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adjustment of riding style . Extremely rough tracks will see the suspension bottom out occasionally . It ’ s nothing drastic , just annoying . Playing around a little more with the full manually adjusted suspension would ’ ve fixed this somewhat . A great feature is the preload knob for the rear , it ’ s easily reached and easy to turn while on the fly .
Moving , turning ? Good . Stopping ? Unbelievable ! The V-Strom ’ s braking system is amazing , as you ’ d expect from the four-piston Tokico callipers and dual 310mm discs . The lever action is light , yet not too sensitive . Applying the brakes comes easy and provides plenty of feel , squeeze a little harder and the bike stops , it stops very quickly , yet the rider never feels like the tyres will lose traction , somewhat
helped by the ‘ Motion Track ’ braking system .
The front and rear brakes are linked , the system applies pressure to the rear when a certain level of pressure is applied to the front brakes . It ’ s hard to determine when this comes into play however , just applying the front brakes under heavy conditions does see the bike stop well . The front brakes are great . The rears alone aren ’ t so good and don ’ t relay a feeling of confidence . Together the brakes are perfect .
Range from the V-Strom is reasonable at around 350- 400km from the 20-litre tank , we were averaging 18.8 kilometres per litre ( 5.36 litres per 100km ), making it comparable to many other bikes in the class .
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