Having a liking to a little off-road riding and needing a set of wheels as the wife is using the car for work, I decided to combine the two and purchase a Suzuki DR-Z 400s, Suzuki’s new Dual sport 4-stroke.
I have now had this for two weeks and must say what a pleasure it is to ride, both off and on the road. It is not to heavy at approx. 140kgs with a tank full of fuel. Which means I can still throw it around a bit, and pick it up with ease should I happen to put it down, which I do occasionally, and even though I have put this bike down a few times. I have yet to do any damage to it, proving that it is nice and durable.
Now for some technical bits. The engine is a single cylinder 4 stroke that is liquid cooled. It is started via an electric starter, so no more kick starting and decompression levers here. It has a five speed box which typically of all 4-strokes has a good amount of power and torque, which combined with the lightness of this bike makes it exceptionally nimble for a large enduro. Front suspension is by a telescopic oil damped coil spring. Rear suspension is by a link type oil damped coil spring. This actually holds the bike up quite high at 49 inches, but you do get a respectable 12 inches of ground clearance because of this. But it helps if you have a long inside leg. Disc brakes to the front (dual caliper) and rear (single caliper) make stopping easy. Gone is the usual round dial Speedo, replaced by a smart digital Speedo with clock, timer and stopwatch which is reasonably easy to use. A pouch on the rear fender carries a toolkit and users manual, but I wouldn’t advise you to leave these on the bike, as there are to many people about with light fingers.
Available in only two colours in the UK, yellow and blue. I opted for the yellow. Which is nice but does show up all the dirt. But then this makes me clean it, so probably not a bad thing for me.
Although I have only had this bike for a few weeks, I must say I am well happy with it so far, long may it continue. Cheers Laurence.
Pictures of Suzuki DR-Z400S
DRZ 400
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
This review was a bit short..but I could understand it..so
that is why I rated it VH..LL
phil2001 08.04.2002 22:18
As I have little knowledge of bikes, I found this useful and interesting. Thanks.
Bigbaz 08.04.2002 20:18
Hi, sorry for the rating, but I would like to see a bit more information , such as cost, fuel economy etc, if you update it let me know and I will with pleasure update my rating..Baz
Mar 15th, 2002
very helpful by (86%):
helpful by (14%):
