THE DR-Z4SM
Okay, so take the DR-Z4S, swap the wheels for 17” units with sticky road tyres, add a bigger front disc, lower and stiffen the suspension, and hey presto, another model: the SM. So, the motor and chassis are mostly the same, and so therefore is the performance. And as said before, yes, there’ s that reaching for sixth gear once you get up to higher highway speeds. That said, it’ s hard to fault the rest of the dynamic. The SM is a bundle of fun, to quote a great piece of moto journalism from decades back,“ as flickable as a bogey in double maths”.
Like the DR-Z4S, it fits into the LAMS category and this is great for both models.
For the SM particularly as it’ s likely to appeal to younger riders who’ d like something a bit more fun than some of the more pedestrian LAMS offerings( albeit at a price). We had Bernd Hiemer as our SM guide, and as a two-time world supermoto champion, he could show just how wheels-out-of-line you can take the SM – yeah, it’ ll go all the way to full-race laid-down backing-in. And, in fact, you can readily do such skids yourself at pretty slow speeds, but trying to emulate Bernd, under instruction, at 80km / h and above became a hell of a lot harder. You do, though, need to cane it, 38hp only goes so far. But motor aside, it’ s the full supermoto experience, no question.
KIWI RIDER 59