Hey folks, the mist and fly here. I hope you’re well now. For the last few weeks, I’ve been riding this the 2018 Suzuki v-strom 250 . I’ve really got under the skin of the bike. I’ve learned all I can about it to bring you this buy in depth review. If you’re interested in this bike stick around and stay tuned. So the Suzuki v-strom 250 then what’s that all about well as I say. I’ve been riding this the last few weeks and I’ve really tried to understand the good and the bad points about the BOK. I’m gonna bring you a list of those a bit later on in the video. I’ve written it in all sorts of scenarios on all sorts of different rows fast Road, slow rows wet and dry, you name it. I’ve ridden it. So, I’m going to talk you through some of those as well, plus at the end of the video I’m gonna take you through the cost of ownership of the machine. How much does one of these cost to insure tax ride etc so if you’re interested in the v-strom 250 you’re going to want to stay tuned. Thought about riding around town and in the urban environment then well alright little v-strom is pretty ideal for town work. It’s sir nice and light as I’ve said before at 188 kg wet. It’s quite narrow fairly and get your feet down easy on the deck so easy to slip through traffic you sit on top of the bike. So you got a good sort of situational awareness over traffic nice and easy to filter with if you need to. And yeah overall around town in the urban environment. I prefer this sort of bike actually to a scooter. Okay you haven’t got the year carrying capability under the seat that a scooter has, but you could stick the panniers on here carry your laptop or change your clothes get to work whatever no problem at all. So, in the wetland absolutely filthy day, today it’s been raining all day. It’s still raining now, let’s calm down a little bit and I’ve been riding the bike. Get a fair bit today once the rain had ceased a little bit just to get a feel for what she’s like in these sort conditions. And it seems okay the tires on it they’re made by company well stamped on it. Our IRC which I guess is the manufacturer and Road winner. So there are icy road winners. I’ve never heard of them they sound kind of the cheap and cheerful to me. But having said that I’ve not had any incidents where I felt anything let go of me although that said of course. I’m not thrashing it around on these slippery roads so I suspect if you got one of these bikes. And you’re gonna use it for commuting in all weathers. It might well be worth just replacing the tires with something from. You know a well known brand just to be sure. Let’s say I have said that I’ve been riding the bike day probably for last I know 3540 minutes and I haven’t had any problems on this very slippery road. In terms of protection from the weather this screen actually isn’t that effective you are really pretty much in full wind blast. So again maybe invest in a bigger screen and aftermarket screen would keep some of the weather off you. In fact, perhaps I should just give you a little clean hope you can see okay. There we go hopefully you can see okay so you are subject to any obviously wet and stuff coming up at you. There is good news though. The hideous sir well they tell tardy but the hideous rear-end that plastic stuff that doubles up as a number plate holder and as a mud guard works the treat. As a mud guard I’ve got absolutely no water spray up my back or on the you know on the sides of my jacket. At the back anything like that so again if you’re gonna be behind the bar tactical purposes scaring you too from work all times a year. Even though that back-end looks a bit hideous, it certainly does a good job of keeping all the crap off the back of you. And of course the other thing to say about riding in the wet on the little v-strom 250 is the fact that you do have a little bit of a safety cushion with the ABS. On the bike is actually got relatively sophisticated abs. I think it’s from bought, it is two channels so you’ve got abs both on the front and rear wheels. So if you did grab a handful of break in these conditions. That’s likely to save you from a skid which is such a great feature on modern bikes oh so thumbs up for the ABS. Maybe a bit of a thumbs down for the windscreen and the tires but have another thumbs up for the mudguard on the back. But overall the sort of point that is riding the way really doesn’t offer any big problems. The frontal areas quite a big on it so actually from the sort of shoulders down, you’re relatively protected on it. What a hideous day to be out on a motorcycle. The things I do for you now 250 cc motorcycle sir aren’t to be found on motorways that often. And there’s a fairly good reason to that is of course they’re not very powerful so you know it’s perception. They can’t keep up with trap up here I am on the m-40 okay. I’m actually doing slightly illegal speeds just for demonstration purposes. Look at indicated a two five just keeping up with traffic in the outside lane or just slowed down a bit because I don’t want to be breaking the law. But just by way of demonstration you know you can keep up with faster traffic on motorways and certainly hold again because that certainly morals. Now indicate it up spec this speedometer ogre reads a little bit. It’s not difficult so as you saw it’s plenty more than 72 give on this bike but then that’s just with me on the bike. It’s not too up it’s not with candy as I guess if you’re loaded up you may struggle a little bit. In terms of weather protection or wind protection on these faster roads. Though funnily enough it’s not too bad. I say funnily enough because this little screen. I’ve been critical off in the past when i could ride the bike you get a little bit of turbulence off of it. But the faster you go the less that becomes strangely. And here I am again actually sitting on the inside lane of the motorway but I am still doing probably over 70 miles now. Everything else is overtaking me but I’m not getting really bad pop it. I think it’s lifting above go ahead at these beats that’s of course in this particular crash helmet with this particular jackets on. It varies depending on what kit you’re wearing .I find so though I’m not sure you’d want to do morals and morals on motorways. It’s certainly very possible to do it. If you’ve got a commute that was I’d know ten miles of mountain oil or something. And it’s certainly possible you’ve got enough to get past trucks in the slow lane. Keep up with faster traffic actually much better than I thought by SCR f250. Certainly couldn’t hold these sort of speeds on a motorway, so actually thumbs up for the v-strom 250 on motorways and faster roads. So how about a few practical items to do with their owning the v-strom 250.Then well there’s a couple of things that a number of you have asked me to cover in these in-depth reviews. The first thing to talk about is the seating position. The the bike itself has a fairly low seat and on fire I can get my feet on the deck fine. We have a look at this clip here I can get both feet on the deck no problems at all. Completely unintimidating. It feels nice and light this bike and for us. Shorty’s vertically challenged types you can certainly get your feet on the deck .So no problem there with regards to the seating position, it’s also quite a roomy but you can move around on it. It’s not cramped at all it’s actually. For a 250 it’s quite a sizable bike. In terms of its sort of overall geography, if you like, so that’s one thing. The other thing people have asked about, as some of the practical ownership things, like pumping the tires. How hard is that going to be on her maintenance. Well this bike is fitted with these them straight through vowels. It hasn’t got the angled ones but luckily there’s only got a single disc on the front. For example, you can get at it quite easily, I personally would prefer to see the angled valves but you know popping the tires out this is gonna be no big deal. But it’ll be nice if they were angled vows. There we go, they’re not the other thing. The bike doesn’t come as standard with a center stands so lubing the chain, you’re gonna have to do by either getting yourself something like an Abba stand or you’re gonna have to wheel the bike around to lube the chain. Something else to be aware of. There is a centre stand available from Suzuki. You can buy it as part of a package and you can probably buy it individually as well it might be worth getting one of those. If you ride these day-to-day as a commuter type bike because you’re gonna want to be looking after that chain. The looping it up so Center standard something you’re going to want to consider as well. Other than that, no real issues I don’t think so before. I show you what the bikes like to ride at night. I thought I’d just show you the lights because a lot of people often ask me what the lights like a particular bike. So when the bike is running normally, this is it’s a justice or daytime mode it’s not an LED light just a bog-standard dip light and then full beam does look much different other than much brighter. Okay, so that’s what it looks like during the day with a magic of YouTube. Let’s go to night, so at night even though the headlight on here is just a standard halogen not one of these newfangled fancy LED job. The light is perfectly adequate this is on dip as ever. I’m sure the GoPro won’t be showing you the extent the light but it’s a perfectly good light just like a dip beam on a car put it onto full beam, bingo! And it’s a it’s amazing. it’s oh, it’s an excellent, excellent light. there’s no prob with that at all, as I say I’m sure the GoPro doesn’t really show it the LED display of course. It doesn’t flip to a night mode because it’s on the white, on black anyway which looks absolutely great at night. It’s in it getting clear from there. The only thing she doesn’t have is illuminated switch gear. But to be honest, it’s such simple switch gear on here. Yuri don’t need it to be illuminated, so write the v-strom 250 at night absolutely no problems. The lights work a treat even though they’re the old-fashioned halogen ones so at the start of the video. I promised you that I would talk you through the costs of ownership of a bike, like this how much would one of these cost. You to keep in the garage ready to ride. It’s screwing things like consumable, so I’m not including hear things like tires and brake pads that you may need to replace. But just how much would it cost not petrol either. So a few things that I’ve found out done a bit of research for you. First off tax or vehicle excise duty as we call it here in the UK because this is a 250 cc bike. This is gonna cost you 42 pounds a year for road tax divide that by 12 3 pounds 50 a year for Road text. So, we’re pretty good for that insurance went to my friends at principal insurance got them to run off a quote for somebody. In my circumstance so this is only indicative. It only works, if you’re my age living in my house with my no claims bonus but if I was to insure this bike principal would do that for 82 pounds 88 a year. Which I think is a bargain so that’s six pounds 90 a month and then servicing cost how much to actually. You know keep the bike in tip-top condition serviced. I went to my friends at the local Suzuki tailor that’s for Dan Ellis and got them to give me some crisis. Now I was quite interested it turns out the service interval on this bike is three thousand miles which is quite low. I was expecting six at least but three thousand miles you have to get it serviced of course. There is a first service are running in one at 600 bars as is often the case of bikes for daenerys. They would charge 125 for the running in service and then at three thousand six hundred miles for three thousand miles later. The second service would be two hundred and fifty pounds and then when you get to the big one which includes the valve check, that’s three hundred pounds. And then it’s back to every 3,000 miles which is two hundred fifty at least. At Ford iners is so factored that in if I add in the the 250 pound three thousand mile plus the six hundred running in four hundred evolved violet by twelve. I end up with 31 pounds 25 for servicing cost so that’s based on something that’s riding an average of five thousand miles a year. So add those all together the 356 not needs the 3125 that comes out at 41 pound 65 a month just to have this bar in the garage ready to ride now. I think that sir I think ice okay actually. I’ve done quite a few of these calculations and that’s obviously one of the cheaper ones, but that’s because it’s got a smaller engine so 41 pound 65. Budget for that also throw in a bit of four tires and brake pads and that’s basically how much gonna cost you the RAM. Okay, let’s just pop down to my local train station here and see what she’s like from a practical point of view. If you want to lug it about car parking that sort of thing,so I’m just gonna go and find a couple of spare spaces. l let’s see what she’s like turning circle like and also if you’re having a man or woman handle it around. I can’t believe I have to say man or woman handle these days. Why is the world coming to man and all that’s what it is okay. Here we go so we’re in the middle of a standard British parking space. Okay stick her in neutral stands nice and easy to get down now. This bike is nice and light at a hundred and eighty eight kilograms wet fully fueled up. So even when the shoes full fully fueled, she’s nice and light and you got a good grab handle moving it around on the carpark really easy okay, so it feels nice a lot. I’m on full lock now I’m just saying if I don’t get into the next parking spot and next. But one but I’d say is turning circles go, that’s not too bad. That’s so just step back here look that’s a complete 180 in the one spot so yeah nice tight turning circle and nice and light as well. So don’t get about on your driveway moving around in the carpark broad. It’s not gravel or something they’re nice and easy so not intimidating. If you’re a bit of a lightweight or maybe you’re a lady or you’re a smaller person then you’re not gonna have a problem lugging this background. Even though it’s an adventure style boy so washing the bike. Then well it’s a big old adventure bike and they’re never easy to clean. And the v-strom I guess is no different to that you do need a brush to get into all the nooks and crannies and you probably need to invest. If you haven’t already got one in a bike, try like the one that I’m using here just to make sure absolutely everything in the bike is nice and dry. But once she’s done she comes up looking absolutely spangly and clean as you can see here. So no real problem how about longer journeys on the v-strom 250 touring then well number of things to take you to care not one orbit. So you can tour course on any bike can’t you and it doesn’t have to be a massive adventure bike to do that. On just look at Ben King who’s going around the world at the moment on a CRF 250 for example. And Steph champions as well as just come back from doing is that the same thing. So we know you can do long journeys on the 250 no problem. To what about this the v-strom 250 in particularly well. Number one, it’s quite a comfortable bike. No it’s not brought riding position seatbelts to be comfortable although I’ve found on a couple of longer journeys that I’ve done the seat is a little bit hard. Can start to get a bit a number, I am, after a while but not not a serious problem. The riding position is very nice. The other thing in its favor for touring is you can get the side cases panniers and a top box of the bike as well so plenty of storage capacity. If you don’t want to go down that route, you’ve got the rack on the back. You can lash a soft bag to that easy so carrying stuff on the bike. It’s a pretty straightforward. It’s got the massive fuel tank that I’ve talked about before 17 plus litres. It holds an 88 miles per gallon. You’re going to get around about 300 miles out of the tank. So for touring, that’s a definite plus. You’re not gonna be stopping every five minutes to refuel. So yeah, as a proposition for touring. Yes it’s not a huge para bike but it’s got a lot of practical aspects to it that make it an excellent point for doing touring. So I promised you at the beginning of the video. I’ll give you not only a good point to the bike but the bad as well so let’s go through the list of pros and cons. Starting with the negatives that I found it now. Made notes of these to make sure I didn’t forget anything. First thing, I just don’t think it looks very good from behind that’s often the case with lots of bikes. Definitely it’s a tail tardy what I would say is this big old plastic mud guard on here does work well at keeping you protected. So if you’re buying the thing as a practical mode of transport you might want to leave that on there actually. Because it keeps you nice and dry but if you’re riding it as a weekend fun thing then you might want to get that swapped out for something looks a bit better. So that’s a small thing just something I would do next think windscreen initially. I thought it was fairly ineffective and I’ve kind of revised my views on this it’s fairly ineffective. It’s sort of for lower speeds at the sort of 30 to 50 mile an hour range. But oddly when you’re a bit faster on motorways and stuff cruising at 70 then wind seems to fly overhead a bit more so the windscreen see how you find it depends on what jacket and stuff you wearing, what helmet combo you’ve got. You may want to put an aftermarket one on there. I’m putting that down as a negative because I think it could just be a little bit bigger but not as bad as I initially thought. Slightly revised but I’m still putting it in the negative pile. The other thing is something that I’ve mentioned before no centre stand as standard which is a bit of a nuisance on a bite. Like this would be very handy to have that stand. You can buy one as a an add-on part though. Next thing gears can be a little bit clunky. The gearbox isn’t the slickest I’ve ever come across. I haven’t had any faults neutrals or any difficulty finding neutral so it works fine just a little bit clunky on the gearbox mirrors. They look like barn doors they work fine there’s no vibration. You’ve got a good view out of them but they just look hideous. You might again depending on your harem you know much of a tart. If you like me you might want to change them for something that looks a bit better. But they certainly work ok but yeah barn door mirrors. I think I changed those the seat well though it’s pretty comfy and and spacious. It’s a little bit slippery the finish on. It is this, it’s obviously plastic finish. It hasn’t got any grippy bits on it and I found again depends on the kit you’re wearing but with my day to day ride Nikki. I just found it was a little bit slippery, you know when you brake your slide a bit forwards and I was always ending up in the same position. So, I’ve already moved forward or back. I always just slipped to where I was originally so the seat just a little bit slippery. I found and that over time if you ride it for it’s good for an hour or so. From a comfort point of view but I did one two hour ride on it and it was getting a little bit hard at the end of that the seat is a little bit hard over a long period of time, you know 30 minutes to an hour no problem cup of hours starts to get a bit hard. And another thing that I thought, was a bit of an omission. On the bike no heated grips ,I don’t know if there’s ,if there’s a Suzuki option for them. I don’t think there is but certainly you could buy heated grips is an aftermarket part. So again I would definitely do that on a bike let’s get some heated grips so that was it I think for the negatives oh no couple more. I’ve got notes here Pharrell, the other things suspension feels a little bit budget when you go down country lanes now. It is a relatively cheap bike to buys 4,600 pounds to buy so suspension is one of those areas that they have skimped on generally death day riding. It’s fine but if you’re pushing it around country lines can get a little bit crashing. The exhaust I actually don’t think it looks too bad for a for a euro for one but it’s very very quiet. Now, that may be a good thing, maybe a bad thing I personally like to be able to hear my bike so I’ll get that swapped out for something a little bit louder. And then last but not least to the service intervals 3,000 miles. I think these days for a modern bike 3,000 miles for service intervals that’s just a bit naff order of thought six 7000 would’ve been better ok. That was it for the negatives what about the positives, the positive points then that I’ve found out about the bike that I thought it was worth pointing out to you. So, first off a very practical thing, very frugal to run 88 miles per gallon. I was averaging on this so for 250 I think that’s pretty good. You’re riding it to work you know fill her up at the start of the week. You might depend on how far we’ve got the girl course, you might get to ride the whole week to work and then you put one fill up in it so 88 miles per gallon really frugal. Like that a louver that really big fuel tank litres over 300 mile range to do. If you say I’ve been getting about 300 miles out of a tank so. I think that’s excellent and a very usable range so that’s the second positive thing the engine it’s only 250, but it goes well and it’s nice and smooth. It is a twin but it’s not a thumpy at all. There’s no vibrations through the pegs or through the handlebars. That I’m used to on a 250 yeah really quite nice and it goes better than you’d expect a 250 – as well as you saw on the clips on the motorway. He absolutely holds its speed absolutely fine and cruise long at 17 no problem at all. Engine not under any stress there’s a lovely little unit and it being a Suzuki. I suspect it’s bulletproof so yeah the engine is very nice nice and smooth size and come. For I’ve said although the seat is self on a longer journey can be a little bit hard and a bit slippery as I mentioned before. The overall bike is quite spacious for a 250 so if you’re a bigger person and you maybe you’re just starting out or you want a commuter bike, then I think this would fit you absolutely fine. The seat is nice and low so it’s not intimidating but you can’t stretch out on the bike. It’s physically quite a big bike for 250, so that was another thing, all clutch nice and light flashes lovely. In light it’s very easy bike to ride nothing hard about this whatsoever. The instrument panel love that I’ve seen that on other Suzuki’s. I love the fact that it’s white on black. It’s just nice and clear. I think it’s got everything you need. Really pleased to see a proper fuel gauge on it. It’s got rpm trip count, there’s everything you need and no more so the the instrument gauge. I really like on this boat that looks really good the bike. Generally nice and light 188 kilograms wet. So, it’s easy to move around on your dry away or if you’re parking or whatever. And it doesn’t feel heavy when you’re on the move so nice and light at 188. And that’s wet fully fueled, I think they looks a bit pretty good. I think Suzuki you’ve done a good job on the styling. I think she looks very much like her bigger brothers, a 650 and a thousand so. I think you’ll be taken seriously if you’re riding it which I like and overall the value of the bike as well. I mentioned before four thousand five hundred and ninety nine is what the Suzuki website quotes this so we’re not an expensive bike by any means. So a nice price as well, I mentioned in the negatives, the quiet exhaust. I mentioned it again the positives because for you that might be a positive, it is very quiet sounds like a sewing machine, for me personally is a bit too quiet but if you don’t upset the neighbors and you just want a pleasant relaxing ride then that exhaust is nice and quiet. And then the other thing, I mentioned that the service intervals were low but a good thing that suzuki UK offer you on this is a warranty of three years. Most manufacturers only give you two year warranties these days, so the fact that suzuki UK will give you a three year warranty on this bug I think is fantastic. So yeah, that’s another plus point all right so yeah plenty to like about the bike. I think you know overall, nice looking package good value a great little bike. Okay so there we have it. That’s my in-depth review of the suzuki v-strom 250. You know I’ve often said there are no bad bikes on the market these days. I pointed out some of the things about this bike that I think could be improved but overall I just think is that honest good value for money bike. If I was having one there are few things I do, I would change that the exhaust or get tail tardy on it. I’ll possibly get a bigger screen and I may as well also change out the tire just for a better Brown because those ones are a bit budget on here. But other than that as I say good honest bike nice and cheap to run comfortable goes well. I’ll read a few reviews actually that said that the people have found it a little bit under powered. I haven’t found that so, I think it goes really well. Anyway, so we’re, I hope that’s been of some interest to you. If you’re in the market for a small bike or maybe a first big bike. Then do can have a little look at least uzuki v-strom 250. I think you might be pleasantly surprised, alright, that’s it for now before speaking you next time. Until then this has been the most them fly area you.
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