Huckster said:

I also have a friend whos got a Honda 450, nimble and light but i know now why its lighter than the zook.
The radiators are not made for tipping over, the rims are so weak that they look like eights after the first hard ride on a stoney track.
He has cracked the subframe on several occasions and got bent when tipping over to hard.
The Zook is heavier yes, but those things don´t happen so easy on them.
More weight seem to add relability, you don´t have to be rocket scientist to figure that out ;-).

I am in no way knocking the quality of the suzuki.  I have owned a RMZ 450 since they came out in 05 and love them.  Great bikes and I have had no major problems with any of the ones I have owned.  I was just sharing my opinion about what I felt the differences were between my RMZ and the Honda that I rode.

Huckster said:

I understand :-) i just hear everybody talking about how light the Honda is and i wanted to share my thoughts of how it can be so light and the zook so heavy. I´ve ridden Suzuki since i got my RM50 around 81 with a short venue on an YZ80 in 85-87 (the same bike). Since then ive gone thru a dosens of RM80s,RM125s,250s,RMZ250s and now 450s. I haven´t had any thoughts of changing brand cause i havent had any major issues that haven´t happened to any other brand. Since the RMZ450 come around i haven´t had any problems at all. My -05 ran 250hrs before it needad any major service.
My -07-08 and -10 has all ran trouble free.
Very reliable bikes and handling i second to none.
Just my thoughts :-)

Edited by otlas, 14 September 2011 - 06:23 AM.

I just sold my 09 CRF 450R and picked up a 2012 RM-Z 450.  Although I had ony a few complaints with my 09, it was, IMO a great bike!  I put a lot of hours on it and it held up well.  The bike still felt tight even after all of the hours of use.  My stock clutch lasted almost two years!  I rode my clutch as if I was on a two-stroke lol.  Before I bought my 12 Zook, I was think about getting either a 12 Honda or 12 Kawi.  Who ever said that Hondas were lighter because of cheapier parts ect., that is false IMO.  I've taken my share of spill on my 09 and it held up very well.  The fit and finish of my Honda was great, at least to me.  However, I changed the oil/oil filter ever 5hrs and air filter every single ride.  A lot has to be said with how people take care of their bikes.  Maybe I got luckly with my 09.  

The issues I did have, I was going through fuel filters like crazy (yes, I filter my fuel).  The 12 Hondas seem to have fixed this issue from what I've read.  Like I said before, I liked my 09 and was really close to getting a 12 at the last minute.  Hoewever, I've ridden jusy about ever other bike out there and the turning of the xooks seems to be unmatched IMO.  I has issues with my 09 in that aspect.  I couldn't seem to get the bike dialed in for me.  That was my main reason for the switch to yellow.  To be honest, I think the 12 honda is much improved over the 09.  I think all of the newer 450's are great bikes.  Yes, there is a weight difference and I noticed it every time I would get back on my bike after riding another brand.  I'm hoping the turning of the zook will make up the difference in weight compared to my 09.  I plan on making my fist rind on the 12 later on today so we will see how it goes.  I set the sag today so I'll be ready for the break in ride!  Sorry for being long winded but I just wanted to give me honest opinion on my 09.  It was and still is a great bike.  The new owner should have many hours of fun riding to come.

i know that this thread is a little old, but if you havent made your decision yet i will throw in my 2 cents, ive owned the 250rmz since 08, now i own an 11 rmz250 with 36hours which hasn't missed a beat. ive also heard (and read) about transmission problems in these bikes but i cant help but speak from experience and that is they will last with the rest of them if not LONGER! a colleague of mine has owned the rmz450 through years 07, 09, 10, and now 11. Each was ridden through practice/play and the race season at a midpack B level, and the bikes encountered NO major problems. the only real headaches was that they ate through chain guide/sliders quick. everyone raves about the turning prowess of the RMZ but on top of this i really appreciate the consistency of the handling on these bikes. once set up they will hit whatever line you aim for consistently EVERY lap!!! its a nice feeling. iv riden the 11 crf450 and i admit that i liked the bike, the light weight was mostly noticeable in the air and at turn in. Call me crazy but after initial turn in they felt real inconsistent through turns, that bike would hunt like crazy for a rut and need a lot of input to hold a line. keep in mind that i only tried the bike and im sure that setting it up more for me would have helped some of the handling issues. i hear the 12 crf450 has ironed out these issues even more so i guess you have a tough call, best to try both out, but if its reliability your concerned about on the rmz, you have absolutely nothing to be worried about.

emerybrian said:

When you shift gears, do you just bang through gears, full throttle, no clutch? Or do you let off a bit, clutch and shift?
Just curiously...

i didnt want to really say anything, but a failure like the one above would lead me to suspect abusive treatment. i come to this reasoning because of the components involved and the visual properties of the failure: the fork looks to have been forced, causing the gear to fracture like that. in materials engineering you learn to diagnose material failures due to the appearance of the fracture. your gear had a sudden fracture with no fatigue initiator that i can see in the failure region. this is almost always caused by violent impact. poor material quality would manifest itself with a wear region or crack initiator FOLLOWED by a sudden fracture structure. now i cant see the fracture region on the fork from your pic but just the failure path that it made would strongly suspect excessive side load. my guess is that the whole situation went down like this... you got a false neutral OR the gear didnt want to shift (suzukis are known to be difficult to shift under load), being rushed by circumstances (motocross is all about being rushed) you used excessive force to get the bike back into gear first bending the fork. this aggravated the already hard shifting bike and you probably used even more force to get the bike to shift causing the fork to break and wreak havoc in the tranny.

just a guess but i suspect the fork caused the failure...

pinto24 said:

I always let off when I shift, other than the start but there is wot plus clutch.

funkinalive said:

The strange thing is it didn't happen while I was shifting. I had been in 3rd gear for the prior 1/3 or so of a lap.

well that changes things a bit. still the fracture on the gear in the pic is not a material flaw but a failure. it would be interesting if you took a picture of the fracture on the fork, i guess one explanation is that the fork broke when you first shifted it into gear, then the broken off piece got lodged into the gear but i cant see any "grab" marks on the fork from your pic. if you still have the cases apart i would be curious about bearing play and the condition of your shift drum... also (highly unlikely) but check the slider pin that the fork goes on if its not bent theres gotta be more clues one things for sure that the failure was a combination of the fork and gear, the question is which one went first...

I'll help play detective a little more...

I think my trans failure is more power-transfer than gear-selecting.  The pieces that broke off are what transfer all the power from the clutch to the countershaft when in 3rd gear, which for me is like 90% of the time.  So even without shifting it's pretty violent on the gears.  Like in a whoop section, when the tire is in the air the bike hits the rev limiter, so the inertia of the wheel puts almost a reverse load on the drive train, then the tire hits the top of the next whoop which sends a shock load through the system as everything slows down instantaneously all while engine is at full power.  And in whoops this happens like 5 times every second.  

Here is a video of the track (not me riding):



3:40 Whoops/dragonback, I take this in 3rd
3:46 Here bike downshifted itself.  I thought 2nd gear but probably 1st.
3:52 Got on the gas, bike was in neutral

Here are some more pics:








[IMG]http://i452.photobucket.com/albums/qq246/emerybrian/DSC_0819.jpg[/IMG [IMG]http://i452.photobucket.com/albums/qq246/emerybrian/DSC_0820.jpg[/IMG]

my buddy has a 2011 crf450 with a broken gearbox after 35 hours, and there is a long thread about this failure since the 09s came out....so all bikes can break!

Never had valve problems on any of my hondas. I think it just comes down to people not doing maintenance enough. I never understood the valve issues people talk about. I am in the same situation with these 2 brands. I currently ride honda's. After riding 4 different rmz 450's i love them. Even though its heavier i dont notice it at all. Both bikes are very good and simular. Ijust put a new rmz on hold, i liked it better.

Funkinalive.  You never responded.  I would be interested in hearing more thoughts on this failure (new pics).

Well, this happened again to me 2 weeks ago!  After the first trans went I put in a brand new engine.  2^nd one made it to 75 hours.  It’s hard to say what failed first, I was near the rev limiter in 3^rd gear when it went, so it was completely destroyed.  I’ll try to post some pics tonight.  I’m back to Honda, just got a ’12 CRF450.

This thread has me concerned

thats pretty normal for suzuki mx bikes these days

someone from suzuki really needs to tell the chinese maufacturers of these gboxes about this!  

The good news is there have been no problems for 99.99% of us with RMZ's.

TDC51, on 19 July 2012 - 07:37 AM, said:

Yep.

I remember a guy that raced with us went through 2 transmission on his 08 RMZ. He was a fast Vet rider. Then he got a 10 and no problems, then an 11 and 12. His brother also rode same models and year. I was a little worried, but there were literally like 30 other guys in our race club with Suzukis that had zero problems. So I finally bought a RMZ and am now on my 2nd. Bike works well and like anything, it can have problems. Crashing, how you ride etc can affect the reliability, but I wouldnt be any more scared of a RMZ vs any of the other manufacturers.