It is a tremendous shame that the options for a road legal supermoto for are so limited, with the venerable Suzuki DR-Z400SM being the only offering in the 450cc on-road class.
For virtually a decade, Suzuki has left the DR-Z basically unchanged – as it has done with many of its sport models – so we would love to see Suzuki and other manufacturers give this space more attention (a hat tip to Husqvarna for bringing the track-only FS450 to market, long with the 701 Supermoto).
Although you can wake-up the DR-Z400 with a few simple modification, and there are a bevy of aftermarket kits that can punch the 398cc machine out in size, what we really want from Suzuki is a proper 450cc street supermoto – one that doesn’t stray too far from the brand’s current strong motocross offering.
So, when we saw this little bit of Photoshop work by the folks at the German Suzuki dealership of DSR-Suzuki, we got a little excited.
The base motorcycle for the photo is the recently debuted MXGP (that’s the FIM’s motocross championship) race bike, the 2018 Suzuki RM-Z450WS.
Adding some 17″ wheels with slicks and leveling things out, we the resulting RM-Z supermoto is an appropriately handsome machine for kart-track foolery.
Who knows if Suzuki will ever get around to updating the DR-Z platform, but if they do, hopefully the photo above provides some guidance in the design brief. See below what the 2018 Suzuki RM-Z450WS looks like with its race livery and knobby tires.
Source: DSR-Suzuki (Facebook)
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