#on-road

I’ll be honest: I’d never heard of the Suzuki XF650 Freewind before. But as I was digging through the archives, looking for this week’s post, when I came across this beauty I knew it was the one. A Suzuki V-Strom before there ever was one, the 1997 Suzuki XF650 Freewind could easily make the case as being the V-Strom’s predecessor. Off-road-ish styling, psuedo knobby tires, street and dirt intentions – all of those are traits the V-Strom carries. Heck, both even have 650(ish)cc engines! How is it like to ride? Here’s our man Yossef Schvetz with the answer.

It’s fair to say KTM has been on a meteoric rise since Stefan Pierer saved the company from bankruptcy in the early 1990s. Since then, the brand made its name in off-road racing, winning nearly everything under the sun, including 15 consecutive Dakar rallies, and the 2015 AMA Supercross championship with Ryan Dungey.

Triumph unveiled four new Tiger 800 variants today at EICMA 2014 – the XR/XRx, and the XC/XCx. The former favor a more road-going bias with occasional light-duty off-roading, while the latter flip the script and prefer dirt to pavement. As standard fitment, all four models receive traction control, ABS and ride-by-wire throttle. XRx and XCx models come fitted with cruise control (the first in its segment) and three riding modes which enable the rider to control throttle response, traction control and switchable ABS. Further, XC models come equipped with WP suspension for greater off-road ability (Showa components adorn XR models). In the engine bay, all four Tigers are powered by the existing 800cc Triple. However, Triumph claim a 17% increase in fuel economy over last year, jumping to 65 mpg vs. 55 mpg.