When I heard that Suzuki had launched a 650cc version of its one-litre V-Strom adventure bike my ears pricked up. The SV 650 Suzuki is a great road bike, and if the V-Strom used the same engine it was sure to be a winner. But my heart dropped when I heard that although the DL 650 V-Strom did indeed use a retuned version of the same engine, it was slotted into the frame of the 1 000cc machine. I knew what that implied — a lump of a machine that was so overweight it couldn’t get out of its own way in a hurry.
Compared with the BMW F650, the Kawasaki KLR 650, the Honda 650 Transalp and the Yamaha XT 660 the Suzuki seems a behemoth, even though at 189kg it weighs slightly less than the BMW and the Honda. But size can be a good thing and the Suzuki’s bulk means it provides extremely comfortable accommodation for two, even with luggage strapped to the back.
And from the moment I rolled the throttle open words such as “overweight”, “underpowered” and “slug” were ripped from my lexicon — I suppose you could say it was disemvowelled. The 650cc V-twin engine performs like an 800cc, and there’s absolutely nothing in the mid-range dual-purpose class with the slightest hope in hell of staying with the Suzuki on the road. The Honda Transalp also uses a 650cc V-twin, but feels like a 400cc in comparison with the Suzuki.
In the August/September issue of 2 Wheels magazine, six of the top bikes in the middleweight adventure class were interrogated on ace tuner Noddy van Greunen’s dynamometer. The Suzuki put the rest in the shade with 60bhp of power and 54Nm of torque. Second best in terms of horsepower was the single cylinder KTM 640 Adventure, with 45bhp. The Honda Transalp could manage only 40bhp and 45Nm, while the class leading (in terms of sales) BMW F650GS Dakar squeezes 40bhp and 49Nm from its single pot.
There’s no question about who has the finest engine in this company. Open the throttle, rev the motor to its red line and, once you’ve worked your way through the crisp six-speed transmission, you will find yourself doing an indicated 205kph or so, where the other 650 dual-purpose bikes all top out at around 180kph.
Handling on tar is confidence-inspiring —the Suzuki swoops around corners as if they do not exist, and the upright riding position and good field of vision give a sense of invincibility. The brakes — twin discs up front, one at the rear — are as we have come to expect from modern motorcycles. Excellent.
Venture off road, though, and you will soon find where the less road-biased opposition have the big Suzuki well and truly licked. The suspension just doesn’t cope with potholes and corrugations very well, so confidence goes out of the window very quickly if you try to ride hard. Still, if you make allowances for this the 650 can be used on dirt roads quite comfortably, which is about all that most buyers will ever expect from it.
The Suzuki DL 650 V-Strom far exceeded my expectations. I would go so far as to call it a poor man’s BMW R1150 GS because it is almost as good on the tar as the big German machine, and adequate on the gravel.
And at R59 200, with a two-year unlimited distance warranty, it is one of the cheapest in its class.
Test bike supplied by Suzuki South Africa and prepared by the Motorcycle Centre in Pietermaritzburg