Australasian Dirt Bike — September 2017

he 2018 Suzuki RM-Z450 has been

one hotly anticipated machine. The

hypesurroundingthenewmodelhas

been building for months thanks to a

carefullyplannedmarketingprogram

that included the GOAT, Ricky

Carmichael. Ricky was instrumental

in R&D and even jetted off for an

exclusive week-long trip to Japan

with a bunch of us annoying journos

in June (ADB#455).WegottoridetheAll-Japanworks

RM-Z450duringour tripbutonlyRCgottoridethenew

productionbike...whiletheymadeuswatch.

Fast-forwardalmostamonthandmyturnfinallycame

tothrowalegoverthenewbike.Notatsomesteaming-hot

trackinthemiddleofJapan,butinthemiddleofVictoria’s

coldsnapatanimmaculatelypreppedRideParkin

Bacchus Marsh. The waiting still wasn’t quite over.

SuzukiAustralia’smarketingmanagerLewisCrofthad

donesuchagoodjobofsecuringADBan early test that we

couldn’t say a word or post a single image of us riding the

bikeuntiltheembargowaslifted.Still,itwasanhonour

tobeoneofthefirstmeremortalsontheplanettoputthe

bike through its paces.

AFTER FLYING HALFWAY ACROSS

THE WORLD, MOTOCROSS EDITOR

LEE HOGAN FINALLY GETS TO RIDE

THE 2018 RM-Z450 AT HOME

http://www.adbmag.com.au SEPTEMBER 2017 | 51

WORDS // LEE HOGAN PHOTOS // MAX PETERS

BIG

THE

Suzuki calls the front-end styling “Beak DNA”

See how much easier it is to scrub the new one?