Hi! I am Kelli on tools.And I am again at smick tech to test drive the Suzuki v-strom 650. So, from last time this one is the bigger version. And again Suzuki V-Strom 650 sport bike has made and not ugly bike. This one actually looks quite good. It still looks a bit like a duckbill at the front but now that duckbill is nicely integrated to the rest of the bike. With this very cool optic and the windscreen. I like to look on on this. One this part is still a bit too exposed but it seems like there’s something right. It seems like there’s something missing here but at least this one looks pretty darn good now. This is a version of the ABS version. There’s a version with spoked wheels for 400 extra bucks. I think this is 9,000 euros or eight nine nine nine and the other one is about 400 extra. And I think the change is just this nothing else.
So you got your mixed tyres. These are in between but these are more road than trail. But still you have a mix between which is a trail max. I think trail wing something something the dimensions on one of these is actually important I think. This is a 110 at the front and 150 F to the rear if I am not mistaken. And trail wing radio yaga yaga yaga o 110 at the front. And it is a 150 at the rear 108. It looks like a 150 and it is a 150 at the rear exactly. So slightly thinner tyres. The more off-road ish dimension than the 160 at the rear one 120 at the front or my tracers 120 180 at the rear. I am going to compare this to my very own mq7 tracer which makes sense. Since this is there a competitor although this is supposed to be more off-road than on road. In the trace is more on-road and off-road so backwards you have your normal suspension with the mouthguard protecting your Forks looks good dual headlamps for low beams and high beams.
I like that quite a lot I hate it when it’s just one lamp wing bolt because it’s just not in the flight. You’ve got your v-strom engine we hear two cylinders with one exhaust being very exposing the other one going somewhere around the back. Your gigantic exhaust your gigantic hero 4 exhaust. Oh preload is adjustable here which is very nice. You don’t actually have the things that your 50 has. The little Clips here but you can see where the pioneers go doesn’t seem too hard to fit it yourself. If you have your rear rack stock so I think a little base plate here and you can put on a top case easily. this is a trail bike so it is going to be carrying these. And you got chain drivers normal you have your rest of the suspension. There’s normal dual disc brakes at the front of abs must have ABS because that’s mandatory. I don’t see the ABS ring oh it’s on the other side, ok cool. And the rest this is imported directly from v1000 and it has my preferred configuration of a analog tech. And a digital speedo and you also have a power outlet. Something the tracer does not have ok. And this should really be stuck on all bikes which nowadays come on. It’s really oh you have a lot of stuff here. Let’s go hop on way way taller than 250 way taller.
Suzuki very well done. I don’t like kilometers per litre but I think that’s configurable. But I am not going to configure it now because I don’t know how to let’s just do. What is this age? This will probably turn off ABS. No oh it’s to change to mph instead of kph. There ought to be something and abs is probably possible to disable at the rear wheel. But if you don’t know how to disable ABS. There’s a tiny trick you put it on the side stands like show. And then you pull it off the rear. So the rear is off the ground like I’m doing. It’s not hard you turn it off, put it in first gear. And you break with the front wheel the ABS crashes. The software crashes and your abs is often works for all bikes. So let’s just turn around and listen and the from of a v-strom engine sounds. Very civilized okay. So let’s get going the very first impression and usually this is wrong until I get used to her as the handle of our seems to be a bit forwards. I’m sitting in where I’m supposed to be sitting. I think where I’m comfortable and the handlebars are just a bit of a reach at. I’m a bit stretched forwards this will probably take some getting used to at least some five minutes. And I have something inside my gloves. I’ll have to stop it take it off. I think it’s a little rock but on this one. It’s funny because on this one I don’t feel that eagerness clean which I felt immediately on the other bike on the 250. On the first two minutes this one just felt progressive going around again. It’s very likely due to the tires the other one has some very thin tires. Oh there’s a bit of that here too but not that much most likely just due to a slightly higher center of gravity. Due to the big between in between my legs but again this feels just so smooth. The suspension is very very nice and we do do the same thing I did on the last one exactly.
The same words are the same routes but I’m really amazed how smooth this is. I know this pavement is horrible none of my tracer I would be jumping everywhere. But I’m just comfortably riding along with no issues. Oh here’s a big bump what the hell. Wow! This is okay. This isn’t standard suspension on upside-down nothing fancy. I don’t see any special adjustments here. There are no special adjustments but just work so well. Only the big bump that I know intimately to really try this out. Because I’m confused to be honest. Let’s go up this but this time I’m going sitting down megha comfy although I was a bit thrown out of the seat there because there was a huge bump. I am absolutely amazed at just how nice this feels over bumps. It’s great there’s something I’m not feeling this correctly. Because it shouldn’t be this nice. I was expecting this to be slightly alright. I have the feeling hello dog. I have the feeling that the road is just not bad enough who.
It is horrible doing this with a tracer. I would be standing up because I wouldn’t want this to jolt through my spine on this one. I do not care about bumps what a lovely suspension setup. This is the same route I did last time. Let’s go back the XR height though compared to my tracer is a bit bothersome but it’s very balanced. So this doesn’t really matter now. Let’s go to my test track which in case you don’t know goes from there to there. It’s this hill up ahead welcome to the test track. I’m running out of battery already. G shown straight. I’ve already felt the engine. And it feels great very great awesome. And I’m now going to be feeling. How it corners mmm likes to widen the turns a bit maybe. I did it wrong let’s see but I’m expecting this to be more wobbly than usual because of this fantastic suspension setup for bad pavement and for off-road footage. This bike is also tuned for me so I’m expecting this to be not quite as good on defense as it should. I’m also half expecting to be proven wrong because of the experience with the last one. Again smoothness is key it feels yeah. It’s a bit slow so it’s not agile but it’s not meant to be. Let’s try do a quick insertion and it’s not a very agile white but it is more than enough. It’s normal for this range again. I’m comparing it with the tracer which is a hooligan machine dressed up as a an adventure bike. And so the tracer is much faster doing this. This one she didn’t really like what I just did now. Oh, the rear was wobbling going. Let’s go have fun again contrasting with the 250 where nothing like. This happens to 50s for beginners.
This one is not shoot I have to overtake that truck or else this whole section will be ruined. And here we are going to put this engine through the tests. Please turn left or right please turn left or right please turn left or right. Frank me you are not so I mean I’m going to have to jump. You like this not an issue whatsoever just as you will expect now. The right part initial bite was a bit weak though I have to try that again. It is stable Oh traction control went on okay right. These aren’t 100% road tires so kinda make sense Oh oh yeah. I felt the TC going on now again cool tc1 allowed the rear just a slightly off balance. And then no you’re not going anywhere but traction control does give you the ability to do. What I just did wish I would never do on my tracer which is leaned over and throttle. I wonder if I can turn it off and see what happens this will probably be a very short trip now. I’ll do it later. I’d really like to do that. Turn that off and see what happens. Come on oh here we go off. Let’s see what happens on this last bins. I’m scared. I’m too scared to do this. Sorry, I’m not exactly skilled to leave a turn at high speed going with the traction control completely. Off sorry, very sorry about that come on select some not being able to do. This why perhaps the clutch needs to be in okay. Maybe the clutch needs to be. And I have no idea but on cornering.
It does feels it is stable but at a best show that. It is a more off-road ish tuned suspension and a more off-road ish tire having the throttle. And exit does cause the ABS the traction control to turn on. And while cornering it’s a bit more wobbly then you you’d expect or would feel on a tracer not that much. It’s not war no. It’s a bit boring more nervous but it’s fun. It can do it perfectly well. Very well indeed great bike on roads but you do feel that. The tires are mixed tires. And the suspension is a bit softer in install but it’s not dramatic. It’s a great bike football look at this very carefully. I shall do this only once just go to the test. I must rather theropods stem estrada no not afraid to dream. Come on komomo a test drive clock no. Tom Estrada Betemit normal now that’s a fascist calm wind quitter. The inner moment will not impair kiddo. Don’t pick a brush twice but not in payments funciona. Don’t know no top fight. There’s no time out. Okay are you controller so damn your CD push mental control traverse.
The third tier control Allah bro. I gotta create bigger controller so off my focus. Okay well I’ve got an OC y squared is fika Z atrás era Paki no era era Jean de Cristo. He controlled Raza not very different so my khaki. I am winter Lada no control castle nuovo Liga noon. English prevent no inundation Avinash Islamic otoscope cos that’s a book – no fish no Suzuki motto for the English Channel. I did this with subtitles because Suzuki will probably murder me for taking one of their machines offroad okay. Well that wasn’t actually an off-road that was more. It’s going to first gear but yeah but yes. This just like you saw there is. It is a nice very happy fifty-fifty. It’s that bike that does both things well. So that oh, it can do both now. It can do both very well, very well. Indeed the riding position as I told is I think the handlebars a bit too forward in too low for me. I have short relatively short arms. So I have this issue on many bikes. There on this one is a bit more than most. So it’s your city. It’s not quite an adventure style setting. You’re sitting down but you’re not completely straight like a BMW or like. This on the beginning on the Beemer okay. On this one your back is straight but your torsos tilted forwards. Ever so slightly so you have to sound like sitting down. And grab the bike sound like punk punk noise honking. Here we go okay. There’s a deliberateness to bending forward to grab.
The handlebars the tracer is more straight up for some reason or I think it is might be wrong. These things are often feel and sometimes sometimes I screw up. I’m not perfect and while standing up like so the handlebars for proper off-road. It just feels a tad too low. It feels slightly higher than my tracer but still not quite enough which is exactly. And this is not a criticism. This is exactly what you want because this is supposed to be the in-between because if it was higher. It was off-road to be very high. We’d be riding with your hands up so if you want to take this to offroad. There’s you can just take it stock which is great but if you want to do a bit more series. You can just do some tiny, tiny adjustments and for example some foreign razors with the bar slightly raised. It’ll be perfect for reference. Here I am and if I was going on on my old ANSI 700 which was a bit more off-road II than the tracer. I was just bending forward even slightly, even more. This one is it’s that riding position on an off-road machine that you go okay.
This is fine but perhaps I’ll do some bar risers to be a bit more comfortable. It’s exactly that it is a off-road position but it just needs a few centimetres up to be like. The full die standing up routine instead of just. The let’s get up which is what does now. Let’s get up to cross through this nasty air path and then we’ll sit down back again, okay. This is what this handlebar is for right now. It is just for the occasional standing up not for the let’s go down that path. The whole time standing up so yeah very in between ish machine. Let me just show you the engine and bending yeah. It corners pretty well and gives you a lot of confidence too. Let’s see if I can show you the engine there might or might not be radars here. I think those are cops behind me. Let’s go she pretty fast but this engine comparing with my tracer. And let’s get this out of the way. The tracer engine is sublime. It is off the charts compared to the competition. Yamaha did an excellent job on it and there’s really very little comparison or possibility of an actual competition to that engine ok. The bike itself is another matter but that engine is cool by far.
The best on the range this one. I would like I might be wrong but I don’t think I am. This has been changed from the last version. I wrote this feels more raw more violent check. This out third gear full throttle and it does pull you back. And keep to pull back until the red line literally until the red line. The tracer gives you that huge jolt that big smile on your face. And then keeps pushing you violently and then that’s 9,000 rpm. It starts sputtering out starts going and you feel the engine going soft. So you’re being pulled back and then when you reach 9k is you start going back slightly. It’s still accelerating but it starts not accelerating as much starts running out of steam. And then when it reaches the redline you already shifted up because you notice that. It’s no longer on its happy place this one when it starts pulling. It will not stop until you hit the redline and I have a nagging suspicion that if the redline was higher. It would just keep on going so it’s different. And it’s very good, it’s very, very good the last one. I liked it also have this just keep pulling think but it was not the same. I think this is a bit more wrong especially when you’re going like you know in. It’s heavy place 5,000 rpm or so and then suddenly you get scared and you just choke. The throttle and it just tries to lift. The wheel so it’s not no no slouch it’s not. This one feels less civilized. This is a bit more of an uncivilized engine which I love.
I have the memory I wrote. The other one a long time ago but I have the memory. The other one was just too civilized was a very suit and tie thing. This is more of a not even going to say. It’s a casual dressing or a casual office tie. This is more like a jeans and t-shirt kinda guy. It’s not yet the hooligan with the Mohawk. And the spikes that the tracer is but it’s a bit more a more relaxed guy. It’s a bit more or less formal which is good now comparing this directly with the tracer who would get the tracer. And who would get this if you want to do some more further. If you want to off roads. And Road this is the Machine. This will do both okay if you just want to do roads. You can choose any of it either a traitor or this if you only want to do the road because. This is very comfortable on the roads. And the wind protection out of the box is great much better than the tracer miles better. There’s no wind here my hand is getting no kind of impact nothing here. There’s impact I can feel the wind here. Then here there is no wind on my hand here and then. There’s no way oh there’s a bit that’s coming in through me down. Here so it’s very colourful on the road. So you could choose both if you want to more relaxed right. And you don’t care about turning your rear tire into smoke. This is the one if you want pure hooliganism while the engine will ease stop is basically being annoying as hell. Then you have the tracer for you both will do great on big trips without having done.
The end to end I would say that this would be much better on a big trip than the tracer. But after having done a huge trip on the tracer accorded itself spectacularly and this one will be even better. This doc seat is very very country. I’m just going to put it to her faces so you can see. This box seats. It’s very country better than the tracer stops. It’s not quite as good as a tracer comfort seats but I do believe. There is the comfort seats for this one. This will do easily 200 kph or more kills faster. At the top end than the tracer okay. So I’m talking about the tracer because like it or not Sukie tracer is your competition to this bike. It is a huge leap up being right for very many good reasons. And your prophet Suzuki is a very very good alternative well not directly competing because this does not appeal to the same people. If you want to do off-road. I would highly suggest this little baby. I’m just amazed at just how well it copes with all kinds of stupid terrain. And stupid bumps and it’s just I still can’t quite get through my thick skull just how good it was.
There that road would be murder on my butt on the tracer. And I went through if you remember on the Portuguese in two ends. We went through a big a big road with cobblestone roads a gigantic cobblestone road. I had to stand up because I just couldn’t stand it and I said it’s trying to shake my bike apart because I was going the whole time. The windscreen was going nuts completely nuts go check. That video out just for comparison. This one on the road that is easily worse zero issue. So I’m absolutely amazed and then the most amazing part is that it actually works on the roads too which I don’t quite get how that is possible but I just tell you how it feels. And it feels great over bumps and very very good on the roads. You do feel the height on the road when you’re cornering but you already need to be a bit experienced. You already need to have ridden other bikes to feel. This detail when you’re cornering. It just it’s the 250 is completely stuck on the road. This one is a bit more nervous when you’re leaned over on the roads. It’s just that it’s not dramatic. I’m not saying it’s bad. It’s just I’m not. I’m just saying, it’s not as good as a more sporty bike which is exactly the points okay. The point is not to do corners at our six speeds. The point is that you can keep up with an r6. You’ll capture in a few up ahead. You’ll catch her again okay or just stay in the general vicinity as a with an r6 of with a guy going fast. You can’t do that won’t be able to keep up with it. It’s just soon, it’s just more tuned for comfort and for city riding etc. Marvelous, marvelous, marvelous!
It is so good actually that I would be tempted. I would be tempted by this one truthfully. I love the trail I just adore my tracer. It’s like the best bike I have ever had. Not that I’ve had that many but it’s just perfect for me. Super exciting elements but this one has that little star. You know that exciting star because if I had this one if I bought full of these. I knew on this one. I can go off-road whenever I want. I can just go on the tracer and not maybe. Not this one has these tires which work on the road but they also work very well off-road. Has these mixed tires are more on-road but there are better than real tires on the dirts. So it’s I can actually work on the dirts not perfect but they will work so yeah. I am it’s tempting this one is quite tempting and it’s no longer Li. And the engine is I think it’s improved I don’t know what they did I hope I get back and then he doesn’t tell me. Now it’s the same exact engine didn’t change a thing. So I’ll feel pretty stupid if it’s the exact same one but I’m nearly 100% sure.
This has been changed from the last version it feels more raw more fun more tracer ish which is going to start being a verb yeah. And it’s agile enough. It’s not quite as agile as the sporty tracer again but it can do. This you saw me doing that roundabouts easily without even thinking. So it’s not a slouch it just move. It moves it’s not a superlight 250 cc bike which just goes whenever you think. That’s corner there and just flies there but it’s still an a pretty agile bike to run around the city on the 250. On the city is just brilliant ok. It’s just on another league but this one is still very good. It’s easily on the same league as all the other adventure bikes so yeah. It’s a very good adventure bike and I’m going for lunch at McDonald’s. I’m going to regret it later so yeah that’s it’s the v-strom 650 again what a wonderful bike Suzuki interrupts.
