Media Bias

[luthier269]

At the track this weekend they were giving away an old  magazine named The Pickle. They were reviewing The 2008 mini O's. They were talking about Malcolm Stewart, Quote " The Kawasaki rider opted to ride 2-strokes for the week, But it didn't seam to be any disadvantage for him as he got consistent starts and set some of the fasted lap times on the track". It was like they were suprised. If the 4stroke was lighter and faster he would have rode one. I wanted to screem! And last year at the FMF Two-stroke race at Buds creek the announcer made reference that he wasnt sure the two-strokes could clear the jumps and of course they did with ease! Its hard to belive how many people fall for these misconception about the two stroke.

[JETZcorp]

It's that same misconception that you see everywhere.  Once something falls out of fashion and becomes "old," nobody thinks it's worth anything anymore.  Everyone switches to four-strokes, it MUST be because they're 10x faster than two-strokes.  Aluminum frames MUST be half the weight of chromoly.  I guarantee that Magoo would have been able to take his old Maico or Honda 500s from back in the day and make any jump on the track.  The Hurricane probably would've taken any of them on his old YZ250, too.  Making the jumps is a matter of power more than anything, and as long as you have long-travel suspension that's not rusted through, you should be able to survive the landing.

But, bring one of those things out to the track, looking as they do, and the announcers will expect them to putter around the track like a Model-T at Talladega.  Lack of power really doesn't become a problem until you get back into the old pre-two-stoke days, and even those converted street machines will lay down the shock and awe upon our modern sensibilities.  I think we all need to realize that there have been very few advancements in our sport that really allow X, Y, or Z to be possible.  There are always going to be people with enough balls to take on a motocross track with a Harley, and set respectable lap times.  What the advancements have allowed, though, is for these feats to be accomplished without the need for such massive balls.  The case of the four-stroke is special in that, while they inspire confidence, they don't help lap times at all, unless they're allowed to cheat.

[MMS]

This is nothing new.

The British Supercross championship was won this winter by a KX250 2-stroke hybrid. It transpired that it was one of the "Service" bikes which had been imported to the UK by Kawasaki WSB team manager Paul Bird.

The British Supercross series has run now for 7 or 8 years (approx) and I've never seen as little media coverage of it as there was this year, well after round one anyway!

The only people who loose out with 4-strokes are the consumers, everybody else wins. Manufacturers, importers, dealers, after-market suppliers, basically the entire industry benefits considerably with 4-strokes and none of them will want it to change

Only you people out there, the paying customer, can turn this one around.

[KTMguy]

Can't clear jumps my arse. How the f.uck did this happen then?

[KTMguy]

and on the 250

[rookie]

is that Laracco Leap?

[JohnN]

Can't clear jumps my arse. How the f.uck did this happen then?

James was totally amazing on the 125.... look his feet are way off the pegs, like he flung the bike skyward to clear the jump... my illusion is that he did something similar every lap!!

That is a great photo.

[miedosoracing]

Here's something I posed to my friend this weekend. Oh, by the way got a great 4 stroke story for everyone later regarding him, he is a 4 stroke lover.   Anyhoo, One of the last 2 stroke racers was David vuillemin if anyone remembers.  He was ademant about riding the 250 2 stroke in supercross the year he went to Bookoo, reality of speed team.  Anyways, the story goes like this, he rode and did quite shitty.  I in fact wrote Erica, before he went with that team and told her it was a bad idea, since I knew Lucky. Long story short, he didn't qualify for a couple races and previously he was top 5.  It came down to them saying it was the 2 stroke and he needed to switch over.  He did and he still sucked azz.  I had this question to my friend and he didn't know obviously, but made him think.  Are the 450F's really all that much faster, or is it just the mentality of "it's faster?"  He didn't do any better with the 450F, and I still to this day believe it was the team bikes that sucked rather than David.  I think on a factory bike, where he came from, he would have done fine on his YZ250.  I also remember this story if anyone else can.  When James Stewart was on the RS250, or KX250 as we know it.  He was asked, "What will it take for you to beat RC?"  His answer was very short. 450F.  As we all know, that didn't mean anything either. James still got his butt handed to him from the GOAT.  So, really, the whole point to this, is the 450F any faster? Most everyone on that side thinks it is. But maybe it's not and if top riders would actually ride a 250 2 stroke, they would do just as good.  I'm gonna send a letter to some magazines and ask them to test lap times of both and compare.  A factory fast guy.

[Foxpak]

But maybe it's not and if top riders would actually ride a 250 2 stroke, they would do just as good.  I'm gonna send a letter to some magazines and ask them to test lap times of both and compare.  A factory fast guy.

Either RacerX or Transworld did it with J-Law.
He was faster on the 2 stroke...

[miedosoracing]

But maybe it's not and if top riders would actually ride a 250 2 stroke, they would do just as good.  I'm gonna send a letter to some magazines and ask them to test lap times of both and compare.  A factory fast guy.

Either RacerX or Transworld did it with J-Law.
He was faster on the 2 stroke...

That was 250 vs 250. I'm saying if Jlaw raced a 250 2 stroke against 450F's. The lap times on the 250F's are sometimes even faster than the 450F's.

[Foxpak]

But maybe it's not and if top riders would actually ride a 250 2 stroke, they would do just as good.  I'm gonna send a letter to some magazines and ask them to test lap times of both and compare.  A factory fast guy.

Either RacerX or Transworld did it with J-Law.
He was faster on the 2 stroke...

That was 250 vs 250. I'm saying if Jlaw raced a 250 2 stroke against 450F's. The lap times on the 250F's are sometimes even faster than the 450F's.

Ah ok i couldn't remember which 4-junk he was on. I just remember him being on a 250 2.