Honda XR650L vs Suzuki DRZ400S Comparison (And Why I Chose Mine)

In this video we're going to compare the Honda XR 650L with the Suzuki DRZ 400S

Hi, I'm Fransu from adventurebiketroop.com and this is my Honda XR 650L

Now I've had this bike for a couple of months now, it's been featuring on this channel for

quite a while now. I love this bike, it's an awesome bike, but I've realized more recently

that I keep holding back on this bike, especially in the dirt. I'm not an experienced dirt bike rider

or motocross rider. I'm used to adventure bike touring long distance. And this bike is quite a

handful in the dirt. It's heavy, it's tall, it's got a lot of torque. So I open it up in second

gear and immediately I have to close it down again because it's just a handful. And I've

picked it up so many times because I drop it. So last week I did a video on a whole bunch of

200 250 300 CC dual sport bikes I was thinking of selling this and getting me a smaller bike because I like I find that

Riding a slower bike hard is more fun than holding back on a more powerful or bigger bike

And thank you for all the comments that I've received On that video. It's really helpful now. I haven't found a bike yet

But then someone mentioned the Suzuki DRZ 400 So I've been doing some research and I actually found someone that was willing to swap his

2007 DRZ 400S for my 2012 Honda XR 650L. So let me know in the comments if you have a DRZ what

you think or if you have an XR 650L but in this video I'm gonna chat about the comparison or the

research that I did comparing these two because I found they are much closer than I thought

initially and in the US the prices are almost identical at the moment so is this a good swap

Let me know in the comments and at the end I'll let you know what I've decided because I have made my choice

I think it was two days ago I made my choice and I'll let you know what are the three things that made the choice

Easy for me. So watch till the end Oh, and then someone mentioned on one of my videos earlier video that I talked too much before I get to the meat of the video

So if you are new to this channel, welcome to the channel. I am working on it

Okay, let's start with the engine. So the Honda is a 650. It's a 644 cc air-cooled engine

whereas the Suzuki is a 398 cc, a 400 cc engine. So it is, I'm going to look at my phone a lot here

it's a 62% bigger engine on the Honda XR 650L. So it makes it heavier, but it's also got a lot more

power, but not that much more if you think of the engine size. So the Honda's power is 44 horsepower

more or less a little bit less and the Suzuki is 39 horsepower so that only a 12 increase so 12 more power on the Honda on the XR650L than the Suzuki DRZ400 so

and it's a much bigger engine and part of the reason for that is the Suzuki engine is more modern

It's got a higher compression ratio. I see 11.3 to 1. This is 8.3 to 1

so This engine would be less stressed than the Suzuki. I think I'm not an engineer and then

torque 38 foot pounds of torque compared to the DRZ 29 foot pounds of torque so there that's a 32

percent more torque on the XR and you can really feel it I haven't ridden the DRZ 400 and but that

is what I've read on forums as well people say that the XR you can just feel the torque compared

to the DRZ and that you are going to be disappointed well that is one of the reasons why I'm looking

at the DRZ is for less torque and I would swap a bike for less torque but I want something that

I can ride harder off-road without the fear of dropping it. Something else that's very important and one of the considerations was the weight

So the XR 650L is one of the lighter 650s. It's lighter than the KLR, the BMWs, the DR 650

It's 340, 46 pounds, whereas the DRZ 400 is 317 pounds. Now, I would have thought that the DRZ would be much lighter

It's about 10% light. well this is 10% heavier than the DRZ so I would be interested to know whether

the DRZ feels a lot lighter because it is not that much lighter it's about 10

to 15 kilograms lighter and you can shed a lot of weight on the XR if you want to

so the power to weight ratio might tell us something if you look at the screen

it's 0.13 versus 0.12 that's horsepower per pound so it's very similar the XR is

slightly ahead so it's almost exactly the same it's a two percent difference

fuel tank size it is not that important here but I do want to still tour with

the bikes this is 2.8 gallons it's not big but the Suzuki is 2.6 it's it's near

the same you can almost say it's the same but I know the DRZ is much lighter

on fuel it's much more economical I get between 17 and 18 kilometers per liter

And I've read that people get up to 25 km per litre on their DRZ 400

So in terms of range, that is much better So let me know if you have consumption figures for your DRZ 400

Then the seat height, that's another consideration Because I'm about 6 foot, 6 foot 1⁄2 inch

I have to tiptoe this bike This is 37 inches seat height

It's one of the tallest 650s But the DRZ is 36.8 inches

So it's nearly the same Obviously the suspension will sag or they will be different

It will be a different height once you put your weight on it I not sure whether the DRZ will be higher or lower But anyways I would have thought that the DRZ was a little bit shorter but it not

So not much in it there. Then the ground clearance. Interestingly, this is 13 inches

Now I've crawled under this bike so many times on this channel. I'm not going to do it again now

But those who know, you would have remembered it from other videos. The DRZ is about 2.2 inches shorter or closer to the ground. 11.8 inches

No, that's not 2, that's 1.2. Anyways, the DRZ is slightly lower, about this much

Then suspension travel, not much in a there. But it's about 2.4% more for the XR in front and 5.4% more for the DRZ in the rear

I've heard or read that the DRZ has better suspension for off-road traveling

This is not bad, it is quite wallowy. but in terms of for a dual sport or a big dual sport bike like this, this is not the worst suspension out there, it's adjustable

you can pump it up in the front but I've heard that the DRZ has better suspension

it's one of the reasons why I was interested in it, both have six speed gearboxes

okay let's chat about the brakes quickly, all I can go on is the disc sizes

So this is 240 millimeters in the front, 240 millimeters in the rear

The DRZ is 250 in the front, 220 in the rear They do say that the DRZ has better brakes

I'm not sure, let me know whether you think it's alright I have no problems with the brakes on this

Especially in the dirt It's almost like a built-in ABS because it's not all that great

Then the engines, I mentioned this earlier This is air-cooled and the DRZ is liquid-cooled

So there's a big difference there What I like about the air cool is it's simpler. It's

If you drop the bike, there's less that can get damaged. With the air cooled you can damage the radiator. There's a water pump to worry about

But if you maintain it, it should be fine and if you get crash guards

The nice thing about the air cool or the water cool the liquid cool in this heat here

It gets up to 40 45 degrees in summer plodding along here in the dirt

There's just more peace of mind for the liquid cooling But I am starting to get used to the air cooling the idea of it and to just maintain it and

Change the oil regularly check the valve clearances which is super easy One other thing that I like about the XR650L over the DRZ is that this has been

Around much longer the DRZ has been around for 21 years since 2000

I think whereas this has been around since 93 as a 650 but even before that they've had the 600

The XR, the predecessor, which has been around for many years. So it's been around more

There's a lot of aftermarket goodies for both bikes, but it feels like the XR is slightly more slightly bigger following I don know I going to post this in both groups And so so I gonna get a founding I think either way or both ways I don know I don know but let me know I don mind if you comment below now

please comment below with your thoughts okay so now let's get to the choice I

made because the other guy was keen to swap and I was sort of excited to swap

but then I saw something that started to sway me and then thought of two other

things that swayed me completely. The first thing that I saw somewhere is that

the DRZ, the valve clearance is set with shims whereas this has just the

adjusting, you adjust it with a screwdriver and a box wrench and I like

that. I don't know why it's petty and I know shims it's not that impossible but I

know myself if I swap the bikes now I'm already going to start doing research on

where to find shims how to do it I'm gonna worry all the valve clearances

correct whereas this I've already set it it took 10 minutes it's super easy and

that's one thing that that just made me think well I like the fact that this is

lower compression engine easy to set the valve clearance it's air cooled less

than that that can break if you drop the bike so that's the first the second

thing and this is silly but it is a thing is I'm super well color-coded with

this bike my helmet is red white and black my pants that I got with my trials

bike is red black and white so everything just fits it's stupid but it's

one of the reasons not a real reason but I'm mentioning it and then the last

thing the biggest thing earlier this week I went through the comments on some

of all the videos I haven't looked at comments for two weeks so sorry for

replying late for those of you who did comment below and I realized how awesome the XR650L

riders are. I got so many nice comments and encouragement and support and questions and

people excited about getting their XR650Ls that I just felt I'm going to miss the community if I

swap for the DRZ now. Now that doesn't mean I'm not going to do it in future but for now I'm going

to hang on to this and you can be looking forward to more videos on the

XR650L one of which is going to be a motor camping trip soon I bought myself

a small little sleeping bag and a hammock and we're gonna try it out a solo

camping trip and I also decided I'm just gonna get myself proper off-road tires

and then to sumo this thing and when someone said I'm a sumo with and I

assumed like sumo wrestling and but I think they meant do a super motard

conversion on this because it must be awesome on the street with street tires

but now I'm gonna go for the sumo wrestling this big in the dirt and just

not stop being a and just learn to ride the thing so anyways thank you for

joining me and thank you for the support and please comment below with your XR

and DR thoughts and I'll see you next week