aeromechb2

I am going to a kick start only on my SM and will be removing the starter motor. Is it O.K. to leave the starter clutch assembly off of the flywheel, since I will not need it any more? That should lighten the flywheel even more, right?.

I have found a good solution for the mounting of a 320mm rotor on the DRZ SM, here's how I came about it. I ordered the Braking wave rotor (STX55D) and the caliper relocation bracket (POW02) from Motostrano. The POW02 bracket is listed on Braking's web site as the correct bracket for the DRZ SM with the 320mm rotor. After running this setup for a fiew miles I removed the brake pads and found that the pads were not fully engaging the disk. Almost 4mm of pad was unused above the outside edge of the disk. I did some research on Braking's web site and I think the POW06 bracket is actually the correct one for this setup. It is listed for a DRZ E/S with a 260mm disk, that's 10mm larger in Dia. than the stock disk, just as a 320mm disk is 10mm larger than the stock SM disk. Braking's web sight is screwed up! On the E/S page, the POW02 bracket is listed for a 270mm oversize disk, 20mm larger than the stock disk. The description for the POW02 bracket reads "Honda 260mm - Kawasaki/Suzuki 270mm". Now I also have a Honda XR650L that I Motarded and I used the Braking 320mm wave rotor and their 4 piston caliper. So I have the stock Nissin caliper and bracket from the XR sitting around and figure if the POW02 bracket fits a Honda with a 260mm rotor (XR stock rotor is also 250mm) and a Suzuki with a 270mm rotor, than the stock XR bracket should correct the alignment problem on the DRZ SM. I tried it and sure enough, it works! Now the pads are fully engaging the rotor. The Nissin calipers on the XR and DRZ are the same, only the brackets are different. So bottom line, you can probably use any 320mm rotor on the DRZ SM that fits a DRZ E/S and then get a used brake caliper for a Honda XR650L or late model XR600R off of Ebay and just use the bracket from that on the DRZ SM. Probably a lot easier to get and cheaper than the brackets from Braking.

Arrow and a few others all ready make exhausts for the SXV/RXV but you don't see them at any U.S. distributors because the bikes are just getting here. I'll be getting a SXV 550 but I'm going to wait till they're street leagle. That should allow Aprilia time to work out any more bugs and get up to speed on service and parts availability.

I got my black 06' SM in September last year when they were just hitting the showrooms. I called all over Los Angeles looking for a black one, all were either sold or had deposits on them, only a couple of yellow ones available. I ended up driving to a dealer 150 miles away to get a black SM. Since then, I have only seen a couple of SM's in dealers. Went to my local Suzuki shop a couple of weeks ago to order parts and they had two black, an 05 and 06 and an 06 yellow. Went back a week later and only the yellow 06 was left. I have seen about 6 other black SM's on the road, but only one yellow one. All 7 riders were misbehaving on them. I think for most riders, my self included, a SuperMoto is their second or third bike in the garage. Every time I ride my SM to the popular bike hangouts (Rock Store, Newcombs Ranch, etc) I get two different reactions to the SM. The hardcore and fast sportbike riders comment on how bad ass the SM is and how they might like to have one, and the squids just try to compare it to an R1 for top speed and looks. To cut a long story short, its my opinion SuperMotos are niche bikes with a dedicated following.

Here are some photos of my '06 SM. All the carbon parts are from Lightspeed, except the tail light/licence plate brackets, I made those my self. The taillight is an L.E.D. unit I got from J & P Cycle. It fits the contour of the fender really well and is very bright. The bike also has an E model sub frame (about 5 pounds lighter than the S model) a Muzzy full Ti exhaust, FCR 39, K&N filter, 3X3 airbox mod, Pro Taper bars, and a MCCT.

I got a used LTZ400 FCR carb off of ebay for under $200. Throttle cables, intake manifold rubber boot, clamp and E model petcock from Suzuki for about another $100, rebuild kit and intake adapter from Sudco for about $100. $400 invested and with 3 X 3 airbox mod my SM runs like a raped ape. One word of caution on using the LTZ carb, the fuel line hose barb points backwards and up, making fuel line routing difficult. I removed the steel hose barb from the carb body, and epoxied in a new stainless steel 90 degree fitting I got from McMaster Carr, pointing forward. Works great. Next on the list is a Muzzy full exhaust.