alanr1610

V-Strom Review. Nan Trip, 5 riders on 2 x V-Strom's 1 x Versys & 2 x Multistrada's.

Just completed a six day tour to Nan and back totaling 2448km on the bike. First stretch from Buriram is a bore until you get past Chum Pae on Route 12. After that you start to get into some beautiful biking country and I have to say our trip up to Nan was full on twisty mountain roads and void of traffic. In fact one road was all new fresh tarmac and we didn't see a single sole for some 35+km. As you can imagine we enjoyed ourselves and as the days went on the smiles got bigger. Nan has on offer every type of road and stunning scenery. Tony's Place (Bikers Corner) in Nan is a must for great food and hospitality.

The bike continues to impress in every department and held its own extremely well against my mate Andy (the nutter) on his Multistrada. Road with him last December on the Mae Hong Song loop on my Versys and it was hard work staying with him. As I have owned both Versys and now V-Strom and ridden similar roads with the same guys it's good to compare. Overall comfort of the V-Strom is very good even day after day in the saddle. The bike rides silky smooth with very little vibration anywhere. Swapping bikes with one of the guys on a Versys quickly reminded me of how much they buzz and I had forgotten all about the fuzzy mirrors. The engine power is about the same but delivery is very different. The Strom pulls from around 2500rpm without any snatching and with a wider gear spacing allows for a lot less up and down changes whilst chasing the switch backs. Brakes are very strong with a nice feel and very little effort required. When it comes to handling I enjoyed the Versys very much and had always known the V-Strom would be slower and less agile with its longer wheel base and 19" front wheel. By day two this proved to be not the case for me at all. I find the Strom tips in easier settles quicker and gives a much more secure feeling with lots of feedback. It flicks from left to right very quickly and I was able to ride to the edge of the tyre with ease. When it did get a little scary such as I read it wrong or the road was a tad slippery it was so easy to correct without the sphincter muscle having a seizure. On the muddy or graveled roads the 19" wheel and longer wheel base makes riding these surfaces very easy. It's a shame the abs has no off switch but this was not a problem on this trip but maybe full rainy season muddy tracks might be.

Suspension is very smooth and soaks up the bumps with ease and handles hard ridding without any fuss. The adjustment is there but loaded or unloaded I leave it where it is.

Bridgestone tyres were a big surprise and offer a stonking amount of grip.

4 ltr / 100km at best and worst was 5 ltr / 100km which easliy gives 350km between fill ups.

The bike is a joy to ride and a great choice for Thailand at a cracking price. Do I miss the the extra cubes a 1000cc+ gives? Yes of coarse I do but do I really need it? Simple answer is no. Mind you the 1000 V-Strom brochure was shoved under my nose and it is very tempting! Either way, Suzuki make a very good bike and they have always been my preferred Jap choice. The Versys is a great bike and kudos to Kawasaki for opening the market. Versys is showing its age a little now and hopefully when a new model comes out Kawasaki will give it a dedicated chassis like they did the 1000cc and make it the bike it can be. Very sad Bangkok are not doing their job but the privately owned Suzuki dealerships that I have had contact with in Isaan seem very switched on and offer a service I think we can have confidence in.

Forgive me if this has been answered already, but if I were to walk into a Suzuki dealership to buy a brand new V-Strom 650, what additional fees, if any, would I be looking at on top of the 350k retail price? From what I can gather, a 7% VAT tax is already included in the price. Specifically, I'm interested to know about excise tax, registration, etc.

Thanks!

First class insurance and registration was another 17,000 baht so 367,000 baht on the road price. Free insurance and registration fee was only available during a promotion period. I missed that too!

Alanr

Thanks for all your comments. Why am I not surprised? Japanese provide excellent product and a workable system for sales and aftersales and the Thais decide it is too much hassle and they'll do it the short cut way but screw it up. Seen it a million times. The remedy is strong, firm management. If this is lacking, well things go wrong. It is good to have this information.

I was thinking of getting the other 650, the SV650 but if the Thai dealership is useless, then forget it.

Bike is good and so are the dealers all but Bangkok..........

Thanks for replying.

I was under the impression that Bangkok was the only dealer at present for Suzuki big bikes. Are there others?

Khon Kaen and Ubon Rattatani are both excellent. Check out your local Suzuki dealer as they are spreading fast.

Any body else getting the run around from Suzuki Avenue Bangkok regarding registration and all the other required documents. Excellent product but the after sales in Bangkok is far from good. My friend just bought a V-Strom from Khon Kaen.......... Sooooooooooo much better. £ months and many unanswered calls later they now need all the documentation I provided on date of purchase once again. Khun Pong says "very sorry it my fault and it will come this week. Then within two minuts he calls wife to ask for the documentation he has obviously lost. What a ! I have emailed Suzuki with my thoughts! Very disappointing for Suzuki Japan and even more so for those of us that dealt with Bangkok!

Bought the GSXR 5/6 months ago. Haven't received the registration yet. Maybe due to the recent protests causing a backlog.

At last after far to much buggering about from me and the lovely wife we finally got all the documents from Suzuki Avenue Bangkok. Only just though as we picked them up at 9pm on the 3/6/2014 prior to a 6 day tour starting at 6am the following morning. Khun Pong is a complete plonker whom does not even have the balls to admit it was himself that lost all my original documents at time of purchase. A discrace to Suzuki IMO and Suzuki Thailand have been informed and are in communication over this cock up which I am sure is not just happening to me

Alan, you sure he lost your documents and it wasn't just a delay at the DMV due to the recent protests?

I've heard of newly-purchased bikes from other manufacturers having a similarly long wait for registration in Bangkok recently.

I've been promised plate and green book at the end of this month and I bought the bike about 6 months ago. We'll see.

Suzuki GSX-R1000 L3 182 hp in-line 4 Superbike

Nope nothing to do with the protests. He lost my documentation and it only took him two days to get everything done once we sent him new info. So if can do in two days why does it always take so long even when they don't loose anything?

Alanr

Thanks for all your comments. Why am I not surprised? Japanese provide excellent product and a workable system for sales and aftersales and the Thais decide it is too much hassle and they'll do it the short cut way but screw it up. Seen it a million times. The remedy is strong, firm management. If this is lacking, well things go wrong. It is good to have this information.

I was thinking of getting the other 650, the SV650 but if the Thai dealership is useless, then forget it.

Bike is good and so are the dealers all but Bangkok..........

Any body else getting the run around from Suzuki Avenue Bangkok regarding registration and all the other required documents. Excellent product but the after sales in Bangkok is far from good. My friend just bought a V-Strom from Khon Kaen.......... Sooooooooooo much better. £ months and many unanswered calls later they now need all the documentation I provided on date of purchase once again. Khun Pong says "very sorry it my fault and it will come this week. Then within two minuts he calls wife to ask for the documentation he has obviously lost. What a <deleted>! I have emailed Suzuki with my thoughts! Very disappointing for Suzuki Japan and even more so for those of us that dealt with Bangkok!

Bought the GSXR 5/6 months ago. Haven't received the registration yet. Maybe due to the recent protests causing a backlog.

At last after far to much buggering about from me and the lovely wife we finally got all the documents from Suzuki Avenue Bangkok. Only just though as we picked them up at 9pm on the 3/6/2014 prior to a 6 day tour starting at 6am the following morning. Khun Pong is a complete plonker whom does not even have the balls to admit it was himself that lost all my original documents at time of purchase. A discrace to Suzuki IMO and Suzuki Thailand have been informed and are in communication over this cock up which I am sure is not just happening to me!

Just completed 6 amazing days and 2400km tour taking in Nan province. I will give a better report later but having ridden many roads on different bikes over the years including 2 Versys here I can say the V-Strom was an absolute stonking bike to ride. And yes IMO it out handles and out performs the Versys and does it with much less effort.

Any body else getting the run around from Suzuki Avenue Bangkok regarding registration and all the other required documents. Excellent product but the after sales in Bangkok is far from good. My friend just bought a V-Strom from Khon Kaen.......... Sooooooooooo much better. £ months and many unanswered calls later they now need all the documentation I provided on date of purchase once again. Khun Pong says "very sorry it my fault and it will come this week. Then within two minuts he calls wife to ask for the documentation he has obviously lost. What a &lt;deleted&gt;! I have emailed Suzuki with my thoughts! Very disappointing for Suzuki Japan and even more so for those of us that dealt with Bangkok!

Or Touratech, Thailand but they are silly money. Alan's look a better option IMO

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In my ongoing quest to uderstand and fit into this lovely country why oh why is it so difficullt to get the simplest things done by so called F ing experts? As you can guess there has been a cock up with my skid plates....... No longer wishing to trust another welder I am about to take the leap to spend significant amounts of money on a decent AC tig welder and produce the things in house as much as possible. Please bare with me......... Oh dear.....TIT!

Well today has finally arrived I collect my new bike. Really excited and of course nervous because of the step up in cc to what I am used

to. Thanks for all the advice here especially alanr for all the support.

Well done Blowin. I am sure your a very happy man now wearing a smile a mile wide. Ride safe and keep in touch.

Are those the Givi LED lights? Any reports on how well they work?

Yes they are........ I tend to think of them as get yourself seen rather than light up the far east so have them set none offensive. V-Strom lights are already good but turn these off at night and the difference is significant. The best part about these lights is the quality. Comes with switch and wiring loom including relay. All that's needed is to thread the loom and connect to battery and trigger wire.

Thanks. I was intending on getting some lights but was looking at either those or the Denali D2. There is probably a big difference in the light output, but if it was small enough I was going to go with the more affordable option.

Have a look on aliexpress.com. Some options on their.

Are those the Givi LED lights? Any reports on how well they work?

Yes they are........ I tend to think of them as get yourself seen rather than light up the far east so have them set none offensive. V-Strom lights are already good but turn these off at night and the difference is significant. The best part about these lights is the quality. Comes with switch and wiring loom including relay. All that's needed is to thread the loom and connect to battery and trigger wire.

Thanks. I was intending on getting some lights but was looking at either those or the Denali D2. There is probably a big difference in the light output, but if it was small enough I was going to go with the more affordable option.

Have a look on aliexpress.com. Some options on their.

R1

??

Suzuki GSX-R1000 L3 182 hp in-line 4 Superbike

Good choice for Thailand !!!!!!

I think it's an excellent choice for Thailand.

Suzuki GSX-R1000 L3 182 hp in-line 4 Superbike

Good for you. Enjoy...

R1

??

Suzuki GSX-R1000 L3 182 hp in-line 4 Superbike

Good choice for Thailand !!!!!!

No lane-splitting on that! It's as wide as a small car.

Never going to be as slippery as an R1

555

Are those the Givi LED lights? Any reports on how well they work?

Yes they are........ I tend to think of them as get yourself seen rather than light up the far east so have them set none offensive. V-Strom lights are already good but turn these off at night and the difference is significant. The best part about these lights is the quality. Comes with switch and wiring loom including relay. All that's needed is to thread the loom and connect to battery and trigger wire.

Latest updates on my V-Strom. I purchased the standard set up of Givi Treker Outback panniers and due to the exhaust off set the boxes come as an odd pair as do the Suzuki boxes, 1x37ltr for the exhaust side and 1x48ltr for the left side. The exhaust side frame is spaced out to clear the hideously large Suzuki can and the whole set up may well be first class quality but so wide that I was worried about filtering and it look ridiculous IMO. To rectify this I modified the exhaust system and exchanged the left side 48ltr box for a 37ltr with Jacketboy.com. I then set about cutting welding the right side frame to match the left side.

Whilst waiting for the new box to arrive I made my own skid plate and got this and the modified frame powder coated and fitted. The new box set up looks much better and is just slightly wider than the bars at present but with hand guards fitted I think it will be around the same width. Skid plate finishes off the lower engine whilst also adding protection to the engine and oil filter. For those interested the skid plate is fixed to the crash bar and bike frame and not the "engine" like Givi and some others do. Skid plates on bikes of this size and weight will suffer damage if bottomed onto rocks etc on a regular basis and are more to provide protection agaist flying debris. Saying that if you do impact on a skid plate mounted directly to the engine it can crack engine casings causing massive and expensive problems. I intend making more of these units as soon as I get time and they will fit Givi or Suzuki type engine bars. I am aiming to price reasonably around 5000 baht.

Hand guards are on the way and I have also fitted two 12v sockets to the dash for the GPS bracket I have yet to make.

Centre stand from Jacketboy.com 2900 baht. Had to be modified this slightly as the main spring would not stay on the pins as the heads were to small. The stand did not fall as it was caught by the secondary spring "but" not good and required attention before using again. This involved drilling out the existing pins and fitting new pins with larger heads and welding into place. I have informed Jacketboy.com. Other than that the stand is well made and very good value.

With these mods completed I will be well happy with my bike and look forward to some long tours starting with Nan province in June. Still no number plate after 6 weeks or more now. Mind you it took Ducati 4 months to provide the plate on my mates new Multistrada! Not to worried but if your planning a tour outside of Thailand soon after you have purchased your new bike then this is not good.

Cheers

Alan

Don't get me wrong, I'm glad it's coming but all the reviews I've read the Versys and Suzuki are very close in terms of performance. The 2013 V Strom doesn't even have USD forks (Versys does), maybe the 2014 does? Plus it's 40k more expensive than the Versys, which is a lot of mods or a few fun tours up north. We already have the CB500X and the Versys.

I just wished they'd brought something a bit different rather than more of the same (even if it is 10% better that what's already here, which is debatable). I also question the dealer support for a new model, I haven't seen too many Suzuki dealerships springing up all over the place but hopefully that will follow.

So IMO the 2 line up like this...

Versys 40k cheaper

Versys loads of dealer support and cheap spares

Versys tons of aftermarket parts

V Strom "maybe" 10% better if you ride more fire trails than roads.

My main hope is that the Japs will do the same thing with some other, more exciting models, maybe they're realizing that Thai consumers are fed up with ripoff prices and it's better to sell a load of bikes at small margins than one or two bikes at massive margins.

Fair play to Suzuki for doing this, I commend them - I just wish they'd chosen something a bit more exciting. What's next, the mighty Gladius to compete with the er6n and CB500F? I'd rather see a 2014 GSXR750 at 400-450k to blow the competition out of the water...

Just to share, I spent many days riding a Versys in Thailand, and on a recent business trip to Vancouver test rode a 2013 V Strom for almost an hour.

The V Strom may not even be 10% better of a motorcycle than a Versys, a Versys performs great, but the Strom has 50% more character than a Versys. Engine feel, vibes and torque, through the throttle, bars, and pegs is way more enjoyable. A Versys was one of 3 bikes at the top of my buying list this year, but now it's a Strom for sure - would have bought the one I test rode that day if northern Canadian roads were warmer

I am with you on this Fishenough. I travelled extensively on my Versys's and had a great time but the V-Strom is just so much more.

Regarding the forks JonnyF. USD forks are great if they are a quality item and the Versys are budget. Forks on the V-Strom work well and overall the V-Strom has more adjustment. At the end of the day not many of us riders will push a bike so hard we would really feel the difference between USD to Regular forks. Other advantage of regular forks is they are not as vulnerable to pitting of the tubes. You could apply the same method to the front brakes, wavy disc over regular. I always thought my two Versys and er6 brakes wer pretty average but I can assure you the V-Strom brakes fantastic.

35k baht difference is nothing when you compare the quality at close quarters and for me its money well spent.

Regarding availability of aftermarket parts there are plenty and more coming.

Plenty more Suzuki dealerships around Thaialnd than Kawasaki.... Does not take much to train up existing Suzuki mechanic's.

Gladius is here also to compete with the er6n as is the GSXR 750 and 1000.

I might be a bit biased towards Suzuki as I have owned plenty of Jap bikes along with Honda, Yamaha and Kawasaki. Has to be said all were good but for me the Kawasaki' did not have the same finish as the others and the Suzuki was always well put together and great value for money. At the end of the day its great that we are now getting more choice in Thailand at real world prices and competition is always good a good thing.

Thanks again guys great information and help. Thanks especially alanr1610 you have single handed made me decide this is the bike I

will buy and even the color I will pick. I have a contact name that specks and writes English so I will organize deposit from this end. She

told me if ordered now it will be available by the end of May. But alas I am going to be in Thailand for April and half of May but I will be

back in August so I will collect than. I will be in Chumphon so prob. service problems there too. Keep us posted Alan about the skid plate

I might take you up on that offer.

The salesman in Suzuki Avenue Bangkok is khun Bong and he speaks pretty good English.

Ubon have a white one on display now so I will try to find out if servicing is available there. Thanks for the info, Alan it's appreciated!

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Have you ordered one yet DILLIGAD???? You may find the white one in Ubon is on its way to Buriram. Servicing in Surin will be well in place by the time you need it DTD!!!!!

There is a farang in Buriram who has just bought one. As I am also waiting to purchase one, I have asked for feed-back from him, but no reply!

Yes I bought one and I am well chuffed. I have owned several Versys and a er6n in the past couple of years and I feel the V-Strom is a whole lot better all round. I have owned a DL1000 before so I new what I was getting but If you want reviews there are plenty out their already and they are all good and they ain't wrong.... Regarding the seat height it is 20mm lower than the Versys and it does have a lower or higher seat option + or - 20mm. Plenty of Thai's riding the Versys so the seat height is not a worry for them and it looks as though plenty are ordering V-Strom's.

Waiting time is not long and several of ordered bikes on offer if you search the interweb, so no reason to wait DILLIGAD. v-stromclubthailand.com is worth a look.

I believe the 2015 model is the same as current model but made in Thailand not Japan. Quality is top shelf on the Japan model and yes Suzuki are loosing a packet on these at the moment. My two mates riding Thai built Multisradas are having some quality issues. Something to bare in mind.

Regarding Givi accessories try Jacketboy.com on fb. Guys name is Krasian and he provides an excellent service and speaks good English.

Service providers will be done through existing Suzuki dealerships but progress is slow. I just had to travel from Buriram to Bangkok for the first service which is not ideal especially when it turns out the Bangkok mechanic is from Satuk in Buriram!!!!! This can only improve and using existing dealers should be a better way to go than using stand alone big bike dealers spread thinly across Thailand. Time will tell!

I am in the process of fabricating an aluminium skid plate as the oil filter is a little exposed and the bike looks odd without a belly pan of some sort. I don't like the Givi one as it connects to the engine instead of the frame and it looks a little flimsy to me. The Suzuki plastic fairing/belly pan is about 5000 baht and is cosmetic only. It will take me a few weeks to get it completed and I intend on making some for sale. They should come in around the 5000 baht mark and I will post pictures and full details when its available.

Alan

About 1m x 1m would do.

Hi Guys,

Can anybody tell me where I can get 3mm thick aluminium sheet as I want to fabricate a skid plate for my V-Strom. I am located in Buriram and don't really need a whole 8'x4' sheet so if anybody knows of a company that has decent size off cuts that can be posted I would be very grateful.

Cheers

Alan

Baht 300 / day my arse. If thats the case then why is it that today in Buriram the motor giant Toyota is advertising for sales staff Baht 5000/ month + commision. Hardly meets the national minimum wage does it. Also it should be said it is a minimum wage normally offered at low level entry employment.