10 years ago they knew Suzuki was done.

I’ve owned a few Zuk’s with (2) of them being 06 RM250 models. The one with engine mods & RG3 suspension was better than the RC Edition owned, but always felt these bikes were / are overrated. It’s a sketchy & scary bike to ride when the track got rough. I agree with MXA’s assessment of the chassis being really unstable.


Q: HOW DOES IT HANDLE?
A: Suzuki is the only manufacturer willing to push the handling envelope. Each manufacturer has its own personality—etched in stone. Honda started playing it safe in 1994 when they neutered the super-accurate ’93 model. KTM never took a chance on building a bike that would turn. Kawasaki’s handling is an acquired taste—for ax murders. Yamaha has a middle-of-the-road chassis that doesn’t do anything wrong—or anything great.

Suzuki, on the other hand, is all cut-and-thrust. They are willing to give up straight-line stability for quickness, to trade a little head shake for accuracy in the corners and to seek one superlative at the cost of others.
The question you have to ask yourself is—are you willing to give up some sense of security at speed to be able to slice, dice and Julienne the competition in the corners? Answer yes and you have no choice but to race a Suzuki. It is the only bike that can walk the tightrope between brilliant and schizophrenic.

Q: DID SUZUKI TRY TO CALM THE HANDLING DOWN IN 2006?
A: No. They gave it some lip service in their press releases, but in reality, Suzuki rolled the dice in 2006 and made the chassis even quicker by cutting the steerer tube off the old frame and moving it back 5mm. By altering the head tube, Suzuki moved the engine forward to put more weight on the front wheel. More weight equals more bite in the turns and is something that some of Suzuki’s competitors could benefit from, but we have to confess that we don’t think the RM250 needed to turn better. It was already super responsive. We saw Ricky Carmichael try this new frame out at the Las Vegas Supercross. It wasn’t legal to race, but he rode it during the day sessions just to get a preview of what 2006 holds for him.

What do we think of the new frame? We think it turns better. We didn’t fret over the increased head shake because racing a Suzuki is all about setup. Seeking perfect balance between the front and rear is a constant ballet of race sag and fork tube height. We slid the forks down in the clamps, ran 100mm of sag and kept our reflexes on Defcon-4.

Same with my kxf.

And judging by half the crap I read in the tech section, I’m not regretful about still having a kick starter. Kinda hard to when she typically fires up in, at worst, 3-4 kicks if cold.

Everyone here complaining about the weight but will justify having a battery high up in the chassis and a starter 😂

I currently ride a 2018 450SXF and do reasonably well at holding my own in the +25 and +30 classes. I'm not fast by any means, but I like to think I'm an ok rider.

My buddy purchased a brand new 2019 RMZ 450 for $6,700 OTD this past summer. I rode it the second time he took it to the track and was surprised at how much I liked it. Was it as good as my KTM? No. Especially since I have the suspension done to my liking. But if I were in the market for a new bike I would strongly consider buying a ZUK. I could put $2K into that thing and have a really good, solid platform that would suit me well and it would still be cheaper than almost any other bone stock bike I could purchase.

Kicking it sucks, sure. But it's not that big a deal, either.

People like to bag on the RM125. My 03 seems about the same power, maybe a touch more than my 97 CR 125, which is faster than my 99 and 01 were. My friend has an 06 CR125, ported and piped. He's about 155 lbs, I'm 200 lbs. He's 20, I'm 62. he beats me in a 6 lap moto. 9 out 10 times I beat him to the first turn by 2 lengths. He doesn't Like my RM as he feels it's too responsive. Set up is the key. I had it sprung for my weight with FC suspension. I wish I'd have do a 144 on it.I cleaned up the ports myself, had it re plated, VForce reeds, PC exhaust, geared it down a bit.

My 04 RM250 had pretty much the same mods, same suspension. Setup is key. I could always hang with the 450's. I was faster in a 6 lap moto on it then on my CRF450.

Then I built a RM500AF, CR powered, RMZ 250 chassis. Dream bike. Setup super critical. Oh what fun. Yes, vibrates a little. No worse than a steel framed CR500 though.

Suzuki just does not have the flash as the other new bikes. I think if Suzuki had sold their new bikes with the yellow rims and more of the factory bike graphics, that would have helped. I never thought the stock suspension was as bad as my Honda, Kawasaki or Yamaha bikes I've owned. The newer SSS Yamahas are better stock than all the others though.

Could someone share with me where any of the advancements that the Zook is lacking has factually increased their lap times on the other brands? or is it that it’s just “cool” to just repeat what someone else has said without ever throwing a leg over a RMZ

I think most of us know the answer to this one

suzuki pretty much stopped their major development back in 2012 when the auto side filed bankruptcy. I imagine this drained some personnel and capital from other side such as the motorsport side.

reality is the chassis is always been really solid on both the 250 and 450. and the 450 engine is underappreciated for its ease of use. the bike has been good enough to both SX and MX titles but it is getting old.

I imagine with the separation of the marine and motorsports there wont be any real updates for a few years so to expect a better engine, less weight or at the very least a better setup from the showroom is out of the question. but if they dont turn some things around they wont be selling dirt bikes for much longer

So dumb!!!!