In the last 2 years, I haven’t seen any dirt bike shootouts looking at multiple bikes in a class that didn’t have Suzuki in last place.

The 2016 RM-Z250 is the heaviest in its class by over 3 pounds.

The comparable KTM is 16 pounds lighter, which is very significant.

The 2018 Suzuki RM-Z450 is the heaviest 450 on the market at 239 pounds dry weight.

Just putting black rims on it for 2017 was not even close to enough to make it look like a modern bike that someone would want to pay $8,500 for.

The Suzuki bikes in general just look really old.

The 2018 Suzuki RM-Z450 still doesn’t come standard with an electric start despite all the other brands having it.

They have been slow to roll out innovation and many of their bikes are overweight on size and light on new features. Year after year, they are coming up dead last in the 450 and 250 shootouts by the big dirt biking magazines. Suzuki dirt bikes have started to lag behind in their technology over the last few years. This may prove to have been a wise choice as the future of the 2-stroke is in question.

2007 was the last year the mighty CR models were produced and Honda has now shifted its focus toward four-stroke CRF engines. The two-stroke Honda “CR” dominated motocross and supercross from 1972 to 2007–winning more championships than any other manufacturer. Honda snatched up just about every title in the industry for many years. But if you were to ask me whether I want a Honda 250 or a KTM 250 for my personal bike? I’d take the KTM. I also think Honda makes the best 50cc dirt bike at a reasonable cost. I actually own a Honda CRF110 for my son which has been a PERFECT bike for him. This is not, at all, to say that Honda is a sub-par brand. However, Honda makes some very good dirt bikes in many categories. In dirt biking, however, some of the Honda bikes lag behind the competition from other brands. Honda has a very strong reputation for its small engines. Honda cars and outboard motors are some of the best out there. Kawasaki has been creating four-stroke bikes since 2004, but in 2007 they really committed to the four-stroke by killing off some of their successful 2-stroke models. That’s a very important thing to me–especially when many dirt bike models are so close to each other that they are difficult to differentiate. Often they are among the cheapest dirt bikes in their classes. One area where Kawasaki often sticks out is with pricing. The 2018 Kawasaki KX450F doesn’t include electric start standard.It seems like once someone goes to the green side, they aren’t easily swayed to another brand. Kawasaki has a tremendous cult following in dirt biking. Now, Beta has focused more on off-road, race, and trail bikes.īeta used to use KTM engines in their dirt bikes up until 2004, but now they make their own engines. They have a long history with dirt bikes and produced a lot of trials bikes in the 70’s and 80’s. #4 Beta (Red)īeta is an Italian brand that is starting to catch on more and more in the United States.

I personally own a Yamaha TTR-230 for my wife as well as a TTR50 for my son and they have both proven to be exceptional bikes. The Yamaha 250F has especially been an especially popular bike which has been crowned the top 250F for 4 years running by Dirt Bike Magazine.I personally don’t believe Yamaha is innovating as fast as KTM, but they are still producing some of the best bikes on the market. Yamaha has probably the longest-standing reputation in dirt biking and has been recognized for many years for their incredible bikes. In fact, sometimes the company has to bend over backward and make strange decisions to differentiate the Husqvarna bikes from the KTM bikes with much of the same build. They are by no means the number 2 most popular manufacturer, but I had to list them here as #2 because they are so similar to the KTM bikes. KTM has focused a lot of their energy on 2-stroke bikes, and the future of the 2-stroke is in question with the European environmental protection laws putting a choke-hold on this style of bike. KTM bikes are consistently the lightest in their class.KTM was among the first to debut easy-access air filters and easily removable seats.The 250 is the lightest out of the competition, as well as the 450SX-F. KTM bikes are consistently the lightest or among the lightest in their class.

KTM bikes stand out for their innovative features (thank you for making the seat easy to remove, by the way) and the expansive lineup of bikes that allows you to find one that perfectly fits your preferences. KTM has really made a name for itself in the industry and I’d unquestionably say that they are probably the most admired brand right now. As soon as you get into dirt biking and you start talking with other dirt bikers, you’ll find that when they talk about KTM–it’s different.

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