Suzuki V-Strom 1050DE/Standard (2023) - Review

Price: £13,855 (DE)/£13,155 (Standard) | Power: 106bhp | Weight: 252/242kg | Overall BikeSocial Rating: 3/5

2023 Suzuki V-Strom 1050DE/Standard: Review – Overview

Suzuki’s big V-Strom has been a sturdy, reliable, basic, worthy, steadfastly unsexy representative of the adventure bike game since its debut over 20 years ago, back in 2002. Throughout a distinguished career blessed by an absence of accolades it’s been a sensibly priced alternative to better-spec’d, flashier rivals, eschewing a 21in front wheel, significant ground clearance and a genuine semblance of off-road ability – as well as lagging a few years behind other manufacturers when it comes to gadgets and spec options – in favour of doughty, durable, trusty big bike honesty for commuting and touring riders who want quasi-adventure looks without buying into the full Dakar-wannabe image. You’d never see a V-Strom 1000 off-road, or with a rider wearing a peaky lid and a Gore-Tex rally suit – but two-up with panniers and topbox touring Scotland or battering through wind, rain and traffic on the M25 in February? All day long.

And, importantly, the V-Strom 1000/1050 has always been at the right price given its level of trim and finish quality. But over the years – and particularly since a 2013 re-vamp that saw the addition of an adventure ‘beak’ and the 2017 addition of wire-spoked rims in an XT version – the big Strom has slowly but surely edged towards full adventure-dom, adding higher specification electronics with every iteration – and adding a few quid in price, too.

For 2023 the 1050 V-Strom is split into two models, as per last year’s base and XT models – but now called the DE (Dual Explorer) and the Standard. Previously, the base V-Strom was a lower trim and electronics spec than the up-spec XT, but for 2023 both the Standard and DE have equal electronics and trim spec. They still share the same engine, frame and styling as the previous model, but get new clocks plus a round of trim updates and improvements.

And the 1050DE also now also earns the V-Strom name the hallmark of a grown-up adventure bike by adding a 21in front, long travel suspension, more ground clearance, and upping the V-Strom’s off-road credibility.

But does the 1050DE finally earn the V-Strom a place at the adventure bike top table? And is it worth the increase in price to get it there? We ride DE and Standard models, on road and off, at the launch in Loutraki, Greece – through snow, sleet and rain! – to find out the state of play with Japan’s last big V-twin.

BikeSocial regular Simon Hargreaves test rides the new-for-2023 Suzuki V-Strom 1050DE (with 21" front wheel) and V-Strom Standard (with a 19" front) at the snowy launch in Greece.

2023 Suzuki V-Strom 1050DE/Standard: PRICE

The 2023 V-Strom 1050DE costs £13,855 on the road and the standard model is £13,155 on the road (if anyone tells you they’re £13,699 and £12,999, it’s because they’ve forgotten to add on registration and road tax. Like Suzuki do).

Which colours are the two bikes available in? (Take a look at the carousel above) The DE comes in in traditional Suzuki off-road yellow and blue with a silver tank, or a more GSX-R/DR Big-style blue/white. It’s also available in a matte/gloss black combo.

The standard 1050 comes in black/blue, red/grey, red/white or gloss black with gold wheels.

Suzuki V-Strom 1050DE PCP example

Suzuki V-Strom 1050 Standard PCP example

Both bikes have a smattering of accessories, including:

• low seat (30mm lower)

• heated grips (should be standard fitment)

• aluminium panniers and/or topbox (require mounting frame and plate)

• plastic panniers and/or topbox (panniers clip into existing mounts on bike, topbox needs plate)

• fog lamps

• adjustable position footrests

Prices for all are tba. The luggage accessories listed above will all also fit the previous model V-Strom.

While stocks last, the 2022 V-Strom 1050 XT Tour, coming with ally panniers and topbox, is still available at £13,855 – the same price as the new DE without luggage.

Suzuki V-Strom 1050DE/Standard: Engine & Performance

Blimey, it’s nice to ride a ‘new’ Japanese bike that isn’t powered by a parallel twin, even in awful weather. As the V-Strom DE stomps off down a slippery, freezing cold Greek mountain road (at least I packed my Keis heated kit; first time in 30 years of attending foreign launches), I realise this is the last big Japanese V-twin standing – and, in all probability, the last ever. Think on that, ye students of motorcycling history.

It’s also the longest serving. The V-Strom’s 1037cc DOHC eight-valve 90° V-twin is a 30-year-old design, hitting a Hamamatsu drawing board sometime around 1993 and first appearing in public in the 1997 TL1000S sporty roadster. Back then it was a high-revving, very oversquare 996cc 90° unit making record power for a road V-twin, topping 120bhp at the back wheel. It was a technically interesting design too, benefitting from new developments in fuel injection (still novel, at the time) and featuring a complex cam drive combination of a camchain per cylinder running from each end of a central crank-driven gear, to a worm gear in each head driving the cam sprockets. Along with radical adaptations to fit a long engine in a short wheelbase (such as a separate spring and rear damper unit) the TL1000S was a cutting-edge, powerful piece of engineering. It was Suzuki at the top of their game in terms of corporate balls and engineering innovation. But weren’t we all, back then?

In the intervening years the engine has been repurposed many times, finding a home in at least eight models across four manufacturers and even winning a World Superbike race in, ironically, the cold and wet at Phillip Island in 2000 (Anthony Gobert, take a bow). But in the 2023 V-Strom, the Euro5 V-twin is now producing a sane and safe 106bhp at 8500rpm and 74 lb.ft at 6000rpm – well within margins of durability, longevity and sanity. It’s identical to last year’s V-Strom 1050 engine, save for the addition of cooler-running sodium-filled exhaust valves – Suzuki’s first but an increasingly common feature in other models as manufacturers strive to control and stabilise combustion chamber temperatures.

Further down the powertrain, Suzuki have modified the V-Strom’s gear ratios, making first and top gear a fraction taller but lowering overall gearing significantly by adding four teeth to the rear sprocket, taking it from 41 teeth to 45 teeth. This has two effects: it should make the V-Strom motor feel much more lively and responsive in the lower gears, trading off against higher revs at cruising speed and lowering fuel consumption slightly (because the engine is revving harder for a given road speed; you don’t get something for nothing). But it’s a cheap and effective way of making the motor feel refreshed and more potent (it increases the bike’s thrust at the rear wheel, which is what we actually feel when we accelerate – basically the bike’s torque curve ‘translated’ via its gearing).

Meanwhile out here in Greece, both DE and Standard V-Stroms do indeed feel more lively as far I can tell from a soggy, slippery launch wobble-out – both models certainly put down a heap of go-motion through the rear tyre if the flashing orange traction control light is anything to go by – even just gunning the motor in a straight line. In the dry, I suspect wheelies will not be a problem (just as they never were on the original TL1000S all those years ago) – or maybe they will; depends on your lifestyle choices.

Speaking of which, the new Stroms definitely drink more. Suzuki claim around 4mpg less for the new bikes over last year’s models, at 54mpg. This figure, like all claimed fuel figures, is actually back-calculated by measuring the quantity of exhaust C02 during emissions tests – it’s not a direct measure of how much fuel goes into the motor (because the environment isn’t bothered about how much dinosaur juice gets burned, only how much is left afterwards). As a result, I have a feeling manufacturers’ claimed figures are meaningless and I’m not sure they serve any purpose beyond a number on a spreadsheet.

Back in the real world, it’s obvious some of the launch bikes have been run around the test route in better weather by Suzuki staff – the DE I ride in the morning is averaging 34mpg, so someone’s been having fun with the throttle because my wet riding is in the mid-40s. Either way, the range from a 20-litre tank will be between 130 to 160 miles before refilling, depending how you ride. It’s not brilliant, but it’s okay.

Otherwise the V-Strom motor feels much the same as it always has – flexible, easy-going, plenty of walloping V-twin vibes allied to an even spread of performance giving the option of relaxed, plodding about or a more hard-edged booming snarl when you wind it up and get it spinning. In these days of slightly anaemic Japanese p-twins it’s nice to use an engine with testicles, even if they’re not quite as fertile as they once were. Because with just over 100bhp tickled from a motor capable of substantially greater performance, there’s the slightest feeling it’s all a bit reigned-in – the engine never gets into a truly rude level of acceleration the way a 1250GS, KTM 1290 SA, Tiger 1200 or V4 Multistrada can, and do. In fact thinking about it, even Honda’s Africa Twin parallel twin is a perkier engine in terms of performance – it just doesn’t feel as mechanically charismatic as the V-twin Suzuki.

But on the other hand the V-Strom is fast enough to be silly if not manic, and certainly fast enough for the riding conditions on the launch in Greece. It’s so slippery out here, I’m not asking for any more.

The V-Strom’s throttle response is also improved by the new gearing – in A mode (sharpest of three modes, each offering slower engine response but ultimately the same top end) the V-Strom positively leaps off the gas, making traction an issue in the wet. It’s not snatchy, just bloomin’ on-the-button. Suzuki have also modified the throttle springing, stiffening-up initial take-up to better replicate cable throttle resistance. The last bike’s throttle felt too linear, like a volume control; now it’s natural, like a cable.

The gearbox also benefits from an up/down quickshifter as standard this year, superseding last year’s up-shift-only. All manufacturers’ quickshifters have a specific character, and Suzuki’s is among the best with enough cut time to change gear without feeling as if you’re in a race against time, but sharp enough not to lose too much drive.

Suzuki V-Strom 1050DE/Standard: Handling & Suspension (Inc. Weight & Brakes)

Describing the new V-Strom chassis is where the two models diverge – not because they have different frames or brakes; the twin spar aluminium frame and linked four-pot radial Tokicos with cornering ABS are the same between the DE and Standard, and largely the same as last year’s V-Strom XT (the ABS unit is smaller and lighter, this year). And fine brakes they are too – good initial bite, lots of power, controllable; at least they are in the wet. Conditions prevent crash stops to find out how the DE’s new long-travel suspension copes under braking pressure.

Which brings us to the big news with the DE – the V-Strom’s first 21in front wheel, perched on longer forks. The bald specs are simple enough: the DE has a 21in wire-spoked rim running a tubed 90/90 Dunlop Trailmax Mixtour – and yes, the rear is a tubeless 150/70 17in. But we’ll get to tyres in a moment.

The large front wheel sits on the end of longer 43mm usd KYB forks with preload, compression and rebound adjustment. Wheel travel is up by 10mm at the front, while the revised rear KYB shock, adjustable for preload and rebound, is also given an extra 9mm of travel. The result of the larger rolling radius and longer forks, coupled with a longer swingarm, is a change in the DE’s steering geometry over the Standard bike – wheelbase and trail are longer, rake angle is shallower and ground clearance is up by 25mm. That’s a significant change in riding dynamic. The Standard sticks with the V-Strom’s standard 19in front, on cast wheels.

In the cold, wintery launch conditions and sheer unpredictable availability of grip, it’s impossible to dig deep into the DE’s handling characteristics on road or off – most of the riding is with extreme caution, with numerous small slides from the rear and always with that horrible, gripless, floating sensation mid-corner. It’d be unfair to comment on the grip or steering of the new 21in front, or its effect over the V-Strom’s handling, other than to say I’m surprised the steering doesn’t feel as light and flickable at walking pace as most other 21in front bikes – with wider bars than before, I expect more leverage. But perhaps it shows how well Suzuki have retained stability and steering feel by adding a longer swingarm. The 1050DE certainly doesn’t display any untoward handling behaviour on the road – as far as it’s possible to tell given the conditions.

The choice of fitting a tubed front/tubeless rear combo is odd – I think it’s the only road bike to have such a mix. The front rim is tubed-only, so won’t take a tubeless tyre. I ask Suzuki UK representatives why, and they say they asked the factory the same question – and the official line is Suzuki tested other tyre permutations and this was the one they chose as the best.

Best handling? Cheapest? I wouldn’t be surprised if Suzuki don’t switch the DE to a tubeless front rim in very short order because I can’t imagine it’ll please many owners. Having said that, I guess there’s no reason why a pair of tubeless tyres wouldn’t work, with a tube in the front and tubeless on the rear, in theory – although to be safe we’d need to wait for a manufacturer to recommend the set-up. Still, on the road, rear punctures out-number front punctures, and you can still plug the rear.

As far as the V-Strom Standard goes, the only semi-rapid ride I get successfully demonstrates the 19in front V-Strom has lost none of its stable, sure-footed cornering ability – more like a conventional sports tourer with flat bars, or naked bike. You can achieve some interesting lean angles with a V-Strom in the dry and there’s no reason to think the new V-Strom Standard will be any different come summer.

Suzuki V-Strom 1050DE: Off-Road

The launch weather in Greece might challenge an assessment of the V-Strom DE’s road performance, but it should make its off-road performance easier to judge. However, the weather also compresses the launch time-frame, and the off-road sections of the ride are limited to a point-to-point dash; no-one’s fault, just the conditions.

Clearly the 21in front, long travel suspension and improved ground clearance – plus the DE’s ally bash plate and off-road pegs (basically last year’s standard pegs) give the Suzuki more off-road ability, not least in the sense it feels more secure and more adapted to standing up and pushing the front end around over mud, stones and gravel. The width of the bike is noticeable – it’s not as svelte or instinctively manageable as the Tiger 900, Ducati DesertX or, I think, the standard Africa Twin. At least two of those bikes hit the drawing board with off-road use as a design target; the Suzuki V-twin has been many things in its long life, but no matter how well Suzuki have managed to adapt the V-Strom DE chassis to its new role, it’s still an adaptation rather than an origination. But these are fine margins detectable to more expert off-road rides than I – for my general level of knobbery off-road, the V-Strom is now much more savvy than the previous bike. Or it would be on better rubber – the Dunlop Trailmax Mixtour tyres feel, to me, at sea off-road – or they might as well be.

Suzuki V-Strom 1050DE/Standard: Comfort & Riding Position

The Standard V-Strom has the same bars, pegs and twin seat as before, with two height settings of 855mm or 875mm. The screen is also adjustable as before, using a large aluminium release knob on the front of the bike, and out of reach while riding. And the screen does a reasonably effective job – stubby and thick, it’s better than it looks because it doesn’t flap about and it’s not tall enough to introduce turbulence to the rider’s head, putting it onto the chest instead (of a 6ft rider).

The DE’s screen isn’t adjustable and is 80mm lower than the Standard – although the additional ride height means it’s the same height relative to the ground. You can retro-fit the screen adjuster from the Standard bike – and it’s an odd decision not to fit it in the first place, especially given Suzuki haven’t bothered to tidy up the hole and ugly plastic mouldings left behind – for a nigh-on £14,000 bike, you’d expect that kind of thing to be tidied up.

In terms of body position on the Standard bike, for the top half of the rider it’s a relaxed layout; more sports touring than adventure bike. But the lower half of the riding position has a compressed feel on the low seat setting – the distance between the seat and the pegs is compact, and so the rider’s knee angle is a fair bit tighter than other adventure bikes. It’s not uncomfortable, but it’s more scrunched than you expect. I know from running a V-Strom XT for a year that moving the seat to its taller setting helps. On last year’s XT it was possible to remove the footrest rubbers, which only gives a few more millimetres of leg room, but also helps. On this year’s Standard bike, the pegs are now road-style rather than off-road style, so removing the rubbers is a no-no.

The DE gets a fixed seat height, at 880mm – and it feels a fair bit taller than the Standard. At 6ft with 34in inside leg, I’m on tip toes and can only get one foot flat on the floor; it seems as if the last few millimetres of the DE’s seat height exaggerate the width of the V-Strom’s seat – we’ve got used to adventure bikes being narrow at the seat/tank ‘waist’ – I’m thinking Africa Twin, Ducati DesertX, Triumph Tiger 900s. But although the V-Strom’s V-twin is a relatively narrow engine design, considering it’s the same exterior dimensions as it was 25 years ago I bet it’s actually pretty chunky compared to modern parallel twins. And the V-Strom’s seat/frame dimensions haven’t been updated in a long while either.

Because the launch ride is truncated by the weather, we don’t get to plug many miles on either bike – not enough to assess seat comfort. I know from riding an XT for big distances a few years ago it’s good for a couple of hundred miles, and then there’s enough room to shift around when the bum starts to go numb.

Suzuki V-Strom 1050DE/Standard: Equipment & Trim

The DE and Standard share the roughly the same levels of trim spec. Electronics include:

• four levels of traction control including Off (five on the DE, with Gravel mode allowing more wheelspin and a minimum of traction control)

• A, B and C power modes with different levels of throttle response

• two levels of ABS intervention (with a third off-road mode on the DE which deactivates ABS at the rear)

• up/down quickshifter (the levers are a different shape between the two models)

• cruise control (now able to operate down to 15mph in second gear, although not sure who’d want to do that)

• cornering ABS

• Suzuki’s load-dependent braking system that modulates ABS intervention based on the bike’s payload

• hill hold control

Both bikes also get a new 5in TFT display – based on the GSX-S1000 dash, the small panel is exceptionally bright and crisp, nicely designed and with all the information you need where you need to see it (rather than exploding across the screen in a blizzard of numbers and icons too small to read at a glance, like many of its rivals).

Even better, Suzuki have kept their really simple, easy-to-use switchgear and menu system from the GSX-S – a rocker switch and single mode button on the left bar gives you quick access to every function you want to change (although persuading the bike to do any of it on the move requires some patience). It’s a good switch layout, and is easy to use even in winter gloves on a freezing cold ride.

Both bikes also come with a centrestand – which matters when you need to lube the chain – and speaking of chains, the DE model gets a different drive chain to the Standard V-Strom, with ‘sturdier links and larger diameter pins’ to suit its potential exposure to off-road wear and tear.

Suzuki V-Strom 1050DE/Standard: Rivals

Suzuki V-Strom 1050DE/Standard: Verdict

With massive caveats for the conditions of the launch, we’ve learned a few things about Suzuki’s 2023 V-Stroms. The motor is essentially the same unit as the previous model so it’s a well-known, well-understood and well-liked unit. As the last, and longest-serving, and most widely-used Japanese V-twin it’s earned a place in history – and is still a refreshingly potent, charismatic, enjoyable, flexible – not to mention plenty fast – engine. It does have an old-school vibe about it, in both senses, and it’s not the most compact or efficient unit. But I’m glad it’s still here, one of motorcycling life’s constants. And the new lowered gearing breathes a bit more life into the old beast.

The V-Strom’s electronics spec, menu system and switchgear is among the best on offer. The clocks are almost perfect – okay, at 5in, who doesn’t want a couple more inches? – and the information, layout, colours and brightness are spot-on. The switchgear is simple, direct and easy to use – if you want to see how to befuddle even the most familiar user, try the Africa Twin’s 11 buttons. And the way Suzuki keep various traction control settings and throttle maps separate, instead of combining them into Rider Modes, seems simpler to understand and use, somehow (although to be fair, an instant Rain mode button would be useful).

The DE model’s 21in front undoubtedly adds off-road viability the V-Strom previously lacked. It’s not possible with certainty to say by how much it compromises the bike’s on-road ability – we’d need a dry session on twisty roads for that – and under the circumstances it’s equally tricky to be definitive about its off-road ability other than to say yes, it has more than it did. But after a day’s ride on both bikes, I had the fleeting thought it would be nice to have a V-Strom with a 19in front for the road-riding confidence, but with wire rims because they look nice. And then I remembered that was what the previous model XT was. All it needed was the nice clocks, down-gearing, USB port and up/down quickshifter from the new bike.

But over-arching all this is another matter – the V-Strom’s price. At £13,855 for the DE, that’s only £300 less than the Triumph Tiger 900 Rally Pro which comes with everything the Suzuki does, as well as heated seats and grips. And while the Suzuki does indeed come with a lot more electronic functionality than ever before, and it’s all good stuff – it’s not just about a better spec sheet. The Triumph – and most of the Suzuki’s rivals – have a finish quality and attention to detail that the V-Stroms struggle to match. It’s not a subjective argument about styling – it’s a real, quantifiable thing. From the depth of paint and lustre of an Africa Twin, to the individual component quality and finish of the Tiger 900, to the retro styling and funk of Ducati’s DesertX, the Suzuki lacks their garage wow factor. In the past it didn’t matter so much because the V-Strom wasn’t priced at those levels; it appealed to riders with different spending priorities. But for nearly fourteen grand, it’s hard to look at the DE’s plastic recess under the screen, or pillion footpegs, or frame and subframe paint, or quality of the plastic belly pan on the Standard, or the frame welding... and say that’s as good as Honda’s or Triumph’s or Ducati’s, or for the money.

For most of its life the big V-Strom has been a good, solid, understated bike at an understated price. Now, it’s a better bike with a higher price – but is it good enough to justify it?

Suzuki V-Strom 1050DE/Standard: Technical Specification

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