th, 2023
The new V-Strom 650 that I test rode.
As I said I would, I went to Fay Myers Motorcycle World on Friday to test ride the latest V-Strom 650. This is with an eye toward possibly replacing my ’99 Concours and my ’06 V-Strom 650 with something in between them size-wise and moving to an updated machine. Not at all a certainty to happen.
I suppose it was because it was Friday and people were at work but there were not a lot of people looking to do test rides. There were only three in my group. One guy was testing the V-Strom 800DE and the other was on a Husqvarna street bike.
Sitting on the V it was clear to me that this seat height was lower than on my 2006 V. It makes sense. The V-Strom started out as a dual-sport bike but as it became ever clearer to Suzuki that most of their buyers never or almost never take the bike off the pavement they made it progressively more of a street bike. And then now they’ve side-stepped over to cover the dirt niche again with the new 800DE. But the basic V-Strom is now a full-on street bike.
It felt good to ride. I definitely like the bike. We headed east a bit on Arapahoe and then turned south on Lima, which became Inverness Drive East. Who knew Inverness Drive was a racetrack!? But it is. And these demo guys know that. It has some curves, a lot of open stretches, and not a lot of traffic, at least not at this time of day. I believe we violated some traffic laws.
The V handled well but it really did not seem to have the acceleration I’m accustomed to with my ’06. Everything felt good, though.
Swinging around at the south end and starting north on Inverness Drive West we were still on the racetrack but at one point the guy on the 800DE slowed way down. Just seemed to be coasting. To a stop? Did his engine die? Just as the other guy and I were about to blast past him and leave him to the sweeper to deal with he nailed the throttle and took off. He was sling-shotting. Holding back to create distance so he can really hit the throttle.
I’m sorry, but that’s a jerk thing to do. This was not the first time I’ve contended with that. Generally in the pre-ride talk they tell you not to do it; they had not done so this time, though I doubt that would have stopped him. But it creates issues for the people behind you and it’s just not cool.
Anyway, we got on back to Fay Myers and I sat on the bike a bit checking out different items. One of the demo guys came along and asked if I had any questions. Yes, I do. Does this have cruise control? One of the things I want if I’m going to move to a new bike is cruise control, and I could not identify anything that would be that control.
No, it does not, he replied. Darn. That really pretty much is a deal breaker for me at this moment. So no, I won’t be buying a 2023 V-Strom 650. But the game of shopping for a new bike has been launched.
Biker Quote for Today
I’m a motocross rider because football players need heroes, too.
