Hi, I’m Kate on two wheels. And today, I’m at smectic KTM and Suzuki v-strom 250. Who test-drive the Suzuki v-strom 250 bike. So, the little baby visto I’ve been waiting for this for quite a while. First impressions, I don’t know if they fired the guy but Suzuki has stopped making ugly bikes this one actually looks pretty good. I love this yellow. This bright color gives us an air of a young air. It looks really good. I am not a big fan of this gigantic circular headlamp, but well twitch is on. But the bike itself apart from this thing which I think good looks a bit odd looks pretty good. So, this one has two extras, these bars and these hand guards. The bike costs 52 hundred euros. So, it is a cheap 250 or cheap front to back. You have your normal road tires 121 one 110 at the front. But sinner I was expecting and 150 and the rear is a 140 110 140. So these are not the usual measurements, I was expecting a bit thinner on the tires single. This break with ABS as is mandatory. Nowadays, I like the way this mud guard also protects your Forks looks pretty good. You have a radiator guard. I’m not sure if that’s stock, look stock no idea. This is talk, this some protection and the bikes of all the engines the tiny tiny thing that tiny 250 thing up. It is a 250, it is normal like that they’re really small exhaust but it looks good this part looks very well built. Here you begin to see that this is a cheap fish, cheaper 250 with simpler components. The swing arm is a very simple square bracket with no kind of work. Then it’s keep costs down, keep weight down, keep everything as cheap. And as simple as possible see, this is as simple as it gets. And yeah it is very small, it is a very small adventure bike. This comes talk and this comes stock so it should be very easy to get some side panniers. Not top case on this adventure, mini adventure bike. It also has not from the top standard indicators front and rear. The rear is LEDs but indicators are normal simple, very simple. But it has everything you need, gear fuel and the odometer etc. Speed obviously clock fuel. It is everything you need. It is here. It is very tiny, very compact. One thing, I just noticed which is not normal at this range. A 12 volt charger this is definitely not a usual thing to see on the bike. This cheap or under 250 for that matter. This windscreen does not seem to be adjustable very likely. Not adjustable because this is a 250 in it. It is not a very expensive bike, no not adjustable but I am willing to bet. There is a ton of higher in screens. For this seems a very standard way to very easy to put it in and out. So, there should be a stock windscreen furnace. Okay, let’s go this is small. This is a very short bike, if you’re a bit taller this will feel a bit cramped. That is the FIR the first impression I got granted. I came out of my relatively roomy tracer. It all lovely but it does feel a bit cramped. It feels really tiny geesh oh, this is a furger. Bad idea forgot, this is just 250. How does have a lovely sound oh that was that a shift indicator there, cool. Let me see, shifting together yeah. There is a shift indicator in white and very bright really captures your attention. Even if you’re not looking down. It is a 250 so don’t expect much performance. I am going full-throttle although this is uphill, pretty steep uphill. It is not flat by any chance, but yeah this is a 250 so don’t expect a lot. But it does work pretty well. It is not like 1 to 5. Where you go full throttle everywhere and don’t care about speed. This one already has enough speed for you to not be able to go full throttle everywhere. Jump, okay that’s enough. I am going to stop there. I want to see what the adjustments for the rear suspension are because I think it’s way too little 3 loads. I think this, it feels like there is a lot of weight on the front and not enough on the rear which could be just psychological. Let’s just stop and take a quick look, real quick look suspension settings. Where is the spring? oh well, where the hell is the spring on this? There isn’t the spring it has no rear suspension. No, I can’t see it or the frack. It is here, it’s hidden in there and there is an adjustment but I bet I can only see it from the other side. Oh! I just think this is going to be a pioneer in the field. You have to disassemble half the bike, yeah it’s behind this panel here. How do you get to that oh there’s a suspension over there. And the adjuster nowhere to be seen. I’m not sure this is adjustable at all. Doesn’t look like it, then again cheap and simple. Oops, besides and didn’t come up all the way yeah. This is a very short bike for you vertically challenged people. I am one meter point, one point seventy four meters tall or 5’10. I think in US units, I think it’s five ten yeah. It kind of wants to stay a little bit. It wants to lean just wants to go like this and then stay like this. You have to push it back up or else it will stay like that. Comfortable over bumps soft suspension, good suspension actually and it feels nice to ride. Nice and upright but not too upright. You just lean forward a little bit it’s a good position even for meters. And that’s if you’re one metre an IT say six foot. It is going to feel, it is going to be just about the top. The most you can. You can do on this bike without feeling bad. If you are over six feet. I don’t think it’s really gonna work. My height near the limits anyone. Under this anyone that wants a short bike. This is a great one ladies, here you having a fantastic bike to go for travels. If you’re not comfortable with taller bikes or at least as an in-between until you are comfortable. And you can go onto the tall bikes, so here we are on the test track man. I’ve missed this I haven’t been here for ages. So, what I felt so far on the bike is that although this seems we want, seems to be lean hungry. It likes to lean and stay a particularly in angle which is about this but it could be just me. Used my very squared off tracer tire which this usual. This lean happiness usually means a higher center of gravity at high speed. It behaves as if it had a low center of gravity. Meaning it is not and this is not a disadvantage. This is not an agile vibe. It is easy to lean, don’t get me wrong but that’s a bit slow. I’m going to lean quickly like this then on to only nin it. This direction changed takes a while. It is easy to lean but slow to only name it. I never felt this before. I’m a bit confused. That’s how is this possible because this takes a while. See this was just about as fast as I could do it. I can lean faster than I can. Unwind I have to really push the hell over to make it online – make it stop turning which is a bit weird. You have to try it out okay you might tell me, I’m being stupid or not. I don’t know. It’s not a bad thing okay because this way this mic does not intimidate. You want to turn, era turns then you’re not trying to keep it linked. It will stay there, you’ll then tell it okay stop turning and it will stop turning. It’s very deliberate so it’s it’s nice for beginners because it is light. This works see moving the hips and it’s very light and it’s very small. It’s very stable so it it doesn’t scare newcomers by being all over the place at an empty. Oh seven for example, can secure newcomers because you break. And the rear goes all light. The Z 650 does the same thing. You break and the rear goes all lights that one it keeps wobbling my own KTM RC. Want to fall when I break hard the rear goes sliding everywhere. It’s a lot of fun but not for a beginner who thinks I’m going to die. I’m actually going to break really hard and see how’s that. And no okay brakes are good enough although I did have to use all four fingers because I had to break almost all the way here. I’ll try another break upstairs now. See, now it’s time for the proper class track. Let’s go second gear, I would really prefer a bigger seat. This is a bit of a smaller seat but again the whole box is a bit too small for me. I want on the top ends of its size capabilities here. It makes sense. I think all this meaningless is because of the thinner tyres and I’m not used to that. I’m used to the factor bigger rear tire half on the tracer. So that kind of screwed things up for me look at me out on a little adventure. One two five, I’m going to take the balance to overtake this guy here because if I lose momentum here I’m screwed. Sorry for the word, balance momentum and balance is the same basically. Oh yeah here on long winding turns here. It shows its character. This works very well here. It is very planted. It Is on Rails this slowness to get up makes a newbie feel right at home here because the bike doesn’t really want to go anywhere. Wait to turn like a newbie going cross body like this. And it’s great. it’s absolutely great. That’s oh hang on do it again ah very interesting. When I do this the bike wants to lean back up. So through some kind of suspension magic. I have no idea how they do this but through some suspension magic this bike works very well. If you drive it drunk seriously when you when you’re leaning with the bike like I was doing, it stays completely planted. It’s like a train. It’s on Rails just goes turning like a freaking train, awesome! But if you do it wrong like this leaning backwards, it gets light but it doesn’t get uncomfortable. Like right, it usually should do where the bike just feels all nervous and all wobbly. And you’re going like this in the back string wool. No it is, it feels like a normal one. Like a more agile bike if you do it that way. So, it’s very permissive even if you do it wrong. It’ll keep you alive so there’s that I like. It is a good thing this one. This is a pretty good little baby and so it’s the baby v-strom. So, yeah a bike for touring for comfortable touring because this way. Let’s say you’re going on a big road trip like the Portuguese into and you would reach the ends. Well, I would be a bit uncomfortable as its type. If you reach the end comfortable and relaxed because the bike never scares you. Never goes, I am going to kill you now. No, it doesn’t do that the tracer. Does that the tracer around them tells you I’m going to murder you. And then just kidding or you managed to save yourself. This one not, this one is a very easygoing companion. Let’s try another breaking this time. Two fingers are linked come on the hundreds anyone behind no three, two one boom right. Yeah, you need a four fingers for a proper emergency when it’s at these high speeds. Four fingers you feel like you’re crunching your fingers against the handle. But it has a lot of travel, then again you can adjust it, but for me for my adjustments. And I don’t really have big fingers. I have tiny hands yeah it’s on – maybe I’ll put it on three and this would go away but the point is the brakes are strong enough for this bike. For this white and for the speeds the single disc works perfectly fine. You don’t really need much more than that. The initial bite isn’t that strong. It’s smooth, it’s like the engine. It is very smooth it doesn’t bite suddenly. It is a bit more progressive, okay sporty wise it’s not sporting again. This is not an issue this is a design feature. It’s not supposed to be a sporty bike. It’s supposed to be a bike that doesn’t intimidate. it’s no use guy giving a beginner bike a supervise break where every time he just glances at the brake lever jolts forward. Well this is a bit the initial bites. A bit smoother and then it breaks glues and breaks pretty well again. I’m not sure how they mechanically managed to do that but it works, it works pretty well. Another thing about this engine just listen to it, this is a two-cylinder. It nearly doesn’t sound like a two-cylinder and it doesn’t definitely doesn’t feel like a two-cylinder. Two-cylinder is turkey this is like a jackhammer on your handlebars on your button, on your foot pegs. That’s one that we need this one feels like an angry little buzzards on the handlebars. You see the vibration to have just a buzz usually two cylinders is like a big thump thump. This isn’t thump them. This is boots. This feels almost like a 4-cylinder. It’s a too soon so yes, this is a definitely a v-strom engine. Listen to it how smooth. This I’m going to show you now the silly thing about this bike check it out. If I can because I need speed oh look. I’m cruising on the highway and it’s telling me to engage seventh year. I hope this is adjustable because this is retarded but it does vary. It’s a 250 so it should happily stay at 120 kph. We are in any part which is about 65 miles per hour. Now I’d really like these cars to move away now. I don’t think I have the power to go around them. Let’s see, let’s go crazy why promotes full speed. Top speed on this one seems to be a 130. A bit more it’s very windy as you can see for my helmet. I’m not getting a lot of wind from the front, but golly I’m getting a lot of wind from the sides. Yeah pops Pizza around 130 slap that should do 125-130, going downhill 140 145 but this seems a bit. It’s probably because it’s a new bike. It seems a bit slower leadership just feels like the white sugar of doom work. Then again you’re going at the top speed of the bike in your 100% comfortable instead of all the wobbliness. It happens so here’s the verdict on this one. This is what is usually wrongly told but on this one is 100% true a true beginners. Like very permissive allows you to screw up everything and will still keep going. It will not kill you even if you try to it’s fast enough. Mot blazingly fast but it’s fast enough. Extremely smooth in acceleration in braking and turning to say super smooth bike. And not intimidating which is the whole point of being a beginners, right. So beginner, right, should be smooth and non-intimidating white and relatively short. So the beginners can put their feet down correctly. This one takes all of those boxes. I found a pretty cool place. Let’s go sitting down Suzuki. This isn’t off road please don’t be angry at me. I’m just exemplifying this is the kind of road. You’re going to be doing with this one or if these bikes usually at most cool. It’s the highway and on this one just look how comfortable. I am you know. I am so comfortable let me explain look look at my feet, it’s bent when I can put my feet down like this away from the bike. And I can actually ride with my feet stretched out to for balance. So and it feels super light, so I’m super comfortable on this which makes it strangely enough pretty good for this. I also noticed that the suspension is very liable, very soft, very soft dampers. I worried under dampened so it makes it very comfortable for the bad pavement. And for bumps saw that that was the wheel not touching the ran over a hole so that means that suspensions red tabs too soft. If I go over a quick hold it jolts forward well, it makes it pretty freaking comfortable. Now let’s go open up a very steep hill. Now CBS going off can I go left here weekend. Let’s go left and it works at a good pace too. I like this quite a lot more than I was expecting to be honest. Being so light and so easy makes it very comfortable to just explore and not worry about. I wonder where that road goes because it’s so light if I have to turn around I know I can just turn around, ouch. No check this out this is what I mean this is such an easy bike for everything. Just check out what I’m so easily in comfort. It’s not just that I’m doing it said I’m doing this 100% comfortably shifting gears while I’m doing figure eights now that was weird. And I’m not used to her I’ve been riding this one for one hour and look at this how easy this is. I’m almost at full lock rolling around the parking lot easily. Going with no problems whatsoever and relax. It’s not that I’m doing it. I can do this on any bike but said I’m doing this easily not I’m just 100% relaxed. It’s so bleating easy well what a part of it is because it’s a very light bike with it’s a very good bike to maneuver. Around to move, around cars then poof brilliant bleep and brilliant I’m going to do another test. I want to do which is something I usually miss and most people miss which is simple you’ve just parked it on your garage okay and you have to park it you have to take it some bikes my old NC 700 was very hard to do this. The xj6 was better and the tracer is very easy to do. This tone is also very easy to maneuver like this side by side. And I’m again, I’m not very comfortable because I’m not used to her which is normal but if I can do this easily like this on a bike. I’m not used to the white and not a pro. it’s good this it’s a very special machine. I’m actually enjoying. This Zook is quite a lot there is a very good machines thing. Is most of them were unbelievably ugly in my eyes. This one, this one I like the looks. I don’t like the front, the front headlamp that seems likely they fired the old designer but he still designed the front headlamp. That just looks odd but the rest of the bike. It’s looks pretty cool bright yellow. This bright yellow just gives it a nice look a bright fresh look. You have a pretty good exhaust but it still gives you a decent enough exhaust. Notes a musical note actually, not sure if I’ll put a performance exhaust but it should be relatively easy because I’m seeing there or is this welded no. This is welded so they have to change the whole thing. She’s a bit of a pain yeah because this is the catalyst converter so you’d have to change the whole thing so one single piece front back media the v-strom 215 I dig kid roots.
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