Upgrade to enjoy this feature!
Vital MX fantasy is free to play, but paid users have great benefits. Paid member benefits:
- View and download rider stats
- Pick trends
- Create a private league
- And more!
Only $10 for all 2024 SX, MX, and SMX series (regularly $30).
The Shop
I had just turned 40 and joined the AZOTMX club. Could not believe how planted and
stable the bike felt.
After that had a 03 CRF450 and still have my 06 CRF450 which is a great bike and I'm in my 60's.
If I was to get a new Moto bike it would be a 350 as I luv my 350 XCF-W for Off-road. But I doubt that would ever happen as I'm just too freaking OLD!
I don't get all the hate towards them other then the displacement issue when racing.
And of course I do luv the sound and to see a crisp running 2-Stroke on the track.
Can't we just all get along?
Oh well. Boohoo.
To make it fair that’s why....oh and because the factory teams cried about their squillion dollar 4t bikes being holeshot by privateers on two-bangers.
Honda's latest 2 stroke engines were quite pitiful at the time. They pushed for the unfair displacement advantage in pro racing and phased out their 2 strokes. Kawasaki and Suzuki followed.
And if you saw the starting gates back in 99,00,01 they were mostly YZF's... Hondas were late to the party
Pit Row
Yamaha is the one who took advantage of the rules. I was at the race in Vegas when Doug Henry made the debut on it.
Also, you missed the bigger point about Yamaha continuing to sell its full line of 2 strokes to this day. Honda and the others did not.. and Honda is the sales powerhouse of the Japanese 4 that the other 3 not uncommonly follow. MX bikes are more than just pro racing, so isn't what killed the 2 stroke the simple fact Honda and 2 other big Japanese manufacturers stopped selling them??? And if we can agree to that point, isn't the fact that Yamaha is still selling its full line of 2 strokes not complicit in the bigger factor of what killed the 2 stroke??
Yes they stopped making them true, and Yamaha still does make them (well kind of I suppose, they are no where near as modern as a KTM/Husky/Gas Gas/TM/ etc etc). And it is you who is missing the point it could well be that if Yamaha did not push for the 4 stroke rule (and therefore enticing other brands to come on board) that we would still have 2 strokes being produced by ALL brands ...who knows. It is all speculation. The crux of the problem was that 4 stroke ruling, full stop.
Also, lets put ourselves in the manufacturers shoes, they (like it or not) make more money from 4 strokes than 2 strokes, so why would they lose margins to satisfy a few, they are running a business.
Interestingly enough, Beta are starting to take a few sales off KTM/Husky now....I wonder how long before KTM buys them out.
Finally, if you want Honda, Suzuki and Kawasaki to either make or make more 2 strokes than isnt that going to hurt KTM/Husky/Gas Gas/etc sales....is that what you want? Seriously?
The USA long had rules that allowed up to 540cc 4ts in the 250 class. Remember the KTM in SX? You blokes need to know some real rules history.
As for the 125 class, I think for many years it was around the 175 /180cc mark that a 4 Stroke could be - but I'll willingly concede that I'd be wrong on that.
The 85cc class : 125cc 4ts could be used in the USA, but from what I read, Honda realized that it would have been rather unreliable / highly strung, so they made the 150, and tried to steam roller associations into accepting it - most did, but some, told them No. And later, many withdrew that allowance.
Honda announced in '97, that in 10 years - 2007, that would be the last of their production of 2 strokes. I found it gobsmacking that the vast majority of Journalists, let alone Riders, did not heed or know of that. As a company, Honda were always 4 stroke oriented. It was inculcated by Soichiro Honda himself - he Hated 2ts. . They made 2ts, only when they Had to with Racing and the Market demands - money talks.
Environmental issues with 2ts? Yes, they were, and are, an easy target. ''Horrible, Smoking Things". Don't get your knickers in a knot - I ride / own 2ts - well I ride / own 4ts as well. The irony now is All ICE powered vehicles are being ever more demonized.......
But, more so than that, was the imperative of using the technology being poured into 4ts, with Road Bikes, and Superbikes. With so much learned by that avenue of development and production, it was logical to apply it over a wide range of product. Especially when there was a very significant capacity advantage allowed by the rules. Doing away with another, in Manufacturers eyes, separate Development Stream- that of 2 Strokes - was logical to most of them.
Me , I love ICE bikes, but I will happily buy an E Bike, when what I want of one, becomes a reality. While keeping my ICE Bikes.
But, I want Equivalency - Capacity for Capacity.
4 Strokes ceased needing Handicap Class rules, about 2 decades ago. It's complete BS, and controllers of the sport that don't allow it, are doing the Sport a huge disservice, and, they are spineless for Not introducing Equivalency. And those that allow it, but restrict modifications to 2Ts, whilst allowing near open slather on 4T modifications, are just as complicit with damaging the Sport.
I was just a little guy but when we went to the Detroit Supercross that year and I heard DH's new 4 stroke...... I was hooked. WHOMP WHOMP WHOMP.....
https://youtu.be/yz3y27ekJ2w
Don't shoot the messenger!
Post a reply to: The Bike that Killed the 2 Stroke!