VOL. 52 ISSUE 50 DECEMBER 15, 2015 P161
T
he Suzuki was a tough
bike to place in our six-bike
ranking. Opinions varied all
over the place when it came to
the great-turning RM-Z450. As
a whole, some loved it, others,
not so much. It really was a love-
hate relationship with the Suzuki
for most of our test riders. All,
however, agreed that the bike is
still the best-turning motorcycle
of the group and has an excellent
engine. It's not the most powerful
in its class but is still very torquey,
robust and powerful enough
overall to get the job done, and
is relatively easy to control for a
big-bore. We still like how you can
easily adjust mapping via its pre-
programed couplers, and it starts
very easily, too.
We already mentioned that it's
still the best-turning bike of the
group; problem is that over the
years, the other bikes have been
gaining ground on the Suzuki in
this department, so its advantage
here is getting narrower and
narrower, which means this
characteristic doesn't quite make
up for whatever shortfalls it may
have elsewhere nearly as much.
