Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

Bigger means better: More displacement from the engine and 49mm forks do wonders for the street·legal DR. fered a bad case of "deflectitis," its suspension just too flimsy to handle such torment. The DR-Z400, on the other hand, didn't even flinch in the rocks but instead searched out the big rocks to plow over or use as small launching pads. The huge 49mm conventional-style Showa forks straight off Suzuki's 1997 RMs (but without the cartridge) - soak up the rocks like they aren't even there ... well, almost. Still, no more ric- ocheting from rock to rock like you did on the 350. And the back end works just as well over the rocks as the front end, though the Showa shock is slightly undersprung for my 170 pounds. In these conditions, however, I'd rather have it too soft than too stiff. Over any other type of terrain, I'll some day get around to increasing the preload by a couple of twists, but I'm in no real hurry. Another huge improvement is the DR-Z's seat, which, for all intents and purposes, used to be nothing more than the narrow end of a 2x4 wrapped by some substance pretending to be padding. The new seat has better shape, foam and covering, which you'll come to appreciate after a long day in the saddle. I know I did. In my opinion, a good dual sport bike still has to be relatively comfortable on the pavement, because there's plenty of that hard stuff between my driveway and the nearest dirt road (and probably yours, too), and when it comes to making qUick errands around town, I just don't want to be doing it on a street-modified, kick-start WR400. For those some- A fan behind the radiator should prevent overheating. times-long "transfer" sections between one dirt road and another, you won't be terribly miserable on the One of the really neat things about the DR-Z400S is its all-new electronic meteringl"computer" system, which will remind you of the computer that came stock on the Honda XR350 in '85. Like the XR's computer, the DR's does just about everything but fix a flat tire. The digital instrument cluster features a speedometer, odometer, two trip meters with addition and subtraction capability, and clock, timer and stopwatch functions. What, no GPS? One of the most useful features is the resettable-to-the-l Oth odometer, so if you blow a turn in an organized dual sport ride, you won't have to worry about your mileage being off all the way to the next mileage-restart. You can also program the tripmeter to count down your mileage, and you can do the same with the built-in clock. The computer can also be recalibrated to match the odometer of the motorcycle that laid out the mileage of the dual sport event you're participating in, or to account for a different-sized (tall or short knobbies) front tire or just plain tire wear. So, no more excuses for getting lost in an organized dual sport ride. Plan on doing some dual sport riding in Canada? No problem. The metering system can be changed over to read in kilometers. Overall, the metering system is very, very cool, but just don't ask us how to use it. We have yet to spend enough serious alone time with the computer's owner's manual to learn what all the function buttons do and how they work. But we were still able to figure out the very basics fairly quickly. Oh yeah, put this in your memory bank: Definitely keep the rubber side down when riding the DR-Z400S. Like me, you probably already try real hard not to crash, but you'll try even harder when you realize that your very expensive electronjc metering system is susceptibie to damage in a fall, especially since there is nothing specifically designed to protect It. To put icing on the cake, Suzuki informs us that a trip-meter remote button wiil soon be available for the DR-Z400S. The remote button will allow the rider to change trip-meter settings without having to remove your hands from the handlebars. cue I e n e _ S • APRIL 5, 2000 13

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