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« on: June 18, 2011, 08:12:09 PM »
If you want something light, cheap, and easy to repair then I recommend getting an air-cooled Suzuki or Yamaha, preferably the ones before long-travel suspension and reed valves came onto the scene. Those things were indestructible, and they had about as many moving parts as a folding lawn chair. They were very light, too, because they were small. Was the performance up to par? No, not really, especially if you're into racing. But hey, you didn't mention performance as being one of your criteria!
As I've said before, I will welcome DI so long as the benefits outweigh the costs. If it can produce a two-stroke that is okay on emissions, and perhaps provide an increase in performance (unburned hydrocarbons = wasted power) then I think that will be more than enough to offset the increase in purchase price. I'm not convinced that maintenance costs will go up tremendously, because it's my impression that this hasn't been an issue where DI has been tried already. The one concern I have is that parts availability 35 years from now might be a problem, but apparently I'm the only person on the planet who cares about that, so whatever.
Besides, if you're happy with a 2009 YZ250 today, and a fleet of new DI bikes come out that in your opinion aren't as good... just keep the 2009 YZ250! Unless it's made illegal to run that bike in whatever event you're doing, you'll have a damn good machine to rely on.