Hi, --After years of street riding and no trail time am switching to Dual Sport. After asking around, decided on a DRZ400. In fact, found so much enthusiasm for them that now, it's the only bike that will do.
As I look through the used bikes for sale ads, I see a fair amount of DRZ's that are super moto's. So my question if I take a 400SM and put a proper off road wheel/tire set up on it, will I essentially have a 400S or are there other things about the 400SM that one would want to avoid if spending time off road? What about the different front forks? --Should I just keep looking for a 400S?
And what places are good to look for used DRZ's? I'm checking ebay, craigslist, cycletrader. Haven't found too much yet that doesn't seem a bit high priced.
Thanks for any input!

You will have better than an S, you will have an S with much better forks, shock and swingarm(IMHO).

Here's my SM with S wheels on it:



:ride::ride:

If you can get a sm for a good price id say get the sm. like drz400vet said much better forks. That being said a sm will normal cost you more so it depends on what u want to spend. Ive seen many fairly new Sm for $4,000 but a S can be had for as cheap as 3,000 ish. The sm will be more road orientated so if you will be doing more offroad than onroad maybe the S will be better for you since its setup better from factory.

Either way you cant go wrong there both great bikes. I plan on eventually turning my Sm into a adventure bike and selling off the Sm wheels for a clean offroad set.

I bought an SM, I found S wheels with rotors and sprocket for $500. The only problem I have with the bike is the yellow color, don't like it, wish it was black. But, I got the SM as cheap as the S bikes were going for.

I'd get whatever is cheapest. The S suspension is very good, every bit as good as the SM, especially off road. And with a revalve and sprung for your weight and riding ability they're as good as the SM forks on road, also. The rest of the bikes are virtually identical.

What is needed to be able to swap SM wheels to S wheels or vise versa (I'm sure this questions been asked a million times)?

Edit: Nevermind. I should've searched before posting. Im such a noob!

Don't settle with the SM. I was looking for a used DRZ400S for a while. Like you said, to much for the year or beat to shit. :foul: So with that I started looking at new, most all of the prices I got in North Jersey was about $6,100 out the door included DMV. What also helped in my choice to buy new was that Suzuki is offering 1.9% financing, 0 down for up to 60 months! I of course put a few thousand down, but if you didn’t you would only be paying approximately $530.00 interest for the entire time of the loan. If you can swing it, NOW IS THE TIME TO BUY A NEW ONE! ( it will have that new car smell :smirk: )

Brett

What kind of riding will you be doing ? The DRZ is a DIRT BIKE and when you put street tires on it, it's a dirt bike with street tires on it. It's not powerful, it's not comfortable for long rides, it's a dirt bike. It's a great dirt bike though !

1978Rider said:

but at the same time the it's still the funnest "dirt bike" you'll ever ride on the street

The SM forks are not better...they are just more astheticly pleaseing because everybody is running USD forms these days...and it loses the old school accordian boot.

Point in fact...the SM forks are limited in travel and not valved and sprung for hard core off road.

Some of the S guys are using older USD RM forks on their S model to gain the asthetics of a more modern look. Thse are true off road USD forks.

That being said...the average rider would never know the difference...so it is not really important.

If you can get a SM cheap...go for it. You'll have to use the larger SM brakes with the offroad wheels. Some consider this a potential for damage from rock hazards...but I don't recall ever seeing anybody post about actually damaging any offroad.

Performance wise...a stock S and a Stock SM would be a wash.
So do what your pocket book likes.

also, you will be stuck with a 310 rotor on the sm forks. on the s you can switch between the stocker or a320 with a bracket. the 310 rotor is gonna get mashed if you hit the rocky areas off road.