Everybody join me at home in motorcycles again. I’m gonna take out the Suzuki v-strom 250. I have done a review of the 650 and thousands as a head-to-head. I am not sure if you were picking between those two. You might consider this one, I don’t know it’s up to you but I thought let’s take it out and see what it is like. We will take a proper look over the Suzuki VStrom 250 motocycle sport bike later on but for now I just want to get on the road. Let’s see what it is like. Well, easy to get on. I will mention straight away as I always do. I am six foot four. I am not a little chap well this does not feel like. I thought it was gonna feel that was quite surprising. It feels very agile okay. Well, the very first thing I always talk about, its comfort because that is the first thing that you notice. My pies up against the pillion seat rise and my knees are very comfortable within these fairings and on the inside of the tank it is very comfortable perfectly upright for me. The mirrors are very close to my face which is a bit weird than literally they’re just there but because of the size of them and the closeness you really can see an awful. Here we go very very very smooth like very very smooth in fact, I think this is smoother than their 250 that I have. You know the other 250’s I have tried with the same engine. I am gonna try and address these sort of elephant in the room which is a question. I saw a lot of people asking about this bike and I did kind of think myself which was okay. So it looks like an adventure bike but it is a 250. Why does not that seem too small. And well the answer is no actually because if you want a bigger cc’d adventure bike well then you can just go for the 650, but the 250 does have its benefits and is very capable. A guy called Bob from the iron butts UK group basically people who do a lot of long rides and help raise money for charity. Well, I am just amazed. Third gear and it is getting up here without me. We are having too much they recently did a ride where they basically retraced the dam Busters route up the country, down the country and across the Germany and back. It was 850 miles in 24 hours and ended up doing about 1400 on of Easter and 250 and he absolutely loved it. This tight coral is to be interesting on. If you are looking at doing really really really long distance and you really want to get from A to B. I can understand why you might want a larger CC machine but equally on those sorts of bikes in my opinion, you are very much about getting to the place. So, you know, you can be going faster you can be getting to point B on something a bit smaller like this. I don’t know how I’m gonna test it on the motor. I don’t know how what it is going to do the late way. I imagine that this is gonna be more like your B Road adventure bike rather than your a Road adventure bike. Just because of the cruising speeds it will be capable and happy of doing but in going slower you get to see more of a scenery the other place where I think. This bike is going to do very well in the commuter market because it is very upright. It is very comfortable but as I will show you and we look over the bike, this thing is just covered in tie-down points and places to attach stuff and as a person who only owns bikes. Having a bike that you can attach things to when you need to take something a little bit bigger. I totally get it so for a utilitarian style commuting small economical bike. Having ridden this for five minutes, I think I had totally get it let’s give it some beans well it picks up okay yeah. It is not ragingly fast but then it is only your 250. I don’t think I have ever been up that one should we go up. I don’t know where it goes but I’m gonna try it. You come into these things with some expectations of what you think about. It is gonna be like to ride and the one thing I wasn’t really expecting was for it to handle quite so responsibly and nicely. But then it makes sense because like the other row feast rooms they do have nice handling but they have assume they have more weight. This feels more weight. I am sorry there is 650 to me seemed more weighty than this. But very often I think that’s the case may end up being almost the same way and it’s more mental than anything. And the geometry of the front end is set up in just the sweet spot. It is like it is happy neutral but it just takes a very slight input for it to start moving around underneath you. And it just feels quite confidence-inspiring. I can’t say for this or road that I’m missing. Having say, for instance the 650 or you can particularly bigger. Its cruising happily and smoothie I mean six admittedly but it seems now plenty at all. I mean let’s slow it down to where it’s still riding. Happy yeah 30 in 635 and 6 still happy not chugging. It’s picking up no problem. There’s is no bogging. There, I mean I think the fuel injection is taking care of that but it does mean or it seems like if you’re doing some longer distances on this. You don’t have to keep changing gear you can stick to maybe fifth or sixth and just cruise around like that. I have a BMW 1200 behind me go Mike clicked me onto my boat they didn’t get away from me even though they have five times the CC. We have a loose wing mirror situation obviously hasn’t been tightened down this is quite a new demo. It’s only got 72 miles on it and I’ve got a few of those of myself like a lot of noon 60. The engine is about 7000 rpm in 6th gear. So 60 miles an hour, it’s revving a little bit higher than maybe you’d want it to. But doesn’t feel like it’s running at all over there. The ride is kind of firm but it does soften out the big bums quite nicely alright. I have bad knees and a bad back and a mirror that doesn’t want to stay hidden. Okay, so 30 to 60 I’m really like this, I mean like as stand out compared to a lot of other bikes are ridden because of the comfort. Because of all the convenient features. It has a utilitarian bike and yeah it’s really comfy nice or just ride around. Nice, bring the speed down let’s see what the breaks are like obviously this has abs. It needs it for Euro fall but that was they weren’t like ripping my face off but perfectly yes strong enough to slow you down. Got a bit of a vibration going on somewhere. It’s just a piece of bodywork, that’s actually missing a clip. That what is for bracing that’s like a duck now. The bistro is a saw bike that you would get if you were regularly gonna be taking a pillion. And I would like to be able to try that but I’m fortunate I don’t have anyone to sell my back. I am sure the t-50 will have enough to keep me going but it might make it a little bit more sluggish .I would like to just see what that’s like but I’m fortunate that or something I can test in this. Although, I have a big chap so if you were too skinny whippersnappers and I’m basically equivalent of you too. Although you would have to worry about eight stone. Ange okay so the controls, it is all very simple horn indicator left and right cancel hazard switch, high beam, low beam, pass light completely standard. Startup kill switch and then you’ve just got to display with your revs across the top to speed time fuel gauge. Just the very basic fare that you expect. Got your warning lights on the side and these flash up for you. Left turn left and right and your high beam thing one little accessory that is on. This which is good is here, we have a 12-volt cigarette style, lighter style port so if you have a sat-nav or something you can just plug that into that temporarily. I wouldn’t run a permanent GPS art for now. I would get it wired into the bike myself but okay. Overall looks the front end of adventure box always tends to be a bit sort of weird but I’m actually really quite like that. It’s not as extreme and in sexy looking as a lot of the other ones. It’s more subtle, it reminds me of one of the much older was it one of the much older BMWs. It reminds me that front sort of all in one piece garden but then you have still got your mud guards you’re having ones – blimey to keep the mud flicking up from you from all the tractors. On the rear yeah a huge mud guard tail, tidy all in one thing, removing it would it improve the look of the bike probably a bit but then again if it was my bike I probably wouldn’t change any of that because it’s all there for a purpose. As I was mentioning like tie-down points that you’ve got these tie-down points. You’ve got these grab handles obviously, there is a place to stick a top box on from standards and we’ve got holes in place more tile and points on this side. There is just this entire space is available for attaching stuff and nice and easily term. And imagine you had a big backpack. You’re on a camping trip you could just shove it on there. A couple of ratchet straps or something like that and it would just be solid nice. And low down and go a 17 inch from what’s the rear. It is a seventeen so that is part of the fit of the reason and that it feels very maneuverable. I mean if you forget the extra things this is kind of almost supermoto like you know slightly. More suspension travel, it’s not a huge amount but it’s a bit more. It’s got a very large sprocket which would explain. It is pep but that does make me concerned that when we get to the motorway. It is going to maybe have some problems with the higher speeds and cruising speeds but we’ll find that out. It doesn’t look like someone’s dropped this at some point. And well that piece of plastic is what’s taken the brunt of it. And it looks like it’s quite small and replaceable so that would be good if you do drop a chamois too expensive to replace. Small parts of ferry yes it’s the classic 250 engine which Suzuki shoving in all their two fifties at the moment. And I actually think it suits this roll far better than it suits being in the the GSXR one two five something about. It just suits this better the exhaust is very large as suzuki like to do. It is also very very quiet but then again if you are a commuter this is something from having an hour bike and sometimes having to get up early to go to work. Having a very loud bike does make you feel a little bit of an idiot when your next-door neighbors are like it’s 7 o’clock in the morning you start by companies like. Considering this is an adventure style but that’s quite a nice feature. The throttle cable is completely accessible right on the side. Here so if you you know your cable snaps while you’re out on the road that’s not going to be that difficult to fix you know. If you’re out the middle of nowhere um the clutch side again clutch is all very accessible. I like that and like that quite a lot intuitive seat pops off with one key big squidgy C very comfortable seat and there’s those inches in there’s like three or four inches of foam in there at least very comfy. I like it access to the top of the shock here and as you can see there’s an adjuster ring so that it is gonna make that very adjustable. Battery fuses very accessible talking more fuses okay there’s no storage under the seat but then you wouldn’t necessarily expect that for a bike that you’re gonna attach storage to. But I am absolutely loving how simple all this stuff is. To get to like if I was going touring and I might have to fix it on the road to know that my clutch cable is all accessible. My throttle K was all accessible. My suspension setup battery fuses talking all of that is just literally instantly available without doing anything a one key turn away that’s really good I think. Look at this and thinking you know this this could be a really good bike for me but I would because if it was my only bike would think yeah but I need more I need more grunt. I need more power for when I want to go the long distance stuff because as I say I don’t know how this is gonna be on the motorway. I also like you know, I like something with a big run but he is a better bike to functionally do things. This thing is outstanding I’m not joking. It is I know I’m really bigging up this bike it’s just because I didn’t realize how good he actually just moving up here take some pictures and some some video. It’s funny how heavy it is. Not many people do this in video and still like yeah no problem you drop that you can pick it up you’ve got. And I’m doing that the wrong way you got tons of grab places. Bill quality is the standard Suzuki levers nothing massively special but perfectly adequate always. Say about them well babies look like they actually have a nicer finish on them and some of the other ones. I am sure they’re just complete standard nice strong looking correctly. The pegs look good passenger pegs not rubberized or anything. Look at this, was from different angles because don’t forget. It is a sports adventure tour I don’t believe that sports really belongs. There another 250 the adventure Toria I can get that as I’ve mentioned previously. It is got reasonable travel in suspension but it’s not huge and I can’t really see it’s actually exactly how much travel is on the rear. It’s all very hidden in there which in ways is it is good because it means it’s much crap throwing up on your shock. But in otherwise it’s not so good but I have noticed there. This one thing that I personally would not have done on an adventure bike and it’s to do with the ground clearance running man. Exhaust under the bike massively reduces the amount of ground clearance you have because look I mean that cattle I think that’s a cap or is an expand n chamber you were losing a good three inches there. Yes it does have a skid plate but sadly, this skid plate only protects from the front because it actually ends here. And the exhaust actually hangs about half an inch lower than the skid plate so if you actually tried to take this off-roading. For instance, get it into a rut rather than rubbing on your skid plate which you can pivot the bike on happily. You are actually leaning on your headers and they’re pretty thin. So, ground clearance is not great on this to be fair. You know what, have we got like 8 inches at most and then behind that there’s a step down with the exhaust is on an adventure style bike but you’re going to be taking off road. No like dusty track stuff like that absolutely fine anything with bumps more than. About this there’s only so long before you’re going to smack into your headers. So if there was a criticism I can have on this bike that would probably be in the sidestand is a pressed tube. And the only thing I would say about that is I would rather it had a bigger foot because if they know people are gonna take this on mud. It’s gonna help it being a little wider but not massively. So, it has got a whacking great headlight on it but it actually fits in really nicely considering the size of it. No it fits in well the screen adjustable, yeah screw it on here. So it’s not adjustable you’d have to get a bigger screen. If you wanted some more wind protection. I can’t say that I’ve noticed a huge matter wind on it but then you’re not going that fast. So, we’ll see on the motorway wall with that but that’s definitely not doing much for me at my height as far as adventure. Boys go they normally have quite a lot of gadgets and stuff on them and this is pretty much got a 12 volt supply that I can’t see anything else that any other one-to-five even would have necessarily. But is that good thing I mean I’ve maybe this would have been good. If they’d fit a standard with easy grips but from what I understand adding heated grips on from manufacturer ends up costing you an awful lot more money than putting them on yourself. You know, he Boyd third party ones so them leading them off for our nose probably excusable. I know how bumpy these roads are. I’ve ridden these roads on many many different bikes and this is unbelievably smooth. It is just eating off not only the bumps but also that the the gnarly road surface. We get some seen that vibration some feel of the road. It seems to have got rid of a lot of it but I still can feel feedback on this bike in the corners which is here normally you make something super soft and super comfy that you wouldn’t notice. If you run over a small course you tend to lose feel in the corners but I don’t I haven’t noticed that so much I go through a tunnel. I don’t, you wear anything but wind the heart failure. You heard anything, this thing is whisper quiet. It goes without saying you can ride this on an a2 license you could write percent of all license. The insurance is not at me too bad I don’t think fuel economy is probably pretty good. Okay this is the moment of truth, motorway time connective seventy comfortably but only don’t take too long to get to 70. Looks like a little wall and in seventy miles an hour and the RPM light is continuously flashing at me. Reason is being the RPM like can be adjusted for when you were into flash and it’s currently set about eight and a half thousand rpm because this is a new engine and I didn’t want to wear you know completely. They are out of the engine it’s trying to be a little bit nice to it most of his powers lower down anyway so is okay. But right now our deceits know a couple of things okay theoretically and I don’t know how I would have come to this. I think it does about 82 it might do a bit more real engines and a bit older and give it a bit more and it’s for cruising speed and 70 yeah. It’s just above where I’d be happy to have the revs. If I owned this bike but it can do it if I was just gonna be cruising and I want the bike to be happy 60 to 65. It feels like a more reasonable place for. It feels far happy at that point you know an engine tends to soar feel okay. And then at this point where you just go beyond then it goes and sounding like it’s just happily humming along to all please just not this much. I mean six doing 60 if I drop a gear can I get any sort boost kind of. It was actually different for me to stay in six not really controls are just lovely the gearbox is very very very smooth. Engine braking is reasonable not huge but the feel. It’s the feel of this goddamn thing is great well yeah. It hasn’t got huge amount to grub to pick itself back up. But it just stinks and feels planted and predictable just it’s an absolute gem or bike on the B Road. If you were cruising down the motorway on your own. Happy to sit 6065, no worries if you with a group of other people. When they’ve got larger cc bikes you know, they want to cruise along 80-85, yeah. You’re not gonna have fun and the bikes not gonna like it either. But if you can bring it down a bit, remember it is only a 250. I think the job this would best up it’s someone who maybe lives just outside of a city. And works in the city needs to drive in every day 2030 miles on the motorway BMC fine. If only you don’t expect it to do 7080 miles an hour or if you’re just sticking to be Roadster. You know to enjoy the road the driver bit more. This would be absolutely fantastic at all. Well, there you go there’s my thoughts on the v-strom 250. I’ll be honest when I came into this. I was a little bit the kind of like but why are 250 and I know why it’s only 250. And I’ve done videos talking about that but that’s what’s available but in this bike on those roads on the B roads as you’ve seen, I bloody love this thing it’s not expecting to come on this. Like do you know what as a Devi rider around the sort places where I live. A list I’m going a long ways that thing would be awesome although you are where weren’t your mirror to be more firmly attached. Don’t forget as I say there was a guy from called Bob from busy iron riders whatever they called. And I’ll put a link in the description about how he rode one of these 850 miles in 24 hours and 1400 miles in total over there a couple of days. I believe he all know far more than me about the long distance stuff but if you can do that it’s capable and having ridden it. I’m guessing that he just stuck to 60 65 and and starts the B roads and just absolutely loved it. Thanks for joining me and I’ll catch you next time and don’t forget. I have a playlist called bike reviews surprising in offer, you can see all the motorcycles that I’ve reviewed you feel like support in this channel. There are many ways to do that including patron and the spice 110 networks. I make clocks and things out of there psychopaths and I do commissions – so contacts.
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