Pro Circuit Suzuki RM-Z250 Race Bike

Pro Circuit is known for building some wicked awesome race machines, and when the opportunity comes up to ride one of their fire-breathers it’s a good idea to jump on it. This 2012 RM-Z250 received the full Pro Circuit over-haul: motor, suspension and all the PC goodies from fender to fender. We took her out for a day of testing at Milestone MX where a slight mist kept the track moist and tacky all day and a deep prep left the track rough and rutted.

Getting right to the point, this bike rips! The RM-Z motor got the full treatment with a head mod, high compression piston, cams, titanium valves, clutch springs, full titanium exhaust and several other goodies. The result of these upgrades was quite impressive. Obviously it’s fast, which makes everyone happy, but what’s most impressive, is how the power is delivered. It has a very broad power curve for a 250. The feeling is closer to that of a 450 than a standard 250 because it always feels like you are in the right gear. It has tons of torque and still pulls hard up top, so you can short shift, pull a taller gear in the turns much like a 450, or you can rev it out. Either way the motor always feels like it is pulling. It is very responsive, and not “hard to control” responsive, but “right there when you want it” responsive. The motor does exactly what you want when you twist the throttle, without any hesitation. The power delivery is smooth, but strong. If you think you need a gnarly hit to have a fast motor, forget about it, this bike pulled 195lbs over doubles and triples right out of turns with ease, and that’s impressive for a 250F. The stiffer clutch springs added a little more pull at the lever, but that was only noticeable when the bike was on the stand. I was happy with the stock RM-Z motor, but just wanted a little more power all the way around. The PC motor went above and beyond that and made this bike a lot of fun to ride.

The completely reworked suspension was sprung for a light rider around 155lbs, but we went ahead and tested it out across the board with 155, 170 and 195lb riders. As expected, it worked excellent for the weight it was sprung for and was very controlled and planted. It soaked up the chop and didn’t deflect off of anything. The stock RMZ had some issues with deflection and the rigid chassis gave a lot of feedback to the rider. This PC setup took care of those issues and gave the bike an all-new feel. It settled down quick in the turns, even in the bumps and tracked very straight coming out of the corners. As for the heavier riders, once the sag was set correctly, it worked surprisingly well even though it was on the softer side, staying very planted and settled in the bumps and corners. The greatest thing about this suspension was when you screwed up and came up short or slammed into something you didn't want to, it soaked it up. It had great bottoming resistance and didn’t rebound or kick back when pushed all the way through the stroke. Once again, it had a very controlled feel and was a big improvement from the stock RM-Z suspension.

This bike received the complete Pro Circuit overhaul and it wouldn’t be complete without the graphics and other flashy little knick-knacks. It looks amazing and feels even better. This RM-Z250 was a lot of fun to ride and was hard to give back at the end of the day. Check out a future issue of DR to read even more about it!