What’s a V-Strom doing at Race Center? Well why should sports bikes have all the fun right?
A little odd looking, much like the crew at Race Center, we’ve never really been the biggest fans of them to be honest, soz if that offends anyone. Sure they are great if you want to take a trip which has some dirt roads but it’s not like you really going to do any gnarly trails on one. So we’ve always felt they kinda try to do a heap of different things without being particularly good at any of them. Well that is until now!
We have been lucky enough to have the opportunity to do a few performance upgrades to this Suzuki V-Strom 1000, the result? One thing it now does really well now, putting a smile on your face. Yeah still an all rounder however with a few tweaks they become a shit tonne of fun to ride, making the daily commute, run down to the shops or weekend away a lot more fun. Just because you’re riding to the work or the shops doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be fun after all.
They make a great every day bike, very easy to ride, can carry a bunch of stuff including a hairdryer and make up kit for the likes of Saucy or could even fit a few odds and ends from your trip to Bunnings and they are comfortable.
Adding a few performance mods might not seem the likely thing to do to one of these things but it adds a whole new dimension to riding them as well giving a bit of personality to the bike.
This particular V-Storm 1000 has received a Megacycle De-Cat Performance Slip-On, a DNA High Performance Air Filter and a Stage 2 custom ECU Flash and Dyno tune. The result, a bloody big smile on your face every time you roll on the gas. It now sound horn! Plus low down power is massively improved compared to the stock very restricted version, it really is a big improvement 😊.
Another great thing about this mod is while the exhaust note sounds great, it’s not stupidly or offensively loud, it just sounds bloody good. We have left the Exup valve operational in this bike to ensure on idle the bike is quiet. This allows it to be warmed up before the daily commute without totally pissing off the neighbours nor will the coppers being pulling you over at every opportunity. Leaving the Exup valve in also adds to the low-end power output without hurting any of the top end power on this bike. So while the fashion may be to remove Exup valves from exhaust systems, for some applications, especially commuters it makes sense to leave them in.
Be warned though, you’ll be having that much fun that you’ll be tempted you use speed humps as jumps, which it can do very easily… not that we’d know 😉
Another reason we are big fans of this type of upgrade is SAFETY! Yep safety. In stock form the bike is really quiet. Drivers don’t always see us but with the improved sound of the Megacycle slip-on, they will hear you.
Some other great performance options for this segment of bike is suspension upgrades and customisation. These bikes can be tall so for us shorter peeps they can be lowered a bit and setup specifically for you. If you are looking to gain more stability and confidence to push these bikes a bit harder than packages like our Stage 2 DB-02 suspension upgrade will make a monster difference.
All in all, you’ve never considered an adventure bike before but some of this sounds good to you, they might be worth a look.
Exhaust De-Cat Slip-on options + ECU Tuning is available from $1,799 as a complete package while suspension upgrades start at $990. Prices do depend on the particular model and options you want to go for but they all provide a lot of value add your these bikes.