For some reason, this bike is extremely non-descript to me. I've read reviews in magazines, and have seen pictures, and have even sat on the darn thing, but for the life of me, can never remember a thing about it. It's just sort of there. To me, it looks like a toy in the pictures I've seen: something about the flat angles of the frame and the way the exhaust sort of pops out from the rear plastic. It looks sort of like someone took a sportsbike and bolted on a few enduro parts (hand guards, engine guards, etc). It looked better in person, but I'm still not sold. Suzuki is billing the DL1000 as an adventure-tourer, but I just can't imagine forgoing a Triumph Tiger or the like in favor of the DL1000.

For one thing, its weight. This bike is damn tall, and damn heavy. It's got a seat height of 32.7", which is fairly normal for an adventure tourer (the Tiger's is 33.4") but it's so heavy that I couldn't raise it off of the sidestand with one leg. To be fair, its claimed dry weight is 5 pounds lighter than that of the Tiger, so perhaps I have unrealistic ideas of what an adventure tourer should be. For my money, I'll take the BMW F650GS, thanks.

My thoughts from the saddle: Heavy, and tall. Like I mentioned, I couldn't straighten up the bike, so I just sort of crawled onto it and crawled off of it. Ergonomically, it seemed pretty nice, though the foot pedals were fairly high. Yet another bike that needs that little bit of instant adjustment. Lots of room for saddlebags and tailbags, though -- I'd be confident that my luggage was secure on this bike.

The tall boys' thoughts from the saddle: Both Peter and our friend David were far more comfortable on the DL1000 than I was. Their longer inseams gave them the leverage to straighten up the bike, and neither of them commented on its weight. Ergonomically, it looks made for a guy about David's size -- aside from the goofy look on his face, it looks like it fits him perfectly.

Suzuki's spec sheet.