If you've ridden dirt bikes, you know the Kawasaki KDX200-it's user-friendly, reliable, tractable and fun, and it changed dirt biking when it was introduced. This is how I feel about the Suzuki Z400. While I admit the technology is already becoming dated, there are plenty of aftermarket go-fast parts to keep you in the race. At the price, it is a real buy, too. I own a Z400 and love it-getting passed on the trail by the new breed of more-powerful sport machines is getting old, though.
Pros' Opinions
For our 12-Hour test, we invited quite a few top pros from the motocross and cross-country world to help us push the machines to their limit. If something was going to fail, it would more than likely do so with them at the controls.
For our MX panel, we chose three young, up-and-coming pros: Dustin Wimmer, Jason Dunkelberger and Pat Brown. Our expert woods team included Chris Borich, Matt Smiley and Traci Cecco. In addition to these riders, who would be helping us evaluate each machine, we also shared some seat time with a few others whom we'd like to thank for participating-Honda's Tim Farr, Yamaha's Shane Hitt, John Natalie, Jeff Thompson, Andy Lagzdins, Rob and Tom Hertz, John Pellan (atvscene.com), Harlen Foley (exriders.com), Tyler Lenig and Randy Lehr. We also had input from photo god Adam Campbell and Technical Editor Todd Canavan, who managed to hurt themselves too severely to finish the test.
Wanna know what the pros thought? Even we were surprised at the outcome!