UK Bike Forum / UK Bike Forum / Road Bikes / Two-strokes - Spawn of Satan or Best Thing Since Sliced Bread? / Latest Posts

Owned four KH250's, two in bits and boxes to build one good one in a mates second storey bedroom, it was a bastard getting the rebuilt bike, down the stairs, round the corners and back out the flat. They used to tank slap like billy ho at over about 85. Them were the days!

RE: Two-strokes - Spawn of Satan or Best Thing Since Sliced Bread?

Black Dog — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 16:40:48 GMT

RD400 - yesssssssss. Always wanted one, too. Or the YDS7 350. Or a Kwak triple, of whatever flavour. Or a pre-power valve 250 or 350. Anything that burns 2T and goes like a wasp on acid. (And by the way, the smell is nothing to do with Castrol R - it's the natural smell of 2T. I've never added R to a bike. I followed an ancient 2-stroke trailie the other day, and was very reluctant to overtake, as the aroma was just sooooooooo pleasant.)

My hooligan Suzi was the GT250A, which was very quick (I wasn't a learner by then, but it's what I could afford), with - er - interesting handling. I shouldn't say this, but the 125 law had to be a good thing. Anyone who has ridden one of the hot 250s from that era, and then imagined it in the hands of a testosterone-fuelled teenager with L plates and no training, will know that the situation couldn't last. Eventually, we would have run out of teenagers, and then where would we be?

RE: Two-strokes - Spawn of Satan or Best Thing Since Sliced Bread?

roadhoover — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 08:40:47 GMT

Going back a couple of posts. The Suzuki X7, the standing joke at the time as I recall being too young to ride at the time was. 'What do you ride?' ...'I've got and X7'...'Oh has it got a front end still?'

Crashing and burning was almost rights of passage on an X7 as far as I could work out at the time. I always preferred the look of the KR RD400 with yellow and black speed blocks. One day I'm going to own one.

RE: Two-strokes - Spawn of Satan or Best Thing Since Sliced Bread?

motovelo — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 19:17:58 GMT

roadhoover (04/03/2008)

Putoline produced a while back some two stroke oil that smelt of strawberries or something similar.

http://www.moto-velo.co.uk/catalog/product_info.php/products_id/289?osCsid=17b61008a4a3a5b16ca4321eed554abd

RE: Two-strokes - Spawn of Satan or Best Thing Since Sliced Bread?

AlanMcT — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 15:43:01 GMT

I prefer a 4 stroke any day. I like to go fast quietly rather than wake the whole neighbourhood up and get every policeman looking my way. C'mon guys, remember the way kids played with their expansion chambers to make the loudest noise possible? And that narrow power band that was worse than a diesel. Let even an RD350 drop out of the power band and it would splutter and fart like a moped.

Ahh! give me the sound of a big V twin (or V4 even better) on full throttle any day. I like torque and revs - that's why I drive a VFR750.

As for the 2 stroke smell that was probably the Castrol R which we used to mix into the petrol along with the regular 2 stroke oil just to smell good. Nothing to stop you doing that on a 4 stroke as long as you don't overdo it.

RE: Two-strokes - Spawn of Satan or Best Thing Since Sliced Bread?

Black Dog — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 14:28:07 GMT

The RD250 (or was it the Suzi X7?) is credited with the ending of the learner 250 law. Once learner bikes could crack the ton, the writing was on the wall. I rode an RD250 once. Utterly bonkers - once you had got it on the pipe, it just begged you to thrash the living daylights out of it (this should go in Mazz's innuendo thread). I had a GT250A, which was the forerunner (or was it afterrunner) of the X7. Very good to ride, but had an appetite for pistons.

RE: Two-strokes - Spawn of Satan or Best Thing Since Sliced Bread?

rebelman — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 12:29:53 GMT

I allways thought it was two strokes and you was out anyway!

Acctually I did try to take my test on a BSA Bantum which was two stroke and it oiled up on me halfway round thew block from the examiner who just pointed out that I had run out of time for the rest of the test after taking too long trying to mingle the bloody opil in with the petrol the otherside of the block from him! I had borrowed the bike cos me Atlas had yet to be rebuilt.

I did however have a go on a RD 250 Yammy. One of the 1st mass Jap bike in the country and legal to ride as a learner for as long as you liked, it was just very buzzy esp. when compared to the Atlas! LOL

RE: Two-strokes - Spawn of Satan or Best Thing Since Sliced Bread?

Black Dog — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 17:45:22 GMT

Bleaugh - strawberries! 2T should smell of 2T, nothing else. There are several flavoured condom jokes waiting to be inserted here, but I won't.

RE: Two-strokes - Spawn of Satan or Best Thing Since Sliced Bread?

roadhoover — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 23:03:53 GMT

Putoline produced a while back some two stroke oil that smelt of strawberries or something similar.

God knows why, some evil genius marketing plan no doubt.

RE: Two-strokes - Spawn of Satan or Best Thing Since Sliced Bread?

Black Dog — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 10:04:34 GMT

Heh, another 2-stroke fan! Yesterday morning I was waiting to pull out onto the main road for my commute (fast A-road) when a small racy looking bike howled past. I followed him, gratefully inhaling the sweet and evocative whiff of 2T that he was putting out. I had to push the Mondeo pretty hard to keep up, but it was worth it. If they could find a way to bottle that smell, I'd buy a gallon.

RE: Two-strokes - Spawn of Satan or Best Thing Since Sliced Bread?

endemoniada_88 — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 23:42:08 GMT

2-strokes, lovely: an elegant combination of simplicity and purpose. Mechanically speaking, that is: not sure anyone could describe an MZ as aesthetically elegant. Particularly evocative in a field of race bikes, screaming off the line out of a blue, sweet-smelling fog - shame you only get to see that with the 125/250s these days, and that may not be for much longer.

I'm sure I read somewhere recently that Honda were considering revisiting clean-burn direct injection 2-strokes, presumably planning to do a better job than Bimota managed with the V-Due.

RE: Two-strokes - Spawn of Satan or Best Thing Since Sliced Bread?

roadhoover — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 20:16:29 GMT

do kids look after anything these days?

Local Jersey bike shop? Nice site

RE: Two-strokes - Spawn of Satan or Best Thing Since Sliced Bread?

Blenk — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 19:38:30 GMT

Spawn, Have you seen how much oil them things chuck out of the exhausts when the kids don't look after them!

Blenk
http://web.mac.com/blenk2/iWeb/Site/Welcome.html

RE: Two-strokes - Spawn of Satan or Best Thing Since Sliced Bread?

Black Dog — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 12:40:17 GMT

Nah, modern 2-strokes are simplicity itself. Keep an eye on the oil tank level, and tip a litre of 2T in when it gets a bit low. The only hassle is on a long journey, where it pays to keep a spare litre about the bike somewhere, in case you get low on oil and nowhere nearby sells 2T. Running out is not an option. Problem is that most strokers are small and light, and lacking the kind of stash space needed for a bottle of oil.

RE: Two-strokes - Spawn of Satan or Best Thing Since Sliced Bread?

Ems — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 12:20:30 GMT

Oooooh!! Well i was under the impression you had to!!

RE: Two-strokes - Spawn of Satan or Best Thing Since Sliced Bread?

Black Dog — Thu, 31 May 2007 16:08:34 GMT

Now come on, you haven't had to premix oil for decades! Even my GT250 of 1976-ish had automatic oil mixing. The only bike I've had where you had to mix the oil yourself was my <makes sign of cross> Jawa, and that was a messy horrible process.

Funny how Honda had a 2-stroke on the market so recently. They were the first manufacturer to make most of their small bikes with 4-strokes. Like the CG125 when the other Big Three were still making stroker 125s.

RE: Two-strokes - Spawn of Satan or Best Thing Since Sliced Bread?

Ems — Thu, 31 May 2007 15:50:46 GMT

I quite like the 2 stroke, as they are, as you said, faster. They started to pull the 2 stroke bikes in around 3 years ago, the time when i was enquiring about buying the Honda NSR 125. This was a 2 stroke, and as we said we'd buy one, they said sorry, no can do, Honda have stopped making them . I'd have a nice big bike by now if it wasn't for whoever banned 2 strokes!! Besides that though, i don't think i could be bothered now to mix the oil!!

Two-strokes - Spawn of Satan or Best Thing Since Sliced Bread?

Black Dog — Thu, 31 May 2007 15:29:26 GMT

In the "good old days" of motorcycling, there was roughly a 50/50 split between 2-stroke and 4-stroke engines. 2-strokes (in them days) were simple, light and cheap to make, so many learner and commuter bikes had them. 4-strokes were more complex, heavier and more expensive, so "serious" big bikes and tourers tended to have a 4-stroke lump. Then there were the exceptions - Kawasaki's mental 500 and 750 triples, Suzuki's 750 kettle and Honda's 50/70/90cc step-thoughs come to mind.

The great thing about a 2-stroke is that it delivers twice as many power strokes as a 4-stroke per revolution, although in a less efficient way. This meant that, cc for cc, a 2-stroke could give about 150-170% of the power of the equivalent 4-stroke. For racing bikes, there was only one choice, and racing was dominated in the Grands Prix of the 70s by monster 500cc strokers. The low-down grunt of a 2-stroke single made them popular choices for trials as well. Highly-tuned (with wild porting and tuned exhaust), a 2-stroke made power like no other: nothing for the first half of the rev counter, then a sharp power band leading to a mad rush for the horizon, accompanied by a banshee howl and another 3 points on the licence.

I know that emissions legislation has killed almost all of them off, but I loved 'em. As far as I can see, only Aprilia still make them, and then only for learners. Damn shame. If I'm passed by a 2-stroke, I have been known to follow it for miles, just sniffing the blue haze they leave in their wake.

That's all.