Interesting reading. Notice the \"No oval piston\" clause. I love the 2 strokes & wish we went back to 500cc 2 strokes in the premier class. Those bikes had a knack of sorting the men from the boys, but hopefully the new 600s span the gap from the track to the road
Interesting reading. Notice the \"No oval piston\" clause. I love the 2 strokes & wish we went back to 500cc 2 strokes in the premier class. Those bikes had a knack of sorting the men from the boys, but hopefully the new 600s span the gap from the track to the road
Bruce
Interesting statement as exactly the opposite is true in the off road world. Two strokes can be completely rebuilt for less than half the cost when using comparable thumper pieces and about a quarter of the cost in the event of catastrophic failure. Something that is becoming way to commonplace with the 11,000 rpm RFS engines.
The factories and AMA were, and to a point still do push the 'environmentally friendly' aspect of a four stroke over a two stroke primarily due to the absence of oil in the fuel and less efficient combustion processes, and the un-educated public imagines the four stroke to be a quieter running bike.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
In real world applications the overwhelming majority of RFS owner/operators replace the factory exhaust systems, air filter and carb jetting in order to get that little bit of extra HP (and noise, that they must think is worth a few seconds per lap or a few extra HP in of itself) which makes the engines at least as 'dirty' if not more so than a typical two stroke. Remember, as a rule lean is mean on a two stroke, but fat is where it's at with a thumper. Not to mention that the type of noise produced by an RFS engine carries much much further than that of a two stroke.
What's really sad is that two stroke development was on the way to making what I feel would have been some significant break throughs but it all seemed to stop short of the final stages of development and mass production.
Several years ago (seems like it was in the 80's) Honda raced a bike in Baja and a few other desert events called the EXP that was raced by Al Baker if memory serves. This bike used specially coated internal engine parts that allowed it to run a then unique synthetic oil at an unheard of 100:1 mixture ratio.
Then a few years ago they were experimenting with the EXP 2, ( Quick Take: Honda EXP-2 - Motorcycle.com ) an updated version of the original but utilizing more modern technology such as fuel injection. The engine appeared to be a huge step in the right direction, and then just disappeared to the best of my knowledge. A few years later Honda began heavily pushing four strokes and wanted to return to being known as the 'Four Stroke Company" and completely abandoned two stroke development and production.
At the beginning of this decade Polaris dropped a bomb on it's dealer network and the public alike by introducing not only an entirely new hull design for it's PWC line, but several new power-plants as well. Including a multi-cylinder fuel injected two stroke that was supposedly certified for use in California! Then, less than two years later and after spending millions on development on these all new PWC's they completely abandoned the market and not only quit producing and selling the new watercraft but quickly ramped down any support of older in service PWC's as well.
*insert Twilight Zone theme music*
Conspiracies? Or maybe just a marketing ploy to force the public into not only buy more high priced parts in less time, but making them less user friendly resulting in less owner done maintenance and quicker trade in cycles as well?
*more do-do-do-do - do-do-do-do music*
Hmmmmm... Kinda makes you wonder huh?
Needless to say I didn't bother, what's the point as it still boils down to how much money you have. $$$ = Speed.
