V-Strom 800DE

Guru Gora said:
Looks well with those wheels
Click to expand...
It does . Love the colour .
Thats why I decided to get the cruise and heated grips. Wasn’t going to bother this year as it won’t be going far due other trips planned but then I thought there was no point waiting to see if Suzuki fit cruise as standard for 2027. I’d lose at least £1000-1500 trade in and they might not keep this colour option . And as the Veridian cruise only cost £225 delivered, it was a no brainer . I wasn’t 100% sure that I’d be able to fit it but it turned out to be very straight forward by being methodical .
The panels come off the 800 much easier than the 1050 and they use far mess bolts/push in poppers , so it’s quite an easy bike to work on .

The dealer wanted me to book the bike in for main stand fitment as he implied its was a bitch of a job . But fitting that myself, plus the heated grips and Veridian cruise must have saved myself at ,east £500 labour.
 
Nice colour scheme

I bottled it and went for the RE to get tubeless, I might regret not having the better suspension.
cd9d2f784aee6f2888d7dca4796c4c73.jpg


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They do look pretty nice on that bike and the mounts by themselves aren't too noticeable sans bags. What's the total width of it with the panniers not expanded?
 
Clifton said:
They do look pretty nice on that bike and the mounts by themselves aren't too noticeable sans bags. What's the total width of it with the panniers not expanded?
Click to expand...
Sorry, no idea on width and I’ve put them in the loft as won’t be using them for a while .
But yes, I like the Shad 3 P system because the rails aren’t too obtrusive. They also do a 4P system but that’s more like traditional scaffolding.
My previous ‘go to’ panniers were the SW Motech Dusc with the Pro Side Carriers which are quick release .
But I’ve had a Shad 58x top box on Wing for three years so got same for Strom. Then in Feb I rented a bike in Gran Canaria with the Shad 38X panniers and 3P racks and was so impressed that I went for them .
Quite a bit cheaper than the SW Motech stuff but very good quality.

Of course it was Shad that made the Varios for BMW before the latter shoved on a blue and white roundel and added 40% to the price !
 
You have it equipped to travel now.

The bags Suzuki sells for your bike look to be SW-Motech Trax top load. I can't tell if the mounts are SW's quick release or stay on the bike though. Suzuki has them priced about the same as buying them directly from SW-Motech. Of course they and Shads would be less from discount suppliers like Motostorm.
 
Here’s a finished one 👍 ( easy job to make the rims airtight )IMG_2031.jpeg
 
boatman said:
Here’s a finished one 👍 ( easy job to make the rims airtight )View attachment 510201
Click to expand...

Hi Boatman
No rush but at some point could you measure the width of the Suzuki pannier set up you have.

I prefer using rackless soft luggage when travelling alone but I did buy some SWMotech Dusc hard cases to use when my daughter jumps on the back as they are more convenient for her to pack clothes into.
Whilst the cases and quick release frames are great, because the SW system has the cases mounted outside the exhaust silencer they are fairly wide and don’t make filtering as easy as it is with the soft luggage fitted.

I originally chose the dusc cases as they are great and being able to take the pannier frames off as well in literally seconds to leave a clean uncluttered look to the bike was a big draw for me as I’m not keen on having all the scaffolding in place when not travelling.

The other thing that put me off the Suzuki OEM set up was the fact that they mount quite high up meaning the additional weight brings the COG up which I was trying to avoid for unpaved riding and which the dusc set up achieves by being mounted lower down (but at the cost of being wider)
How have you found the handling/balance with your set up? I’m thinking of trying to adapt the SW frames to bring them more inboard but will obviously have to go higher as per Suzuki frames to avoid the silencer.
 
Saw one in the “ metal” last week( or plastic 😆)
Only really seen side views up till then.
I was a bit surprised by the girth of the bike up high,I was expecting it to be a bit slimmer.
Owner reckoned it was a bit toppy heavy but I didn’t ride it so no idea on that.
Still quite like the look of them for a daily rider.
 
mikeyboy said:
I was a bit surprised by the girth of the bike up high,I was expecting it to be a bit slimmer.
Owner reckoned it was a bit toppy heavy but I didn’t ride it so no idea on that.
Still quite like the look of them for a daily rider.
Click to expand...

Nothing wrong with a bit of girth 😊

On a more serious note the seat width at the front is not too wide as to reduce your ability to get legs down to the ground when seated and also doesn’t splay your legs apart when standing on the pegs.
Granted the tank is a little wide but I’ll take that to have the additional fuel/range it gives over most of its competitors, and if you’ve ridden almost any of the GS iterations over the decades it’s not even something that you would be drawn to noticing.

It’s definitely carrying a few more kilo’s than say a Tuareg (part of that is the additional fuel capacity), but like a GSA you can at least choose whether to fill it to the gunnels for long distances, or just carry enough for transiting nadgery sections of a route.

Either way it carries its weight well and slow speed balance is very good so I certainly wouldn’t especially describe it as top heavy. I guess that might be the case if you were comparing it to CRF300 but that would apply to any middle sized adv bike.
 
Fireflyer said:
Nothing wrong with a bit of girth 😊

On a more serious note the seat width at the front is not too wide as to reduce your ability to get legs down to the ground when seated and also doesn’t splay your legs apart when standing on the pegs.
Granted the tank is a little wide but I’ll take that to have the additional fuel/range it gives over most of its competitors, and if you’ve ridden almost any of the GS iterations over the decades it’s not even something that you would be drawn to noticing.

It’s definitely carrying a few more kilo’s than say a Tuareg (part of that is the additional fuel capacity), but like a GSA you can at least choose whether to fill it to the gunnels for long distances, or just carry enough for transiting nadgery sections of a route.

Either way it carries its weight well and slow speed balance is very good so I certainly wouldn’t especially describe it as top heavy. I guess that might be the case if you were comparing it to CRF300 but that would apply to any middle sized adv bike.
Click to expand...
Ha, I was just pointing out my thoughts on its big tits,
If you’d paid any attention before you posted your response,you may have noticed that I do ,have a little bit of experience with a few of the “GS iterations “
As to carrying its 230 kg well,slow speed balance,and comparing it to a crf 300 I’ll leave that with you.
As I generally ride this,
Which is 50 kg lighter and goes like fuck👍
IMG_8874.jpeg
 
I’d be tempted with the DE if Suzuki would offer a 0% finance deal,
But they know it’s one of the popular bikes in the range so probably won’t put it in the mix this year.
I’ll keep an eye on the used market,
As has been said,
Cracking motor/ box,
Few suspension upgrades and a bit of weight loss turns it into a LD trail bike👍
 
mikeyboy said:
Ha, I was just pointing out my thoughts on its big tits,
If you’d paid any attention before you posted your response,you may have noticed that I do ,have a little bit of experience with a few of the “GS iterations “
As to carrying its 230 kg well,slow speed balance,and comparing it to a crf 300 I’ll leave that with you.
As I generally ride this,
Which is 50 kg lighter and goes like fuck👍
View attachment 510394
Click to expand...

Hi, think you may have misconstrued my reply as defending the DE or maybe questioning your thoughts Mike.
Where I’ve used the word “you” I’m using it in the same context as the Royal “we” 😁

It was simply to give my limited impression of how I’ve found it so far for anyone going through the pro’s and cons of the couple of observations you made from your first in the flesh look.

I also wouldn’t be surprised if a 0% deal landed as although it probably is the best selling version in the strom range it’s not really a big seller when compared to its rivals in the class. I picked mine up brand new unregistered for £6999 so there are deals out there.
I quite like the fact that it’s not a best seller and common sight on the roads as I enjoy the largely unrecognised performance and capability that the masses walk on past. A bit like the GS’s before Charlie and Ewen catapulted them into the mainstream.

As for the all up weight it amazes me how giant manufacturers with all the resources they have at their disposal can’t make a bike stripped of unnecessary components in a similar vain to specials such as yours.
Apart from a few examples like the HP2 Enduros (and even those aren’t recent) there doesn’t seem to be much effort put into reducing the weight of bikes in this category.
I guess it’s partly our own fault as most of us, including me, like the style of these bikes but don’t really use them off road as much as we imagine we do in reality.

Maybe we are creating a whole new classification of riders with the growth in popularity of this style of bike over the last decade-
Muddy Hipsters 😂
 
Nippy Normans supply Touratech, Wunderlich, Desert Fox and many other makes of accessories.
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