Yeah Maximus... I love the smell of burnt bean oil in the morning.. It smells like - Victory..

Oddly enough, I trained my kids on 2 and 4 stroke bikes, one likes 4 stroke power, one other likes 2 stroke power.. And they won't even ride eachothers' bikes. I have to admit to never really feeling totally comfortable with my Husabergs, too many years on CR/KX 500's..

 

Me too. I'm a 2-stroke guy at heart. Grew up on them. Love the sound and the smell. I still can't get use to the thumper sound when I go to MX races. I even run castor oil in my leaf blower and weekwacker along with VP fuel just for the smell of it.....LOL Brings me right back to the good'ol days. My KLX is only the 2nd thumper "dirt" bike I've ever owned. Also had a handful of 2-stroke street bikes, H1, H2, RD and 2 RZ's. My wife even bought me 2-stroke premix scented candles for Christmas one year to burn in my shop. Before my home was flooded during hurricane Irene, I had 1/4 scale RC sprint cars with modded 30cc weed wacker motors. I ran Maxima 927 premix oil with VP fuel. Everytime I went down in my basement, I'd fire one up for a minute or two just to smell up the place. That's why my wife got the candles when she saw them at a motorcycle dealer trade show. I love it....

Two Stroke Smoke Candle | Flying Tiger Motorcycles

https://huckberry.com/store/flying-t...e-smoke-candle

I add a quart of VP to 5 gallons of gas that I run in my KLX. It's just enough to get a hint of a whiff once in a while when riding. Not the ring dinger premix smell, but race fuel smell is just as good....

 

+1 Can't wait to get my YM-1 project running again so I can smell that smell.

 

According to the liberals 2 strokers are bad for the planet and will kill all the babies. Save the babies!

 

I find it funny that assumption that all those interested in conservation and all are considered liberals. Like all those rich Sierra Clubbers are all Democrats... I'm thinking that's likely not so true. Rates right up there with the assumption the NRA only backs conservatives. They don't, they endorsed the Democratic candidate, Ted Strickland, in Ohio. Politics don't always tie directly into personal beliefs and values. Oh, and the NRA backs the candidate they believe is most "friendly" to their agenda, regardless of party.


Now in a related side note, Yamaha continued the two stroke up to the RZ350 and others built small ones for the European market up until recently if not still today. In the late 80s the Walter Wolf Suzuki 250, the NS400 triple, and the RZ500 were still around. Experimentation recently has brought the possibility for much cleaner burning.

Biggest thing that killed two strokes on the road in the US - riders wanted the sound of a four stroke. Ring ding was a derogatory term back when. With the recent resurgence of off road two strokes, I believe people are finding the cost of rebuilds make them very attractive, plus the bang for the buck in performance. You have to figure the 125 was displaced by the 250 and the 250 displaced by the 450.

 

Everyone wanted a 4 stroke than ran like a 2 stroke. For the most part its been done, we have some high powered, high revving 4 strokes. But they are expensive to maintain and rebuild. I've seen some 1000 to 1500 dollar rebuilds on some of these 250 motocross bikes.


A good friend of mine who has spent much of his 45 years(minus the first 5) riding dirt bikes and racing. He loves the modern 4 stroke 250. He calls them a 3 stroke, the best of both worlds in one package.


At the beginning of last summer when I hopped on my friends Brand new RMZ250 I was amazed at how much power that thing had! I never did more with it than ride around a field, but I've watched him climb some hills chugging down low, then riding the rpm range right on up. Seems the power never stops coming.


Hopefully after the next election with the right results we will see a decline in this EPA, and other BS going on in our country.

 

Holy crap! I just read a 2015 250 MX shoot-out. Most of em are spitting out over 40 HP !!! That is "old school" 250 2 stroke power - I have no idea how much power the few 250 2 strokes are putting out now.. I figure development stopped on them..

We have to mod up our KLX's to get a little over 20 .. lol

 

Unfortunately, it's the worst of both worlds. High RPM, high strung power band, and expensive rebuilds. I've seen bikes being parted out because they were going to cost so much to repair, far more than $1500.

A modern (that's funny right there) YZ250 destroys any of the four stroke 250's in every respect, and has a nice, mellow power band.

I've read that the latest KTM 250's make 50 hp

 

I was floored when I found out the klxs was only 18hp, would have bet money it was at least in the mid 20s after riding it. I had a 150cc scoot that was 13.5hp, go figure. In 1st gear the klxs 250 acts like a billy goat and will climb almost anything, so I'm a happy camper. My riding is just for fun and exploring. No racing or at risk riding for this 50+ year old.

 

I think the biggest two points FOR two strokes show if you watch endurocross (indoor extreme tracks) or the eastern Crosscountry and Harescrambles racing. A fair number of riders will opt for two stroke versions of what they're riding because of light weight while still having plenty of horsepower to do the job. KTM riders run a 300, some Yamaha riders will ride modified YZs, other manufacturers who make two strokes have positions in the racing due to the benefits.

The big bores from the "old days" demonstrate the negatives - the harder to control range of power... the fun part for most other two strokes known as "hitting the power band" or for some of us, "coming on pipe". Honda put a throttle sensor on one of their CR450Rs when David Bailey was riding one at Carlsbad or Saddleback raceway. It showed he hit full throttle twice on the opening lap and once each lap there after. He was full power on the start. From that point on he only hit full throttle when going up the huge uphill. Otherwise the power was too hard hitting to use. The new four strokes are easier to control. Still hitting hard, but not like the old open class two strokes did.

Play riders, like us, experience the benefits of four strokes - more specifically four strokes in lower states of tune. We get better power delivery for most of our riding, we can go to bigger yet still have that power spread. Mild states of tune usually also means great durability. Much like the old Honda XRs. Not racers, but riders. Set up to take a beating and run long maintenance cycles for major work. Tune 'em up more, cut the drive train weight and that longevity suffers.

What we have to decide is what we are willing to live with. A KTM may run tens of thousands of miles if done right, if not it may need work in less than 15,000. Most Japanese four strokes, being over-engineered, will take the beating and keep on ticking - just not quite as fast or light.

Personally I'd like to see a bigger bore rather than backing off on the robust over-engineering of the engine. That was some of the strength that all of the predecessors to the current Japanese dual sports had. First the Yamaha Enduro series and then the Honda XRs were always known as being heavy, but they were also known for getting you through whatever you were riding through. Plus the engines were far less fragile.

Frame-wise the KLX is still competitive for a dual sport in spite of age of design. Keep the frame, dress it in more modern plastic, get rid of the complicated plastic for more light MX plastic. It is lacking for the adventure group though and it isn't about weight, it's about frame strength. Strengthening the sub-frame would add weight. It's a conundrum in deed.

One easy fix would be a bolt on sub frame, allowing either a factory or aftermarket accessory Adventure frame with added strength and even pannier rack lugs to be bolted on in place of a lighter dual sport sub frame. A few weld on lugs and it's done. Or have some weld on lugs to take some bolt on gussets.

There is no easy fix to the weight and power situation, you pay to play. Same with better suspension. By the way have any of you noticed any of the KTM "fix it" threads on ADVrider? Seems they have generalized suspension that needs tuned, I believe some frame issues when taking one of their sub 690 bikes and adding all the adventure gear, and other issues similar to that we have. So it always comes back to money, is it worth $4000 to cut 30-40 lb and have the high dollar brakes/suspension when it comes to your budget?