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Best Sumo out there (advice needed)

I LOVE my 610!
mar10003.jpg
 
russ69 said:
No, a true sumo is not 300 plus pounds. These bikes, like the DRZ400SM are street tarders. A real supermoto bike is a lightweight race only bike.
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Nonsense. Where did you find that definition?
 
JO EBRMC said:
Nonsense. Where did you find that definition?
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I just made it up.....no, seriously a Supermoto bike is a race bike, it started with the Superbikers show with the winners using big two stroke motocross bikes with the wheels swapped out for better road race tires. Later the bikes were big four strokes but still lightweight racing bikes. A bike like the KTM 690 SMC (SM Concept) is for the street, a KTM 450 SMR (SM race) is a race bike. If a bike is a big ole porker, has turnsignals and a kickstand, it's a Street Tard. Although there are many that blur the line. YMMV.
 
Husky makes the SMR 450/510 that are more street legal supermotos. My SM610 is a street-tard and I use it mainly for riding the road from Fairfax out to the beach.
 
Different people draw the line in different places. I think that the KTM SMCs are real 'tards, if not race 'tards.
 
They can be full on dirtbikes with 17s plus brakes, suspension, etc.

IMO if it's an adventure bike with 17s, it isn't a 'tard. The question is where the line between DS and ADV is.
 
IMO a 'tard is about as good as it gets in the city. My 625SMC was a badass bike for commuting Berkeley to SF. Of course, I did have to gas up every day...
 
Cant be too good for the chassis geometry when you just swap you 21in front for a 17in with your dual sport.
 
Blankpage said:
Cant be too good for the chassis geometry when you just swap you 21in front for a 17in with your dual sport.
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It works ok. That's what I did with my 530EXC and it handles pretty well on the street. I drop the front end a little on the street to make it turn better, but no other suspension adjustments.
 
OldFatGuy said:
It works ok. That's what I did with my 530EXC and it handles pretty well on the street. I drop the front end a little on the street to make it turn better, but no other suspension adjustments.
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When you're saying dropped are you saying you pulled the forks down or slid them up in the clamps where they protruded through the top?
I've heard people referring to dropped and meaning the opposite.
The front of the bike already dropped 2" by making the wheel change
 
Blankpage said:
When you're saying dropped are you saying you pulled the forks down or slid them up in the clamps where they protruded through the top?
I've heard people referring to dropped and meaning the opposite.
The front of the bike already dropped 2" by making the wheel change
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I mean I slide the forks up through the clamps so there's about 8mm more sticking out the top than the setting I use in the dirt.

Yes, I realize the front is already considerably lower after the wheel swap (as is the back, though to a lesser degree), but it still wants to run wide on corners if I run the forks at the same height I do in the dirt. Surprisingly, that 8mm makes all the difference in the world.
 
Interesting, I've read about people swapping their 690 enduro wheels for 17" and saying it made the steering way too quick. They had to kick out the trail which is adjustable on a 690 but not on most other bikes.
Without doing this the bike fell into slow corners too easily
 
Blankpage said:
Interesting, I've read about people swapping their 690 enduro wheels for 17" and saying it made the steering way too quick. They had to kick out the trail which is adjustable on a 690 but not on most other bikes.
Without doing this the bike fell into slow corners too easily
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I dunno. :dunno

Just saying what works for me.
 
russ69 said:
I just made it up.....no, seriously a Supermoto bike is a race bike, it started with the Superbikers show with the winners using big two stroke motocross bikes with the wheels swapped out for better road race tires. Later the bikes were big four strokes but still lightweight racing bikes. A bike like the KTM 690 SMC (SM Concept) is for the street, a KTM 450 SMR (SM race) is a race bike. If a bike is a big ole porker, has turnsignals and a kickstand, it's a Street Tard. Although there are many that blur the line. YMMV.
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Superbikers didn't coin the term so I think referring back to that is false, particularly since the bikes bore so little difference to what we ride today that parsing out what is the modern day equivalent is just silly.

Calling them out as race only is the really specious argument. Where did that come from? Who, exactly decided that SM meant race only?

Basically, an XR650R which is the king of the Baja 1000 - a real race bike - given 17s and resprung isn't a SM because it weighs over 300lbs? I think pretty much everyone would disagree with that.

I would agree that many of the KTM SMs are not, in fact supermotos. Eveidence enough for me was hopping the center island on San Pablo, my XR didn't balk while my buddies 690 bottomed out on the exhaust because it didn't have a cradle frame and enough ground clearance.

And anything with cast wheels is not a real SM.
 
JO EBRMC said:
Superbikers didn't coin the term so I think referring back to that is false, particularly since the bikes bore so little difference to what we ride today that parsing out what is the modern day equivalent is just silly.

Calling them out as race only is the really specious argument. Where did that come from? Who, exactly decided that SM meant race only?

Basically, an XR650R which is the king of the Baja 1000 - a real race bike - given 17s and resprung isn't a SM because it weighs over 300lbs? I think pretty much everyone would disagree with that.

I would agree that many of the KTM SMs are not, in fact supermotos. Eveidence enough for me was hopping the center island on San Pablo, my XR didn't balk while my buddies 690 bottomed out on the exhaust because it didn't have a cradle frame and enough ground clearance.

And anything with cast wheels is not a real SM.
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The KTM SMCs are real supermotos, the SM/SMR not so much.

I remember talking to Ryan Moore and he said his Marchesinis put up with more jumps than cheap spoked 17s
 
just jumpin in here real quick...i love the look of the cast wheels on sumos! :teeth
 
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