the seat is not very comfortable for long periods of riding sitting in one position. in general, good dirt bike seats are designed to make it easy to move around on the bike and anticipate that you will do a lot of your riding standing up. as a result, they are hard and skinny. you can put an aftermarket seat on it, though.

also, the bike is very light compared to a street bike...or even a DRZ. as a result, it gets blown around by the wind. it is also a bit buzzy.

finally, it does have shorter maitenance invtervals than a DRZ. riding on the street, you tend to rack up miles, so you end up doing maintenance (oil changes, valve checks, etc.) more often.

how much any of that matters is purely personal preference, though.



then go with the KTM 450 exc, imho. it is night and day better than the DRZ off road.




many people actually think the 2005-2007s are better. they changed the engine in 2007. the old (RFS) engine was known to be very reliable. some people think the newer engines are not as reliable.

i don't really know.

just make sure it is street legal. the EXCs did not used to be street legal from the dealer. i'm not sure exactly what year that changed (i think maybe 2006, but not sure).

Thanks man!  Really appreciate the input and time.

Where in PA are you?  Know of any good off-road spots not too far from BMore?

I grew up in southern York Co.

a "real" E model (with the FCR carb)...which is not the street legal version, is a decent, though still not great, race bike. it is lighter than the S model, has a better performing carb, has higher compression. basically, it has more power and is lighter weight.

the street legal (from the dealer) version is the S model. it has a lower performance carb, weighs way too much (and carries that weight up high which is bad), and is down on power.

Gotcha.  And the S model is different still than the SM model correct?

And isnt it fairly easy and economical to make a bike street legal if it already ahs the head and tail lights?

Yeah, this is kind of what I was leaning towards for similiar reasons and because it seems to fit in with my criteria from my original post.  Seems that there a re also a ton of resources for owners.  Not knowing a thing about bikes, I want to make sure I have loads of easily available info for working on mine.

Curious to know, why wouldn't you race the DRZ?  I thought that I had heard that they are actually pretty good for harescrambles with just a bit of minimum modding.

Even a 450 EXC is alot of weight and power for your size and experience when you get on the trails...no offense.

  Even a 450 EXC is alot of weight and power for your size and experience when you get on the trails...no offense.

I was under the impression that a DRZ is good for the highway, local streets and dirt.

imho, it is just OK on the highway; it is awesome for local streets; it is on the good side of OK for dirt--just not anywhere near as good as the exc in the dirt. for some trails, the DRZ is absolutely fine. for others, it is just way too heavy--particularly too top heavy. and for other trails, it just doesn't have enough power for racing...though for casual trail riding it has enough power.

(i ride a DRZ-s, geared down to 14/47 like the E model, everyday on local streets, every weekend in dirt, and usually at least once a week or so on highways. i'm going to get a lighter bike for the hardcore weekend dirt riding, though, when i have some money in a couple months--even though i absolutely love the DRZ for what it is--if that tells you anything.)