The Suzuki V-Strom 650 has been dubbed the Swiss army knife of motorcycles. It can do anything. It has a powerful engine, and is built to travel down the roughest of roads to the smoothest of tarmac. It is this versatility and a proven track record that stood out to us when planning for this trip. Having four of the exact same motorcycles will make it much easier for Justin to keep them all in tip-top shape. There have also been a few improvements made to the V-Strom for this model year, most notably the availability of ABS. None of us have ever owned a bike with ABS before and the added safety is more than welcome.

Turple Brothers of Red Deer together with Suzuki Canada contributed significantly to our recieving the bikes on time. We got the first four ABS bikes in Western Canada. At the present time the bikes are in a container on a ship in the Pacific Ocean. Nippon Transport are key to insuring the bikes arrive where and when we need them. Waiting for the bikes to arrive and the need to ship them virtually immediatly has us scrambling to insure the bikes are properly equipped. The foul weather in Alberta in February precluded our getting any chance to break the bikes in. Presuming Nepon gets the bikes to Ushuaia before us; presuming the bikes aren't damaged in transit; presuming we can clear customs quickly; presuming we have all the right tools and can find a facility to put the bikes together and presuming we can find the keys we hope to do some minimal break-in work on the bikes before we actually depart Ushuaia.

We have equipped the bikes with a variety of accessories which has resulted in each bike being somewhat unique. GIVI luggage (monokey system) on two bikes, aluminum Hepco Becker luggage on the other two. Two bikes have GIVI larger windshields, the other two have laminar lips, two were lowered with Kouba links and have handlebar risers. All four bikes have Hepko Becker Crash bars and Center Stands. All four have Acerbis handguards, Fender extenders and headlight protectors. All four bikes are equipped with Garmin 530 RINO GPS units and power adaptor kits.