Anyone looking for some LAMS flavored Supermoto action?

Any learner up for a LAMS legal supermoto (hooligan bike)?

Spotted this one (just had a price drop) for $5200, awesome bike!

http://www.bikesales.com.au/private/details/suzuki-dr-z400sm-2006-12563770?__Ns=p_IsPoa_Int32|0||p_RankSort_Int32|1||p_HasPhotos_Int32|1||p_Make_String|0||p_Model_String|0||p_YearMade_Int32|1||p_PriceSort_Decimal|1||p_PhotoCount_Int32|1&SearchAction=N&__Qpb=1&__Nne=15&__sid=13731A29B0DF&__N=1432%20604%201430%201429%201626%201428%204294967268%204294967039%2078

Very tempted to sell the GS500f in favor of some motard action, someone buy it before the temptation gets to me! Arrrgh!

 

i saw that last night actually. get it. you know you want to.

getit getit getit getit

 

Do want!

 

Get an SXV550

 

Smooth V-twin, I like your thinking. But the maintenance on one of those is insane!

 

So. Many. Wheelies.

 

ALL the wheelies!

 

If I didn't already have a bike I would be all over that!
Motards are where it's at!

 

This looks like a shitload of fun.... are they really any good on dirt roads?

Do they have much grunt, considering they are LAMS?

 

They don't do too bad actually on open firetrails. Single trail would be near impossible on them though! If you were actaully keen to do both road and dirt though, you could get a second set of off road tyres and just swap between them depending on what you wanted to do.

They have enough to keep you fairly satisfied. They'll usually top out at about 160km/h or so... Will pull wheelies in 4th using the clutch as well

 

Sounds good.

I'm loving my little GPX250, but I'm thinking about a different learner legal bike that would be:

better for the dirt roads south of Canberra / heading into mountains past cooma etc
be better at sitting at 110 / 120 with some extra for overtaking. the 250 is on about 8000 rpm at 110kmh and doing that for hours ain't my idea of being kind to it.

would this bike be good for that? other options, people?

oh, and the tyres that are on it in the pictures on the ads.... what are they good for?

I only pulled one wheelie on my 250 so far, I think it was on the second day I rode it.... I was a bit enthusiastic taking off into traffic once and <just> managed to hold on with one hand with I think leg or two flailing as well, musta looked good from behind....

 

This bike would be excellent for cruising the dirt roads around Canberra and stuff mate. Too answer you later question about the tyres on it, it has dual sport tyres fitted on it which means that they will be able to handle the dirt roads, but won't wear out as fast as the standard knobbies on tar roads
With it being the 400SM model (SM standing for Super Motard), it will happily sit on the highway and cruise along. Will still be revving a fair bit to maintain 110kmh but much less then my bike which, due to it's gearing tops out at 137km/h. I've cruised around a bit on mine on the highways at 100km/h still and it did it happily, so I can imagine that bike would be more then happy to do it! Mine smashes along to the red line in top gear so overtaking is no problem!

For what you want it to do I reckon it would be the prefect bike mate Go and hit up CMC at Mitchell and see if they have a SM model which you can take for a spin and you will soon know whether it will be good or not!

Hahaha not a bad effort on a 250! They are much easier to pull on these bikes, and also much more forgiving on the wallet if you fall off! Parts are damn cheap compared to replacing road bike fairings! I think they are about $300 for an entire replacement plastics kit so you can't complain there!

 

one of the boys at work has one of these and let me take it for a ride....for a LAMS bike they are a wheelie machine, took me by suprise

 

when i type "the ultimate wheelie machine" into google, the first link is a Sachs Madass...

Nuff said!!

 

A wide range gear box helps a lot and I mean a lot wider than "wide range" designated dirt bikes that are still fairly competition oriented.
Early model Tenere's had a 5 speed box but a huge gap between 1st and 2nd. 1st was kind of your emergency gear in the dirt if things got too hard, it did have fairly good low speed torque but tended to stall if you had it too close to idle speed. Around the same time the twin cam XT250s had a wide range 6 speed box, while 110 was a bit past their cruising speed they could do it long enough for those sections of a trip that had to be done on highway and without the engine working really high up in the rev range yet in tight off road 1st and 2nd were about right for the type of tracks you were likely to take these slightly over weight chookies (about + 5 kg on similar aged enduro bikes). While the XT 250 didn't have as good a motor as the first water cooled Kwak 250 the wider gear box ratios let it do the touring/ snotty dirt combo more easily.

 

Supa is right with the whole they won't be the most comfortable to cruise along the highway for long periods of time. I'd still happily take one for a ride down to say batemans bay, but probably wouldn't spend all day slabbing it down the hume to Melbourne on one. Not that it won't, it just won't be anywhere near as comfortable as your GPX is to do the same long haul. I'd also feel bad for sitting on the same speed down such a long highway on the DRZ. At least down to the bay you can change your speed around a bit!

If the DRZ's were a 6 speed gearbox they would be just that much better!

 

Stu had taken his drz sm on a bay run. Fuel is a bit of a problem as is wind above about 120 but are otherwise pretty comfy. They run pretty tall gearing stock so you can do reasonable cruising speeds. If it were me I would drop a tooth of the front and just smash it around town. That way you would only have to ever replace the rear tyre as it would be the only one on the road 95% of the time.

 

In response to my recent clutch dramas I may have been taking this bike much more seriously than before Been doing some research online, man they're sweet bikes (on paper anyway). Very close to popping down to CMC for a quick ride. According to thumpertalk and supermotojunkie you just have to swap out the rear sprocket for a 39/38 tooth and she's a cherry on the highway...The DRZ seems to fit my motorcycling philosophy perfectly (not riding for break neck speed, but for the fun in the twisties etc.). The GS is sooo comfy on the highway, but utterly uninspiring (for me at least). Don't be surprised if you see a GS500 on bikesales soon...

 

yeah nothing I ever read about the GS500 inspired me to get one....

So, maybe the 400SM model would suit me, and maybe it wouldn't. I'm NOT looking for a full on dirt bike, more a bike that is more comfy on unsealed roads than my slick shorn GPX... There are a lot of places I wanna explore that don't have sealed roads.... So aside from this bike what other options (on LAMS) can people suggest?

I'm not liking the very limited fuel range of the 400SM at ALL. I get around 300kms per tank on my GPX and that is definitely NOT focussing on fuel economy.... much less than that would annoy the crap outa me having to refuel all the time.....!!!