[Jeff in Kentucky]

These are great bikes for short trips on curvy roads for someone that is fairly tall, with some dirt or gravel roads, and not good on long trips at 75 mph on the straight interstates. They say the less expensive Kawasaki is better for beginners, but you still pay quite a bit more than for a 250cc Honda sportbike or cruiser, 250cc Ninja, 250cc Suzuki standard or a 250cc scooter that are better for longer trips on pavement:

http://www.motorcycle.com/shoot-outs/quarterliter-supermoto-shootout-87985.html

[madjak30]

I think the SM bikes would be more fun for bombing around town…way lighter and more nimble than a regular street bike and lots of leg room…and they have torque down lower due to the single cylinder, and probably the gearing…they had the Konker SM bike at the BR course I took…it had good brakes, a nice riding position and they were pretty impressed at how it was holding up to the abuse…they also had a CBR125R (Canadian…) which one of the girls in the course ran out to every time…and a few 250cc cruisers, but mostly they had the 200-250cc dual sport bikes…they were great fun and easy to ride…just didn’t do well on hiway over 50mph (80kph)…I think mine got up to 55mph then just didn’t have enough to keep accellerating (I guess I’m too big of a sail…)

If I were in the market for one, I would check into the Suzuki DRz400SM…just for the extra power…but my next bike will probably be in the 800cc or larger range…I do lots of hiway touring…but I think a SM as a second bike would be a blast…

Later.

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