Hello,
This post came up on Vital MX earlier today, and it struck me as a little too slickly written and hollow to be the truth. There are some things in it that just don't seem to really make sense, and some slieghtly contradictory elements. Just comes off like a hustle. Call me crazy, but I checked into the poster's profile and the line of posts leading to this one had started at the end of summer as the first post on a totally new profile, and the whole series just struck me as being a little phony.
I thought it would be fun to respond to the double talk of this post with one that did the same thing, but threw the slant in the opposite direction, and perhaps exagerated it a little too.
Here's the original post:
"A while back I entered my first post and decided to take up the challenge of the never ending 2 Stroke vs 4 Stroke debate. Not for any reason other than I wanted a personal perspective and not other peoples opinions..but I do value and appreciate them.
STEP 1: So we bought the 2010 YZ250 and did the quick and easy mods...PC Pipe and Silencer and the VForce. My son had a great time on the bike during practice and raced it once at the Pala Amateur National in this form. He got a terrible start (think of the Little Leaguer chasing Butterflies while the ball rolls past him)...Anyway, he got 34th gate pick and started way outside. I think he was about 25th into the first turn. By the 2nd lap he had moved all the way up to 5th and was looking pretty good. As the laps clicked off he steadily dropped to 10th by race end. I asked what happened and he looked at me like I was an idiot and I got this quote "Gee I dont know, maybe I'm on a relatively stock 250 2 stroke in the 450 intermediate class on a dry track that is mostly hard pack, plus I'm getting killed on those hils". While he was dissapointed I thought it was great insight, albeit I could have done without the sarcasm. The point is this, its not that one bike is better than the other for him, its just that they make power so differently and the type of track and the conditions REALLY do matter.
STEP 2 I decided to take this test to the next level. So I went out and did the following; 1. Eric Gorr YZ295 Kit (Which is Awesome) 2. Hot Rod Crank 3. Complete Full Factory Hinson Clutch OMG what a difference. He practiced on it last Saturday and raced on Sunday. The bike is UNBELIEVABLY FAST, but here is the funny part, all of the mods helped but it still did little to get the power to the ground and a dry, dusty, predominantly hard pack track. He ended up 2nd to the 450F, not bad, but not what he expected. Since we split our MX time between AZ and CA I dont know if the results would be different at other tracks with different soil types say in the MidWest or Eastern US. (There is only so much I willing to do to satisfy this absurb curiosity and driving 2500 miles isnt one of them.)
Anyhoo...It was a fun test and really expensive, I have a little over $10K into this little experiment ,but I had to know for myself. So for what its worth..My opinion is this: it doesnt really mattter..MX is supposed to be fun, especially for our kids. 2 stroke, 4 stroke, whatever floats your boat, just go out and have fun, enjoy your time with family and friends.
BTW...This beautiful piece of machinery is now for sale..."
SO, I TOLD THE STORY OF A POOR OL' 4 STROKE EXPERIMENTER WHO'D HAD A SIMILAR RUN OF BAD LUCK.
" Earlier this season I made a profile so I could take up the challenge of the never ending 2 stroke vs. 4 stroke debate. My only reason was that I wanted to learn through my own experience and not other people's opinions.. but I do value and appreciate them.
Step 1 - So we boat the 2010 YZ450F and did the first really expensive mods... PC pipe and ignition remapper dudad from Atari or Speak And Spell or whatever so the peak engine power would remain essentially unchanged but we'd be out a bunch of money anyway. As long as we're spending money and getting very little out of it except for a slight relocation of some of the power curve characters, I thought about just going to this place -
http://www.globalsources.com/...s/Titanium-Tube.html - and getting a short length of titanium tubing and bending it on the machine at Home Depot. But I figured if I'm going to be gullible enough to believe that a small shop can out engineer Yamaha and come up with a superior exhaust system in a short amount of time, I might as well treat myself to the full experience and get the included cool logo sticker for our fender. So the rider in my story who is not me, but is old enough to race the big bikes, but won't read this forum and see the post where I'm about to insult him, had a great time on the bike during practice and raced it once at the Little League Amateur National in this form. He got a horrible start (think of the Pala Amateur National where the experimental YZ250 2 stroke got 34th gate pick with PC Pipe and VForce + butterflies) and had to start way outside. I think he was in the mid 20's into the first turn, but by the 2nd lap he was looking pretty good all the way up to 5th. As the laps clicked off and he began to hear funny noises from the engine he steadily dropped back to around 10th. I asked what happened, and he looked up at me like he had just shit a valve, and I got this quote, "Golly I don't know, maybe I'm on a relatively stock 4 stroke trying to keep up with the fast kids on the lighter two strokes, and I'm getting killed in those turns!" While he was dissapointed, I thought it was some insightful shee-at although I could have done without him throwing signs. My point is, no rider can do better on one bike or the other. It's just that they make power so differently that if the rest of the country is going back to the 2 stroke in droves, maybe we can try to hype the slower 4 stroke acceleration as a good thing here in southern California.
STEP - 2 I decided to take this test to the next level, and did the following. 1. Four Stroke engine overhaul by Allice Chalmers. 2. James Stewart "Southwick 06" series scatter crank (which is awesome!) 3. Coolant Boil Over catch tank by American Standard (OMG like, what a difference). We practiced wrenching on it last Saturday and he raced it on Sunday. The bike is INDUBITABLY PAST, but here's the funny part. All the mods helped but they still did little to get the weight down. And a dry, dusty track with mostly hard pack. I thought the 4 stroke was gonna be like a golden ticket because Transworld Motoross said "KTM's 2 stroke line is selling like hotcakes", but in the same article, only 1 paragraph before that, they said "The once beloved 2 strokes are slowly but surely dwindling in numbers, both on the showroom floors and at local tracks. Especially here in southern California". So I was dissapointed that he ended up coming in second place to the 250 2 stroke, not bad but not like something out of a Honda sales pitch. Since we split out MX time between this track and that track, I don't know if the results would be different if our bike wasn't almost twice the displacement and quite heavy, but the weight is "Mass Centralized". I saw an over loaded dump wagon go through a bridge once because it was too heavy. They hauled it up out of the goop and fixed the bridge, and the dumb ass tried to go across the bridge again with the same load after he stacked all the manure in the center of the wagon kind of like a 2010 YZ450. But, crap is crap and it fell right through again because it was still way too heavy. You can't make crap lighter just by stacking it in the middle of the dump wagon. We might do better if we had a series of races to compete in where everyone had to race on a bike like ours, but we don't manufacture bikes ourselves and we don't have the power to put the squeeze on a sanctioning body and write our own rules.
Anyhoo... It was a fun test and very expensive and heavy. I have over 240LBS of metal and plastic rolled into this rolling chassis. When the engine seized up solid last time, we tried to get it into the AMA museum as the "World's First Self Welding Billet Engine" but it's not what the manufacturers want. So it got made into "Swiffer" duster handles and is performing well so far."
Hope you think it's funny. Swapper's already seen it, becuse he and I are already mixing it up with the FOOPER jockey's over there!
Thnaks,
Jim
