DR-Z400SM DRZ400 (2005 - 2009) review

Why Suzuki didn’t do this years ago beats us; after all we’ve seen many a home built DRZ. Well, they have now so it might save a few of you the bother.

It's finished and it's the dog's pods. After spending half a day on the dyno at BSD in Peterborough the little DRZ is now kicking out a healthy 44.5bhp, a huge leap from its standard 29 ponies.

A recent trip to Ty-Croes circuit in Anglesey gave me two days of solid thrashing with her. After my first session on track I made a few suspension mods, maximum pre-load on the front forks and maximum compression damping, then I dropped the forks through the yokes 20mm. At the rear end I wound a load of pre-load on the shock until all the static sag had gone, compression damping all the way in then back two clicks. Back on the track and the bike was flying, the amount of corner speed it carried was unbelievable - although I had very little feel from the front tyre. I checked the pressures, 30psi front and back. The sticky Pirellis didn't look like they had been working so I dropped the pressures to 26 front and 28 rear.  Back on the circuit and I could now feel the tyres, and so I could push harder in the turns.

Considering the DRZ was intended as a 'dual sport' bike, in its supermoto guise the chassis is brilliant. The front brake is nothing short of awesome - the 320mm wave disc, braking caliper, braided hose and Discaciati master cylinder have a real easy time of stopping the lightweight Suzuki. Normally big brakes on light bikes don't work because they are too sharp and have little in the way of feel, but the Discaciati set-up (16mm master cylinder bore instead of 19mm) equals no problem. My 400 had the legs on all the supermotos I came across on track and now the motor has loosened up a bit it's probably making a few more ponies. The bike was geared perfectly for Anglesey with a 14 tooth front sprocket and a 43 rear, but on the road and other tracks it revs so quick you keep throwing gears at it until it hits the limiter in top (5th gear) at around 100-105 mph, so I will have to experiment with that.

Why Suzuki didn’t do this years ago beats us; after all we’ve seen many a home built DRZ. Well, they have now so it might save a few of you the bother.

It's finished and it's the dog's pods. After spending half a day on the dyno at BSD in Peterborough the little DRZ is now kicking out a healthy 44.5bhp, a huge leap from its standard 29 ponies.

A recent trip to Ty-Croes circuit in Anglesey gave me two days of solid thrashing with her. After my first session on track I made a few suspension mods, maximum pre-load on the front forks and maximum compression damping, then I dropped the forks through the yokes 20mm. At the rear end I wound a load of pre-load on the shock until all the static sag had gone, compression damping all the way in then back two clicks. Back on the track and the bike was flying, the amount of corner speed it carried was unbelievable - although I had very little feel from the front tyre. I checked the pressures, 30psi front and back. The sticky Pirellis didn't look like they had been working so I dropped the pressures to 26 front and 28 rear.  Back on the circuit and I could now feel the tyres, and so I could push harder in the turns.

Considering the DRZ was intended as a 'dual sport' bike, in its supermoto guise the chassis is brilliant. The front brake is nothing short of awesome - the 320mm wave disc, braking caliper, braided hose and Discaciati master cylinder have a real easy time of stopping the lightweight Suzuki. Normally big brakes on light bikes don't work because they are too sharp and have little in the way of feel, but the Discaciati set-up (16mm master cylinder bore instead of 19mm) equals no problem. My 400 had the legs on all the supermotos I came across on track and now the motor has loosened up a bit it's probably making a few more ponies. The bike was geared perfectly for Anglesey with a 14 tooth front sprocket and a 43 rear, but on the road and other tracks it revs so quick you keep throwing gears at it until it hits the limiter in top (5th gear) at around 100-105 mph, so I will have to experiment with that.