Specifics

And how many amateurs ride a stock bike anywhere near its potential ? How is 'updating' the production bike gonna make Johnny Sixpack any faster when he cant ride the current model to anywhere near its ability?

Some good suggestions here, thanks. I agree it never hurts to lighten things, but at the same time Ive seen safety go by the wayside in the name of weightloss (ie rifled bolts on sprint cars) and eventually race promoters had to implement weight rules to keep the racing safe and the costs from going even more insane. (ie tons of mega expensive titanium all over engine and chassis).

Also nothing wrong with insisting on good plastic and such, but I dont see where everyone gets that from. I have 3 Zooks and the plastic looks just fine on all three and to be quite honest IMHO yellow plastic looks new longer than any other color plastic.

Mapping the injection and engine tweaks are always a good idea to make power more manageable also. But we cant keep pushing that envelope to where its a computer chip winning racing instead of talent. (ie the debate on traction control on 4 wheel racing). These 4-strokes have already allowed unskilled riders to go faster than they really should be at times and given them a false sense of ability. Somewhere along the way you should have some talent that makes you go fast so you dont end up in a helicopter ride.

The main point is that I keep hearing all these websites and magazines refer to the Suzuki as "dated" and "needs updating" and Im just scratching my head asking why the hell does that bike need updating when people who have skill can kick major ass on the bike as it is? "If it aint broke,,,,,," From my viewpoint, the entire dirt bike community is so caught up in the notion you hafta change something every few years, or the bike gets labeled as inferior because the OEM didnt make some radical change and only put on different graphics and a few tweaks. I think what Im learning is that the average Joe Sixpack dirtbike guy isnt as bright as people in the other motorsport genres and are much easier to bullshit with snake oil and hype. Because folks with any functioning brain cells at all can see that yellow bike is a badass machine just as it sits right now.