Taking the Suzuki DL650 V-Strom to the Eastern Free State

Testing bikes and writing about them from a woman’s perspective must be one of the most fun pastimes I can think of. Riding GOOD bikes just adds to that fun – the V-Strom is a case in point.

The guys at Suzuki SA gave me an almost-new bike for a weekend and it happened to be the weekend of the first XKulcha/ Woema Culture Fest weekend in Clocolan in the Eastern Freestate. I was asked by the organisers to lead the on-road tours, a job which I gladly accepted. Who can refuse riding the whole weekend in one of the most picturesque areas of our country?

My husband and I left Johannesburg at 5:00 on the Friday - he on a Can-Am Spyder. Temperature at that time of the year was fresh but I knew that it would warm up quickly. Husband is a new biker and after dealing with a stormy face and a lot of grumbling did I realise that I had been very selfish in my riding. I blamed the V-Strom for that as it was just such a comfortable ride. The legendary Suzuki gearbox was as smooth as butter and with the standard factory exhaust pipe, I had to keep checking my gears and revs to make sure I was in the right gear, the bike was so smooth and quiet.

One of my ongoing bugbears about bikes is that they are not designed with women in mind. I’m not the tallest person around and with a seat height of 820mm, I had to quickly learn the “one leg down” method. Fortunately it’s not a very heavy bike and it’s well balanced.

It is a very forgiving bike and we arrived in Clocolan just as the scouting group was about to depart. No time for me to rest so I set off after them, little knowing that they were the hardcore offroaders! Half-way into the ride I had to turn back as my skills were not at that level. This meant that I had to negotiate ball-bearing roads on a loan bike which I hardly knew – not a very good combination. However, I remembered the off-road rules – look up, stand up, open up (both throttle and legs). The bike got me safely through the obstacles and we were on tar road once again – time for me to exhale.

I would have liked the screen to be higher, bigger or adjustable. On the long road the wind is a bit annoying and I had to duck my head constantly.

Handlebar position was good and my arms didn’t get tired once. Fuel consumption was dependent on my right hand and I often found myself being a bit “uneconomical”, but my excuse was that it was a lot of fun!

Riding in cross-winds was a bit of a problem with the area of fairing the bike has – we had to find ingenious ways of dealing with heavy gusts of wind and it became quite tiring. However, doing the sweeps between Fouriesburg and Clarens was an absolute joy – I wanted to turn around and do them again!

If you’re looking for an all-round bike that will look after you on- and off-road, you should really consider this bike. Woman friendly, good controls, not too heavy, well balanced and pleasant styling. If I was to buy this bike, I would go for the black as the grey fades away into the background – black is just so much more sexy!