BACK in the GAME

Suzuki's hooligan hero returns with a full factory revamp for 2025. The DR-Z4SM brings big torque, proper suspension, and grin-inducing antics straight out of the crate...

- WORDS: RENNIE SCAYSBROOK PICS: KEVIN WING

There are very few motorcycles that make me laugh quite like a supermoto. This most underrated form of riding has been forgotten by all but a few mainstream manufacturers, but thank goodness there are some with the balls to put a factory-built 17in dirt bike on the street for us to buy, rather than have to convert an off-road machine ourselves and suffer the pitfalls of our own shoddy workmanship.

Suzuki has been in the street supermoto game (on and off in the UK) for an impressive 20 years with the DR-Z4SM, beginning life way back in 2005. It may have vanished from the UK scene with the onset of Euro3, but it's remained a hit in many other parts of the world, and in that time the model has seen gradual updates, but it hasn't received a full makeover until now - as it moves lockstep with the new DR-Z4S dual sport/enduro that's also just hit the market.

To make a (very) long story a little shorter, the 2025 4SM shares about 90% of the upgrades as the new 4S and is priced at £7999. Suzuki is claiming 37bhp at 8000rpm and 37Nm of torque at 6500rpm from the 398cc single-cylinder motor, which is slightly less than the outgoing model (in the US) that wasn't Euro5 compliant.

The engine receives a new intake, cylinder head, cam profile, titanium intake valves, sodium-filled exhaust valves, dual iridium spark plugs, a new piston, a crankcase that no longer needs the kick-start bosses and hole, and it's all fed through a 42mm throttle body with the mixture sparking off a 10-hole injector.