2019 SUZUKI DR-Z400S VS. 2019 K TM 500 EXC
C O M PA R I S O N
P110
was hard to hand it off to someone else
after being on it for a while. Man, the KTM
is a damn good motorcycle! But after a
while, it was getting clearer and clearer
that, no matter how good the KTM was,
the ride itself—our destination, the route
we were taking, where we'd stop for food—
had become more important than which
bike we were on. It didn't matter anymore.
We seemed to be having an equal amount
of fun riding both bikes, and fun had taken
precedence over how good, or not so
good, the bikes performed. It just did not
seem to matter anymore…until.
With the sun now setting, and with the
prospects of a long ride back home on the
pavement, and now with a full day of riding
under our helmets and butts on the seat,
suddenly the DR-Z became hot property.
Since I had the slightly longer ride back
home on the pavement than anyone else,
when we split up for our rides back home,
I got to finish off the day on the bike I
started out on, the DR-Z.
I think when all was said and done, at
one time or another during the ride, our
fun-meters were pegged on both bikes,
just not always at the same time. The
Suzuki kicks the KTM's butt on the pave-
ment and rivals it on smooth dirt roads.
The KTM, on the other hand, is a far
superior motorcycle on technical terrain,
Sometimes it
doesn't matter
what you're on,
as long as it is on
two wheels and
far from home.
