F
ifteen years. That’s how long it takes to get
a Long Service and Good Conduct medal.
Suzuki’s DR650SE has gained that, and
some. Coming into its 25th year of production
virtually unchanged - how many other bikes can
claimed that? - the DR’s recipe was right from
the very start.
The DR is often in the top five of bikes ,of any
capacity, sold every month here in NZ. In fact, the
DR has been the best-selling bike over 500cc in
New Zealand many times, and the NZ riding
public laps up over 100 new DRs every year. But
it’s not just in New Zealand that the DR is so
popular, in the U.S.A Suzuki sells several
thousand a year. Canada and Australia have
similar appetites for the simple, single cylinder
trail machine. It’d most likely be the same in
Europe if it wasn’t for stringent Euro3 emissions
legislation, which is impossible for a non-fuel
injected or catalytic converter-equipped
machine to pass. And to put a final nail in the
coffin, NZTA is now wanting bikes sold to have
ABS. So, it’s good night DR650.
Asking around the KR office brought a slew of
happy experiences aboard a DR. The common
theme running through them all was the bike’s
all-round ability. And it’s this ‘jack of all trades’
nature which makes the bike popular to a diverse
group of riders. For LAMS licencees, commuters,
trail riders and around the world adventurers,
the DR just seems to make sense. With this in
mind, we thought reprint this test we did a
few years ago for another look.
The first DR650s rolled off the production line
in 1990 and several updates before being
completely redesigned for 1996. Since then the
updates have been minor (see timeline), but the
bike is essentially the same today as it was in
1996. The world of large capacity road/trail
four-stroke singles seemed to hit a sweet spot
and the manufacturers of such machines
recognise this; whatever it was that made the
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