George!...you NEED to get a dual sport!! (read this if you're new to the dual sport/offroad world.)

I have asked some of my team members to contribute to the Blog.  To add any useful info they might want to pass along to the dual sport/desert world.  This is a total new guys take on getting into riding, and choosing a bike.  When I worked in the motorcycle industry, this was a very common question, what bike to start with?  George is looking at this question through the eyes of a motorcycle rookie and has a lot of the same issues, questions, and concerns that all new riders have.  This is not the typical professional test rider write up of a bike, this is one man's jump into the dual sport world with literally zero experience and learning as he goes.  Might be useful to you if your on the fence about riding and bike ownership.

-Rob
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A little about me and this review. I am totally new to the world of motorcycles, but thanks to my friends I mustered the courage to take the MSF course and get my license.  The goal of this review is to leave some perspective from a newbie to anyone thinking about getting into riding a motorcycle.

As someone completely new to anything you just don’t know what you don’t know and for something like riding motorcycles I decided to be conservative with my first bike.  So instead of a big adventure bike I went with a small manageable bike that would be able to do the following:

Adventure riding/Moto Camping
Single track
Commuting to work.
Riding on the highway

There were many bikes to choose from but in the end the DRZ-400SM just looked awesome and the DRZ platform comes highly recommended for doing anything on the street and dirt.

I first used an empty Cul-de-sac and went through many of the drills we did at the MSF class.  Then when I got comfortable I went for my first solo ride around the neighborhood. Going from the 250s at the MSF class to the DRZ-400SM seemed like a natural transition as I felt the bike was well within my skill level to handle but had much more potential. It had nice acceleration and it felt comfortable at about 50-60mph. Even though I just started to ride motorcycles the power was not too excessive and it was light enough for me to handle on the dirt even with street tires.  I was really happy with the feeling of control I had over this bike and the little bit of power it had.  I do wonder if its bigger brother the DR650 would have been the ultimate choice but its hard to tell, I think I would miss this light fighter of a bike.

The Pro's

For a beginner this bike seems to be a great fit. I feel one of the strong points that makes it such a beginner friendly bike is how much torque it has. What this means is you can crawl over terrain that you are not comfortable tackling quite yet. What I’ve learned on some rides is other bikes might not have quite as much torque so you will have to maintain a certain amount of RPM's or speed to get over terrain.

During one ride I ended up stalling on a hill but I was able to start it again and resume my climb at a very mild pace thanks to how much torque this bike has. I basically feathered the throttle and powered through every rock I came across (I couldn't keep on my line).  It seemed to me that regardless of my lack of confidence this bike would take me over almost any terrain at a controllable speed which is a huge comfort for me at my current level of skill.

Another thing that is nice is the mechanical simplicity of the bike. It is relatively easy to work on and there is a wealth of Youtube videos and online tutorials that show you how to change your oil, rejet your carb and swap out other components. I was concerned with the carb and if I would have trouble getting it started during the California winters but that wasn't a huge issue for me.

The aftermarket is incredible and relatively cheap so you will have multiple options when it comes to upgrades (skid plates, exhaust, seat, tires, etc.).  The main things I would recommend upgrading is the exhaust and seat.

I am no wrench monkey and haven’t ever worked on vehicles but I was able to do many upgrades and repairs on this motorcycle by myself just following the youtube videos and forums.

Some Con's

When you get to highway speeds 70-80mph it is not exactly a comfortable ride. Some probably aren't bothered but I get tossed around a bit because of how light the bike is and the gearing is between dirt and highway which causes some pretty good vibration in the pegs. I've watched some videos and people have geared it tall for the highway which I may try at some point but you lose out on the opposite spectrum which is the dirt.

The seat seems to be hated universally and a lot of people will swap that seat out for something else. I tried my best to stick with it but take my advice and just look for a more comfortable option.


Conclusion

For someone with no background in riding motorcycles I would highly recommend this bike.  If you are like me and want to try everything from street to dirt with one bike you should definitely look into dual sport bikes.   I have been commuting almost every day with this bike and have slowly grown into this bike.  I also don’t think I would outgrow it quite yet as the better I get the more I can get out of this bike and I see plenty of skilled riders choose this bike as their main ride.  The ability to swap tires and try a different style of riding gets me excited for what I can try to do next and this is all possible because of the versatility of the DRZ-400SM. The next stop may be a supermoto class and some time on a track or another off road adventure.