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Bike Talk / Re: Suzuki DR250 1983 any good or not
« on: February 24, 2015, 01:40:17 am »
On the topic of how long the DR250Z lasted, I just found a USA / Canada spec PDF factory service manual that shows them in production until 1987! 
Although officially they have later year suffix letters, these models are all basically the 1982-83 "Z", albeit some years received minor changes or upgrades. The dirt bike world generally refers to all the dirt versions of the early SOHC DR250 as "Z"'s;
Z model 1982-83 (launched late 1981, with the RM and PE "Z" range for 1982)
D model 1983-84 (gold rims, tool bag and new graphics, same white bodywork)
E model 1984-85
F model 1985-86 (Went to a VM30SS carb, disc front brake & "RM" style yellow colour scheme)
G model 1986-87
For 1987 they were still making a DR250SH, but it looks like it was the "S" version again. The "Z" looks to have died in 1986-87.
Its a pity they never put the bigger forks and double leading shoe brake from the RM - D / E family on to it.
That plus changing to the VM30SS carb a bit earlier could have given it a new lease on life back in 1983/84 for little cost.
Instead they just let it die a slow death as a fun bike. And in my view that probably didn't make for an easy sell for the new and more race oriented models in 1990, having to overcome the lame image of the 1989 DR250...
But then Suzuki has done that with others in the DR family as we probably all know. Early in its life the DR650 could easily have been an XR/TT competitor will a few off the shelf RM parts, but again - nada!
Sometimes ya really do wonder what the marketing guys in Japan have been smoking!
Anyway there ya go.
Although officially they have later year suffix letters, these models are all basically the 1982-83 "Z", albeit some years received minor changes or upgrades. The dirt bike world generally refers to all the dirt versions of the early SOHC DR250 as "Z"'s;
Z model 1982-83 (launched late 1981, with the RM and PE "Z" range for 1982)
D model 1983-84 (gold rims, tool bag and new graphics, same white bodywork)
E model 1984-85
F model 1985-86 (Went to a VM30SS carb, disc front brake & "RM" style yellow colour scheme)
G model 1986-87
For 1987 they were still making a DR250SH, but it looks like it was the "S" version again. The "Z" looks to have died in 1986-87.
Its a pity they never put the bigger forks and double leading shoe brake from the RM - D / E family on to it.
That plus changing to the VM30SS carb a bit earlier could have given it a new lease on life back in 1983/84 for little cost.
Instead they just let it die a slow death as a fun bike. And in my view that probably didn't make for an easy sell for the new and more race oriented models in 1990, having to overcome the lame image of the 1989 DR250...
But then Suzuki has done that with others in the DR family as we probably all know. Early in its life the DR650 could easily have been an XR/TT competitor will a few off the shelf RM parts, but again - nada!
Sometimes ya really do wonder what the marketing guys in Japan have been smoking!
Anyway there ya go.
