MD has already sampled, and fallen in love with, Suzuki models powered by its relatively new 776cc parallel-twin engine, including the more street oriented, standard V-STROM 800. Here, MD tests the more dirt-worthy V-STROM 800DE with dirt expert Ryan Kata aboard. Here is Ryan’s review:
I was fortunate enough to be signed up to ride the Sheet Iron 300, out of Stonyford, CA to Fort Bragg and back, when the opportunity to ride the V-STROM 800DE came up. I jumped at the idea, something along the lines of “Hell Yeah, I’d love to show up to a dual sport ride on an ADV bike!” Now if you’ve never heard of the Sheet Iron, I highly suggest you attend one! It’s two days of adventure riding through the Northern California landscape, from the sweltering, Central Valley, to the Gusty coast at Fort Bragg and back the next day.
The motor on the V-STROM 800DE is a 270° parallel-twin. As Dirck observed, it is art. There is power on tap for when you get bored behind a car on the freeway and want to pop around it. Without shifting down from 6th, you’ll be around it faster than the driver can even realize you were there in the first place.
I have always said that for a bike you will ride daily, off-road, and whatever else … 100hp is the sweet spot. At 83 hp the V-STROM 800DE falls a bit short on that number, but the 57 ft-lbs that comes with it do a good job of tricking your brain into thinking it’s got a little more. I was able to clutch up some good wheelies and loft the front wheel a bit when I was looking to help it across something in the trail. The power is sufficient for all scenarios and extremely rewarding to ride at a spirited pace.
The way the V-STROM 800DE delivers that power is extremely useful in all contexts that you will find yourself in, on an ADV. It is linear in its delivery. It does have some of the same ailments at the upper end of the revs that the other models sharing this engine have, such as falling flat at higher RPMs, but that’s a problem for bikes with rear-sets and clip-ons, not bikes with 21 inch front wheels and 9 inches of wheel travel.
So, if we are looking for faults in the Suzuki power plant, and we need to really be looking, my only gripe is that between 5500 and 6500 there was a bit of buzzyness in the bars and pegs, but my guess is this had a little to do with throttle bodies needing to be synced up. The bike I was riding only had 30 miles on it when I received it, so this vibration might be something that goes away after its first service.
The brakes on the V-STROM 800DE, well they’re there and they will stop you. The Nissin caliper and lever lack the feel of higher end brakes but are plenty strong for any of the pavement work you’ll need to do. Even coming in a bit hot they didn’t disappoint and got me slowed before I had to change lines. One gripe with their pavement performance, was if the front wheel got placed a bit hard after coming off the ground, for whatever reason; definitely not an intentional and well executed wheelie, the lever would pulse coming into the next turn. That was a new one for me and it took a little thought to avoid at times during a more spirited ride.
In the dirt they’re obviously plenty strong too, but the active ABS on the front is a little limiting. There were a handful of occurrences on the trail where I wanted a little more out of the front wheel before they started getting fussy. In addition to a touchy front ABS system in the dirt, the feel was lacking. I knew I had more traction to get stopped faster, but how much was a little ambiguous. Obviously, this issue is improved with better tires for the dirt (the stock tires are Dunlop Trailmax Mixtour – a road-biased 80/20 tire), but a lack of feel is still going to be an issue in dirt or on pavement. My background is off-road racing so I am a bit pickier in the dirt than some are about brakes, but out of everything this was my biggest dislike of the bike.
Regarding the handling. I’ll start by saying this; Suzuki has never made a bad front end. The 2026 V-STROM 800DE is steadfast in that tradition. Whether I was in dirt or on the pavement, the bike let me go anywhere I wanted. Change line mid-turn? No problem. Braking hard to pick up and avoid something? Just look at the new line and it’s already there.
During the first 50 miles or so after picking the bike up, the rear end seemed to be riding a bit low and the front needed more weight on it, but 2 turns on the convenient remote rear preload adjustment and the bike felt better balanced. The additional turns on the shock also helped keep the bike higher in the stroke in the rear.
Bottoming resistance on rough trails isn’t a strong suit of the V-STROM 800DE, but it is really consistent in what makes it bottom, so riding around that problem is pretty easy. You can unload the bike with a little hop off the pegs before a rut or erosion pattern, usually this is enough to get through most things that’ll be a surprise on the trail. Or just back off a hair earlier for the things you can see. When I did find the bottom it was a predictable event. A very loud clack of the suspension followed by riding off completely uneventfully.
The suspension is fully adjustable. Preload, Compression and rebound. Admittedly, after the preload adjustment in the rear, I didn’t adjust the clickers at all. I am 170lbs and 5’11”, tippy top of the bell curve, and was extremely happy with the performance across the board. Square edged bumps did feel a bit harsh regardless of the surface, but with spoked wheels and tubes, a little bit of harshness is just a symptom of the marginally heavier configuration below the boingers, referred to as unsprung weight in more technical circles.
This is where the V-STROM 800DE conversation gets interesting. For the Sheet Iron, and particularly the fire road sections, this bike is perfect. It’s well balanced, takes input well from your feet, slides predictably and easily, and is very planted when you don’t want to be sliding around. It is a great platform to get out and see the world or just the woods behind your house.
To make it a competent off-road machine, you only need to head to the dealer and sign on the dotted line. To make it a more durable and more capable dirt machine, you’ll need to get a skid plate, stronger mirrors, and some better rubber under you. That’s literally it.
Day 1 of the Sheet Iron 300 is usually the more technical riding of the weekend, having a bit more dirt and a few less towns to pass through. After waiting a bit for one of our buddies to show up, we popped onto the trail, opting to forego the roll chart and just follow the tidy little green line on my navigation device. The organizers at the Oakland Motorcycle Club have done some great work at making sure we have trails suited to bike and rider. We stuck to the easier splits, popping into the hard splits now and then for some single track, but for the most part we were happy to be on the easy split. It begins with a bit of pavement before getting to the dirt. The pavement let me really shake the bike down, and figure out what the different ride modes offer.
After a few miles, knowing that I’d be in the dirt, I ended up with TC off and, for the throttle mapping, I went with mode A (the most aggressive of 3 settings), and ABS turned “off”. Now, on the V-STROM 800DE, the ABS is only completely off on the rear wheel and the front adopts an “off-road” setting. A few times I was reminded of this fact by coming into a turn a bit hot and feeling the brakes go into their panic mode, pulsing frantically to find traction as I tried not to find the ground. Doing this one or seven times, you start to remember and then it’s less of a problem. Be ye warned!
After a few hours of riding and having a good time on the trail, we came to Redwood Valley looking for both fuel and food, finding both. I was impressed with the fuel consumption of the 776cc parallel-twin – its instant readout showing 45+mpg even jamming along at 80mph. So really, I was going to top off on fuel and hammer down a burrito. With about 70 miles left to ride on day 1, I had over 85 miles range left on my first tank. Putting me at almost 170 miles of range while riding like a maniac in the dirt on the OEM tires. With some decent dirt tires, I would expect this number to shoot up significantly, as I was spinning excessively to try and do more steering with the back wheel rather than ask too much of the front on the dusty, hard pack roads. When commuting, I was able to get almost 300 miles to a tank!
After some excellent food and fuel, we were back on the road. The remainder of day 1 is about the best section of riding you can ask for. Redwood Valley to Fort Bragg is a mixture of dirt and pavement, finding your way into the bright green of the coastal regions – Willits and surrounding areas being some of my favorite of the whole trip.
Getting out of RV you’ll have a bit of main thoroughfare before that dumps you onto a pretty long stretch of riding, starting with some of the best billy goat pavement you can find. After clearing the neighborhoods, the nice smooth pavement gives way to bumps and quick direction changes. Throw in some great traction on top of that and it’s a giggle factory all the way to where the pavement ends. Paralleling 101 north, you’ll pop up and over some little ridges and drop down to a number of water crossings! Fortunately for me and my motorcycle journalist aspirations, I didn’t drop the Suzuki in the drink. I did however come very close to doing so, but was able to keep it up long enough to make it to the other side and inform all of my riding homies that my line was obviously NOT the correct one. They all made it on the other line with zero issue.
Popping in and out of Willits, we were on our way to Sherwood Rd. – during last year’s Sheet Iron, Sherwood was not the best on our big bike riding crew. It’s a clay based soil for the most part, and last year it was extremely wet and claimed its victims without mercy. Fortunately, this year, it was bone dry and recently graded. A perfect place to really wring out the V-STROM 800DE and see what it could do, which was a lot. I was able to stand on the pegs for the entire section sliding every turn. Grinning like an idiot under my helmet, I was so confident in the V-STROM 800DE I was able to put it wherever the trail demanded. Only once did I find the bottom of the suspension, quite violently at that, but the bike stayed dead straight and I was able to keep riding like nothing happened. The OEM tires, Dunlop Trailmax Mixtours, look like something to get rid of immediately, but they actually stuck like glue all weekend. This being a result of very dry surfaces all weekend. If your plans include heading into loose pack soil or something wet, then these tires will not be as trustworthy a partner as they were for me on the 2026 Sheet Iron.
After Sherwood, we met some people in town and went down to the Wharf, our annual dinner spot. Some good food, drinks and company. A perfect ending to some stellar riding on day 1.
Day 2, moving a little slower after 150 miles on the previous day, we hopped on the road heading south on HWY1 before jumping on Bolinas Ridge Rd. My only problem was the train of KTM 300s in front of me on knobbies dragging the pavement pace down to a leisure sightseeing ride. Picking our way back to 101, we were in and out of the dirt. At 101, we took the pavement bailout down to HWY175. We were a little less keen on the Cow Mountain section as it was similar to the previous days riding, usually, and HWY175 is one of those roads that is too good to pass up.
This stretch was car-free and the pavement was good. The direction we were traveling (east bound) does put us up against the canyon wall, so the threat of dirt and rocks mid-line on a blind turn is enough to keep you on your toes and add to the technicality of the road. All of this makes for a world class ride.
A few more miles of dirt, and we were back where we started in Stonyford. All said and done, the ride was 300+ miles of dirt and pavement. After 2 days of motorcycle bliss, it was time to slab it back to Oakland. Helping some friends load up before getting on the road, I set out. The first miles back are cratered pavement until reaching Williams and I-5. Having the windshield in the low position, wind protection was lacking for the several hour ride. At least the blast hitting me directly in the chin was smooth and without buffeting. When the shield is raised, wind protection is much better. It is a straight-forward process to adjust it, taking only a couple minutes to move the grommets and captive nuts up in the bracket.
After getting home, assessing the durability of the bike was simple. It held up to hammering around dirt roads and single track as well as anything else. One small ding in durability is the finish of the plastics and graphics. After 2 days of off-road, the printed graphics seemed to be easily rubbed off on the front fender. Another plastic piece, finishing the look of the exhaust by covering a section of the silencer, where it meets mid-pipe, had rattled loose and melted on the exhaust.
As a commuter during the week or in traffic, the relatively small size of the bike is more of an asset than you realize at first. It allows for splitting traffic with confidence with enough horsepower and brakes to avoid the onslaught of distracted drivers you’ll face on the freeways of California. Cruise control would have been welcome, as there are stretches on 5 where you have no traffic, and turns of the wrist could use a break. That said, once you hit traffic near Sacramento, it’s all splitting and cruise control isn’t useful.
After a little over a month riding this machine, I can confidently say that this bike deserves a second look if you’re in the market for an ADV bike. My personal bike being a 2024 KTM 1290 Super Adventure R (an expensive beast), the V-STROM 800DE surprised me. For a fraction of the price, it is a fun, capable machine that can be appreciated by expert riders. In the dirt, I would love to sample it with more focused tires and stiffer suspension springs.
The 2026 Suzuki V-STROM 800DE places itself squarely in the middleweight ADV class and is a strong competitor for bikes like the Tenere 700. It is a bike offered at a price point, much like the Yamaha. Unlike the Yamaha, the Suzuki has a shorter seat height and carries its weight low, which may be appealing to the vertically challenged. Suzuki has delivered an excellent motorcycle, regardless of its price. I would happily put this bike in my garage if I didn’t already have one in its place.
The 2026 V-STROM 800DE carries a U.S. MSRP of $11,799. Take a look at Suzuki’s website for additional details and specifications.
