i am thinking about buying a drz250 for a ds/trail bike i am looking for some opions from folks on this machine my hope is that it will be a good trainging bike for my 19yo stepson and a fun bike for myself as well as do some light comuting duties any and all input will be helpful tdrrally
The DRZ250 was never sold as street legal in the states. You may find one that's been converted but it will lack some of the street goodies dual sports have (passenger pegs, useful mirrors, keyed ignition etc). As a dirt bike it never got all that popular as its quite heavy and an KDX200 is better in every respect. A provided you don't need the usual amenities of a factory dual sport one converted for dual sport use could be quite nice. They are fairly snappy and should be ultra reliable. I have a DR250SE which is a completely different bike (its essentially the same thing as a DR350SE) and have found it to be an excellent around-town/city bike. Not too bad on the trails either, but certainly not going to be confused with a dedicated dirt bike either. A DR250SE or 350SE may do the job as well or better than the DRZ250. They will weight a little more, but only a little and they are factory street legal and have more aftermarket and forum support. I don't recall whether the DRZ250 has a 6spd or 5spd - the extra gear is handy, especially on smaller displacement bikes (The DR250/350 are all 6spd). have fun
The DR-Z250 is a six-speeder. If you buy one, keep the air filter spotless, you lose 10-20% power when it is dirty. That makes a significant difference to the highway cruise and acceleration. Don't worry about the -Z tag, it means nothing except to the marketeers trying to cash in on the "all new" DR-Z400's success. As far as I could tell, the bike was practically the same to at least as far back as 1995, probably longer, labelled simply DR250 or DR250S. Heck they didn't even update the plastics, just changed the stickers!! Because the DR-Z250 was sold as road-legal outside the US of Eh? you could buy all the proper dual sport parts, bolt them on, and nobody would know it didn't come that way from the factory. However I suspect they were road-legal in the US at some point. The one I had, was sent to Suzuki Australia, who complied it for use there, then it was shipped to Suzuki New Zealand who sold it new. So it had both AU & NZ compliance plates. Interestingly, the user hand book was for the American market, Suzuki Motor Corp USA or whatever, complete with all the road legal gear.
i have had a dr350 and a couple xr/xl in my time i am looking for a nice trail bike the drz250 looks like the best compromise from my beloved and long gone sp200 and my also beloved and long gone dr350. and as a plus it is just a little differant with out being hard to get parts for is there a big tank in the land down under, for the drz250 i am loing all the input keep it rolling in tdrrally
No big tanks made here. Try JustGasTanks. It's where most of the kiwi adv'ers tend to shop, even for Aussie-made tanks.
The US market got a different set of DR/DRZ250's than the rest of the world. The DRZ250 here is totally different than the DR250S/SE that preceded it. The DRZ250 was also definitely not sold as road legal here. Bolting the parts on to make it legal would be easy of course using either factory parts from a different market or a baja kit. Most states won't technically allow such things and the VIN number is in the DMV's computer as not road legal making it difficult to get tags in many states. Some, like Colorado are more reasonable, others like CA wil make it nearly impossible. If its a trail bike you want do take a look at a KDX200, its a very fine machine and 50lbs lighter than the DRZ250 :)
Sounds like the US is more bureaucratic than Australia... and Australia is really bad! However, a bit of digging (gotta love the Wayback Machine) shows the US DR-Z250's to be visually identically to the ones we get downunder (click through pics for American Suzuki Motor Corp web info). So that would mean the earlier bikes were different to RoW, not the -Z. Prior to the -Z moniker arriving in... 2000?... this was the DR250 (or DR250S). Not sure which got the S, there was a tin-tank version and a plastic tanker. DR-Z250K5: DR-Z250K6: Doesn't help with your paperwork problem, though.
Yep, I think the bike is physically the same as your current 250. If you go back a bit in time our DR250 was quite different (our DR250 is a de-stroked and sleeved DR350 - dry sump motor, round frame tubes). We do have quite a difficult govt when it comes to vehicles. Not that the DRZ250 that you get wouldn't satisfy our govt, just that it would cost a fortune to certify it as such, making it not worth the cost for mfg's to certify some of their bikes for road use.
I have an 03 DRZ-250 the US model, its a plastic tank. It's been a great little bike but its not plated for California. Actually I bought the 08 WR250R to replace it
In Australia the same problem occurs. When a model is not brought in to the country, the excuse is always, "we won't sell enough of them to justify the certification cost". This is very common in the adventure bike market, which is a niche within a niche. But the US market has to be shitloads bigger, so shouldn't suffer this same problem? or are your compliance systems state-based, so each one is different? At least in Australia, the compliance is basically national. New Zealand is so small it pretty much doesn't inflict it's own special requirements on the market. If it is road-legal elsewhere, it can be here. Plus, virtually anything can be made road legal, as long as it has the equipment fitted.
planning on making the drive to the up mi to pick up a good used drz250 next weekend any body know some good riding trails up there i have to drive 14hrs one way not do some riding tdr
it looks like the Suzuki Djebel 250XC is the same bike with a steel tank and other road going parts does any one out there know this for sure? tdrrally
Yes it is basically the same bike, but some significant differences that make it a better road/adventure bike rather than a trail/adventure. Ditto the Yamaha Raid (TT-R250) and Honda Baja (XR250). Mostly these three bikes are in NZ as used Japanese imports, as Japanese domestic models. Djebels in particular are very popular here, probably because Suzuki in NZ rivals Honda for the number one spot. All have electric start, lockable steel tanks, luggage racks, big headlights, softer seats, lower seat height, softer engine tune (CV rather than flat-slide carbs) and softer suspension. Park them side-by-side and you start to see lots of differences in fittings etc but the core engine, frame and wheels are the same.
Yes, I have. I don't have a web album to make the linkage, so I put the suzuki japan website instead. There you are ---- http://www1.suzuki.co.jp/motor/Djebel250xc/detail.html BTW, this bike a No.1 adv small bike to me, love it. It's too bad it only available within japan! Look at the original 17L tank, and large rear carrier, it was designed for long distance touring ----
sweet on the suzuki jp site i am looking to buy some of the djebel parts for my drz250 ie tank and rack any help with the parts good used or just part numbers would be great looks like the drz400 speedo tdrrally
i picked up my drz250 last night 2002 with yoshi pipe planning a shake down this weekend on the hatfields and mccoys trails
spent the afternoon with the drz250 my gf rode her dads rhino with my stepson (his first time out) all he can say now is i want a ride i want a ride shopping for a bike for him i love the drz plenty of power for most trails climbs like a goat runs like a deer. we did about 20 miles on the outter loop of the little coalriver trail no issues with the bike. it will need some stipher springs i will try and get the some pix up soon edward
