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How I ended up buying a V-Strom 250 SX: Ownership review after 1000 km

4th September 2023, 17:12 by Rahul Nagaraj

This bike has shown me what a well-engineered bike can do, especially a Japanese one.

BHPian ramubwoyy recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

I have always loved this website and the people here and I decided that I too eventually wanted to share my own review. Thankfully I recently got my very own V-Strom 250 SX and I wanted to share my thoughts on the bike and help out other potential buyers with my experience. Please excuse any errors as this is my first post here.

Some background about how I began riding

I'm a very young rider and my journey began back in 2019 with an Activa 4G. The scooter was one of the first two-wheelers that I got to ride in the city, up until I got used to shifting gears on a bike. Moreover, the bike in our garage was my father's RE Classic 500 (which I will just refer to as the RE) which was not exactly a beginner bike, owing to its weight and immense torque.

Time passed and upon my request, my dad brought in a friend's friend to teach me how to ride a bike on a Karizma. The poor guy probably called upon every god as he sat as the pillion and I took him around the city of Kochi, stalling the bike on multiple occasions. After less than a week of practice, I got the hang of it and without much delay my dad allowed me to take the RE for a morning ride where he took the Activa and I followed him on the bike. It was really a memorable experience as I finally fulfilled my lifelong dream of riding my dad's Bullet, the ultimate machismo machine an Indian could ask for.

We also rode to Munnar so I would get more comfortable with the bike. It was my first proper long ride and looking back it was a good start to moulding the rider that I am today. I soon returned to Pune for my studies and riding took a backseat for quite some time. But god had other plans for me as the pandemic soon hit and I was back in Kochi for almost 2 years attending online classes. I did manage to take the bike out on many occasions for many short rides but I began to crave for something more. Being locked in really got to me and once the lockdown eased I approached my parents saying that I wanted to visit my paternal place in Trivandrum, a little over 200 km from my home. Thankfully, my father yet again being the dad he is allowed even went to the extent of getting me saddle bags.

I called up my grandmother and informed her and rode off in the early hours. This was my first solo ride and the Enfield kept me in check on the highways. I didn't really get very tired and managed to do the same trip one more time over the pandemic. But, as time went by the RE's style of riding slowly started disagreeing with me. Mind you, it was a great privilege to ride such a big bike at a young age, but something about its poor highway performance got to me.

Some more time passed, and we had some change of place and got into some other personal things where our finances got strained so even asking for a new bike was not an option. The RE managed to keep the rider in me satiated for quite a long time. But I soon began to check out review videos on YouTube when it slowly dawned on me that the 500 CC for all its glory was seriously underpowered. And the more I rode it the more the vibrations began to seriously bother me.

After graduating and landing a decent job, I decided that I wanted something new and so began the search with a few requirements.

Requirements

Refinement, refinement, refinement: I was adamant that I get a smooth engine that would put the least amount of bodily discomfort to the rider and perform excellently at speeds of 80-90 kmph. More power was always welcome but the roads in Kerala don't really allow for safe riding beyond 90 to be quite frank. But if I wanted to do triple-digit speeds on big highways the bike should not vibe me out.
Basic electronics and safety: The lack of a fuel gauge, ABS, Trip meters, side stand sensors and a tachometer was another thing that I loathed. I did not want to ride being paranoid about the fuel shaking the fuel tank and guessing how many kms I could run. In fact, during many of my Sunday rides, I would keep going to petrol pumps and topping it up with small quantities just to be safe. Also, most of my morning rides would involve very remote locations that had no cell range, so being stranded with no petrol pumps nearby and a 200kg motorcycle is a recipe for disaster. Oh, and one more thing is that the electronics should be GOOD (more on this later).
Should be reliable: We recently got lucky enough to welcome an Innova into the family and to this day I am floored by the sheer level of refinement, reliability and power. So unlike the RE, I wanted something that was not fussy, especially with cold starts in the morning or even refusing to start altogether after we made a tea stop for a ride. My riding buddies would mockingly call my bike a "steam engine" owing to its very nature of being fussy. I like to think of the RE as a very fussy girlfriend constantly demanding attention.
Tractable Engine: My Sunday ride speeds would be between 50-70 km/h with rare bursts of speed (if the roads were good). But most of the time, especially in the early hours of the morning, I would stick to somewhere between 45-55 km/h and the RE was an absolute pain in the posterior to ride at these speeds. The thumpy nature of the engine and poor gear ratios meant that I would keep switching between the 4th and 5th gear to find a 'sweet spot' with no vibrations and minimal jerking. Also, I have a 30 km commute within the city that I do at least twice a week which involves crawling through traffic so tractability was quite important.
On a lot of my weekend rides, I deliberately go to places that have a lot of greenery. What this means is that at times I slow the bike down unknowingly to admire the beauty around. The UCE 500 would start jerking back and forth forcing me to pull in the clutch to prevent an embarrassing stall. Not exactly ideal, at least for me.
Somewhat decent fuel economy: I wanted something above 30 km/l ideally and if it's above 38-40 that was good enough for me.
Comfortable rider's triangle: The RE really spoiled me with its commanding posture so I did not want to spend my rides crouched down and knees cramped up. The seat should be quite good.

Bikes considered

I watched reviews for almost a year and these were the bikes that I considered.

Honda H'ness: Excellent retro-styled bike with a refined engine. Loved the exhaust note and was very tempted to go for it because of the sheer comfort the bike offered. However, thanks to a friend I got to know about the infamous wobbling issue and opted out. Also, a top speed of 120 kmph from a Honda 350 CC wasn't up to my expectations.
RE Interceptor 650: I must confess, I still drool over an Interceptor if I see one with its amazing styling and wonderful parallel-twin motor that would hold most speeds easily. What deterred me is already having owned an RE, battery issues, and the dealbreaker being faulty electronics (what I mentioned earlier). The bike was also quite heavy with a very bad seat so I just could not justify its present pricing even though I loved the engine.
Honda CB200X: A very tempting offering by Honda albeit with a slightly lesser power than what I was looking for. Something about the bike just felt like it would not keep me satiated in the long run, so I decided to drop it. The bike also had only single-channel ABS.
RE Hunter 350: Absolutely cramped riding posture and an engine that didn't feel very new to me. The price was quite nice but I intended to be in the saddle for hours and that was just not possible with this one. Also, for all the praise for the new J-series, it still felt vibey to me compared to the competition, especially Honda. So that was out.
RE Meteor 350: Felt uncomfortable the moment I got on it because of a very weird feel from the front end. Did not even ride it for a kilometre and dropped it.
KTM Adventure Twins: Poor tractability and lack of refinement turned me away from these two. Although I have to say that the 390 is a beastly-looking bike.
RE Himalayan: The bike's commanding posture, comfort and okayish engine made me consider it. But the sheer amount of horror stories related to cone-set issues and warranty replacements made me instantly run away from this bike.
Bajaj Dominar 400: Vibrations and questionable after-sales service, although it was a very tempting offer considering its raw power on offer.

The V-Strom Enters

I had watched many videos of the bike before but somehow it just didn't appeal to me fully. In fact, I went for a test ride during one of my vacations from college and disliked it. In hindsight, I was wearing very uncomfortable skin-tight jeans (which I have given away) that would have made me distraught on any surface.

Owing to a lack of options and dissatisfaction with most bikes, the V-Strom continued to allure me and I kept watching videos of the bike. Over time, I realized what a gem of a bike it was and decided to do another test ride (with another set of pants). The bike floored me and the booking amount was paid for the black variant. What followed were the longest days of my life until I finally got the bike.

The Review Itself:

I have to say right off the bat that unlike the marketing surrounding the V-Strom it is NOT an off-roader by any sense of the term. It's strictly a tourer that can tackle the occasional rough road without much of a fuss. I see a lot of people comparing it to the Himalayan which is not ideal.

Pros:

I could write poems about the sweetest 250cc engine. Coming from a 500cc, the engine continues to bring a smile to my face whenever I go in for an overtake or ride around in 6th grade at 40-50 km/h with no knocking. Even in the break-in period where I could not exceed 5000 RPM, the bike was able to clock in close to 80 KMPH EASILY. Most importantly no jarring vibrations or discomfort at even triple-digit speeds. Don't let the displacement fool you, this bike is an absolute beast on most roads.
I also want to mention that while I was not overly impressed with the idling sound, the engine roars at mid-range as it pulls you along with an adrenaline rush that will remind you of a sports bike.
The bike is a LOOKER. I constantly get stares in traffic, people inspect the bike while it's parked. The Strom is a rare one on Kerala roads and that means that it has a unique appeal. I have had people come up to me and ask me if it's a 650cc engine.
The ground clearance is something that depends on the owner. I am around 174 cm in height and I can only flat foot if I move my hips slightly to one side. So it's not the most manoeuvrable bike but for that, you get a really tall riding stance that lets you admire the road and greenery up ahead.
That Japanese refinement and reliability. This bike starts up with just a small press of the start, something which seems like very advanced tech to me but is something that is standard nowadays. But whether it's cold starts or the instrumentation you really get more than what you paid for.
The bike is essentially touring-ready. Except for a crash-guard it comes with most things you would need and you can literally take it out for a long ride, right out of the showroom.
The seats are extra comfy. I do wish my knees were slightly set forward but that would mean my ankles end up directly facing the side of the engine, so that's okay. But I only found myself getting strained towards the last stretches of a day of riding, but even then I would say with this bike you can go really long distances with no body pain.
Those big chunky tires. Now, I have heard mixed opinions about these MRFs but I have to say that they have worked really well for me, especially when cornering and tackling rough roads. Thank god for the tubeless variant as well.
Something that a lot of people don't really talk about is the bike's ability to keep chugging along with no throttle input while not stalling. Underrated feature because I really do not need to give a throttle for most dense traffic conditions. Again kudos to the motor and excellent tuning.

Cons:

That huge area of the display is dedicated to mobile connectivity. I really wish companies did not give this feature because I find it to be quite useless and dangerous. I have a dedicated cheap secondary phone for navigation and keep my primary phone in my backpack or pocket. If I get repeated calls I stop the bike and take the call. They could have made it optional at least. So far, I have only connected it one time but found it to be very lacklustre.
Minute 'buzz' vibrations in the footpegs. Now, I know that I kept ranting about how I suffered from vibrations but I did notice these on my long Test drive and they were not a deal-breaker for me. You do feel them if you are wearing thinly soled footwear but otherwise, they are negligible. Also, having done the first service they have reduced significantly and I hardly notice them because I mostly wear Woodland shoes. And since I am a sedate rider with occasional bursts of speed, I do not think they will even come close to the vibes that I got from the RE.
LED headlights. I have always been and will continue to be a fan of halogen lights. It's not because I like the way they look, it's because with stock halogen lamps you don't need to upgrade and get very good visibility. This is just personal preference. Also, the stock bike's high beam has a very poor angle which the service advisor corrected and now it's fine. But this is one thing where the RE shines, that halogen lamp would light up the road for me so well. Oh well, you can't have it all.
Ground clearance. Like I mentioned before, if you are short or not really used to riding ADV's you will have to take your time with the bike with its 835 mm clearance. For me, I cannot move the bike back on an incline while sitting on it. I can move it around easily by getting off and holding the handlebar and pillion grab rail quite easily. This height thing can be bothersome for some people but for me, I quite enjoy the 'high up' riding feel and contend with it just fine.
Panel flex. The panels right under the rider's seat adjacent to the engine do flex a bit. Nothing alarming, but something to know about.

Conclusion:

I do want to disclose that I may have sounded very harsh in my critique of the RE. But that is only because the bike is really not suited to my style and what I want from a bike, not necessarily because it's a bad bike. People who like that steady "thump" sound and want to go around wearing aviators and a half-face helmet are more than welcome to do so. For me personally, RE's lineup except for the 650 twins will be sedate riding machines that are a waste of material. Even then, if you put an RE 650 against any other 650, the RE will most likely lose. They are really not giving consumers the power that should come with the displacement.

For me, this bike has shown me what a well-engineered bike can do. Especially a Japanese one. So far, I am very happy with the bike and it really is a mental boost to go for a short or long ride with this one. Suzuki has absolutely hit it out of the park with this one. I really wish they did more marketing. I'm not a very big photo guy but my riding buddies reminder made me click more photos of the "Stormy" on our first few morning rides.