Suzuki’s V-Strom range of adventure motorcycles has gained quite a following over the years, as though the nameplate first debuted back in 2002, it's since evolved for the better over the last two decades. That said, even though it's changed, Suzuki’s pretty much kept the ‘Strom as a simple, barebones adventurer.
But in its most recent 800 iteration, the V-Strom welcomed quite a lot of changes—changes that raised eyebrows among diehard V-Strom purists. For starters, the V-Strom was no longer sporting a V-twin engine, but rather, a newly developed parallel-twin. Granted, thanks to its 270-degree crankshaft, it had a similar feel and sound as a 90-degree V-twin—but it still isn’t a V-twin engine.
Departing from convention even more, Suzuki has thrown in quite a bit of tech into the current generation V-Strom as it now features farkles like a full-color display, an up and down quickshifter, traction control, and ride modes. There are even multiple configurations for riders to choose from, with adventurous, off-road-ready folks opting for the 800 DE and DE Adventure, while more all-around riders have the standard V-Strom 800.
Over in the UK, Suzuki’s launched yet another variant of the V-Strom 800 called the 800RE Tour. As the name suggests, this variant has long-distance touring in mind, and comes standard with a bunch of accessories designed for the long haul.
For starters, the 800RE Tour comes standard with a luggage set. Consisting of aluminum top and side cases, it’s pretty much ready to go on long multi-day tours out of the factory. Of course, other features of the standard V-Strom 800 are carried over here, such as the 20-liter fuel tank, five-inch full-color TFT display, and advanced electronics suite.
In the UK, the V-Strom 800RE Tour carries an MSRP of £11,199, or about $13,944 USD. Meanwhile, for folks in the US, Suzuki’s offering a similarly specced version called the V-Strom 800 Tour. While it doesn’t come with a fancy aluminum luggage set—instead opting for a simpler plastic top box—the US-spec V-Strom 800 Touring is much more affordable, carrying an MSRP of $10,499 USD.
These days, consumers are spoiled for choice when it comes to setting their bikes up for certain tasks. There are so many variants of models these days that you can consider these variants to be completely different models altogether.
And if you still can’t find the specific variant that suits your needs, well, there is and always will be a strong aftermarket, especially for popular models like the V-Strom.
