How To... ...Adventurise Your Bike

Making a bike your own is all part of the adventure. Motorcycle traveller Nathan Millward takes a stock Suzuki V-Strom 1000XT and adds the bits to make it that bit readier for adventure

- Nathan Millward

I’ve long had a soft spot for the Suzuki V-Strom 1000, ever since the phase 2 model came out in 2014. It wasn’t the fastest, the most technologically advanced or even the most capable of bikes in its class, but it was a good, hard-working, do-everything bike. I ran one for around 8000 miles and did everything from touring to commuting to green-laning on it. It’s a shame that a lot of people overlook them in favour of bikes more exotic, not to mention more expensive, as fundamentally they’re a solid, capable and good value adventure machine.

They just lack a bit of attitude and dirt road ability, which is something I hoped to remedy with this loan bike from Suzuki, addressing a few of the bike’s shortcomings and highlighting some of the areas you might want to look at when equipping your own bike for adventure. To help with the job I headed over to the Adventure Bike Shop in Sudbury, ran by global travellers Cliff and Jenny who a few years back went around the world on their own two-wheeled trip and so have the knowledge and stock to help kit out your own bike. We began with the footpegs…

FOOTPEGS