Honda XR 400 vs Suzuki DRZ 400… Can an air cooled old-timer beat the DRZ’s legendary reliability? OK so at first glance a shootout test between these two motorcycles looks far from current news, given that the Honda first rolled off the production line way back in 1996 and the Suzuki some five years later in 2001. With the off-road market now completely dominated by shiny new metal from KTM and their recent acquisition Husqvarna, why would any potential buyer possibly be considering either of these bikes?

The answer is all about context. Heading out on your £8k 2017 Yamaha WRF250 when you are competing in the British Enduro Championships in Mid Wales or setting out on the Prologue to the Romaniacs in downtown Sibiu makes perfect sense – there are few that could fault your buying decision. But riding off into the muddy trails and dirt tracks that cut through the dense forests of rural Cambodia, there are some very good reasons to consider the tried and trusted technology of the XR and the DRZ

At Ride Expeditions we operate astounding motorcycle tours throughout some of the most beautiful landscape of Cambodia and beyond and the bikes we chose matters – we mean, really matters. The latest enduro machinery might be technologically brilliant with enough power to win the world championship, but if it needs servicing every 20 hours and gets through engine oil almost as fast as petrol it simply will not pass muster. Period. What we need is bulletproof machines that will put up all the abuse that we can throw at them without complaint. Expedition riding is hard on the bikes we use – for our Tough One tour we take on really challenging trails over 10 days, so the bikes we use need to ride well, crash well, be reliable and easy to repair – anything else is just window dressing.