An observation from this past weekends ride
Over the past few years I've seen a change in the bikes my riding group has been on... There are those of us (me included) who are 2 stroke only... there are several who have switched back and forth, and there are those 4 stroke or nothing riders. This weekends ride, there were 10 riders on two on 4 strokes... one just bought a 2012 CRF-X 250. Its been lowered, (which fits as he's a bit height challenged), the other on a KX 450 cause he a big tough guy... the rest was two KTM 380's, KTM 300, two YZ250's , KTM 200, KTM 150, and a YZ125.
I think my buddy on the CRF-X finally found the right bike for him... He needed something along the lines of an XR250 but with more punch and decent suspension. He's not a fast rider, sometimes painfully slow... he has a KX125, but didn't ride it aggressive enough. Had a CRF 250 for a short while (loved it), but it was hard to start, and after valve issues decided to sell it. The X version is much tamer, plus estart. The valves have been swapped for stainless steel, so maybe they will last a while longer. It does start much easier.
The 450 rider, has a bike too big for his ability. It gets him into trouble, as much as it bails him out of it. Previously he had a bone stock KTM 150... said it wasn't fast enough... never tried to adjust the jetting, swore it was just a bad bike... Over the weekend he rode my buddies 150 with proper jetting and suspension settings, he now wants to dump the 450 and get a 150.
The 2 guys on YZ250, are previous staunch supporters of the 4 stroke brigade... No more... too many expensive repairs, one also realized the 450 he was on was killing his lap times, rode a buddies smoker for 15 min, put the pig up for sale and bought the YZ... couldn't be happier.
The rest of us are two smokers for life... we did notice the faint sounds of a stroker at the riding area, but most of the time it was just the sweet sound of a two stroke on the pipe...