ASK THE MXPERTS: WE PROPOSE A NO FORMULA TWO-STROKE FORMULA

[citabjockey]

Sheesh - why all the animosity towards an electric motocrosser? Right now such a bike would not be competitive, would be too heavy, battery not last long enough, be too expensive. But the day will come *sometime* in the future when it WOULD be competitive on all these fronts. In fact they may end up being so good that the gas engines would need class protection from them 

But, for now anyway, nobody is forcing you to ride one. I really like my two strokes. A big part of the reason why is my ride time to wrench time ratio is nice and high. And what is considered a big expensive failure of the 2T engine is peanuts compared to the four strokes. And the engines are just fun fun fun. BUT an electric bike may someday have an even better ride/wrench ratio. Oh, and the flat power delivery I wrote about in other threads? An e-Bike would be king in that arena. As fun to ride as my 380? I kinda doubt it but I don't dismiss the possibility until one actually exists and I could try it. The Zero bikes have quite a ways to go to get there --  from what I have read about them anyway.

Now there is one more factor. If someone wants to build a track it can't be next to non-riding populace. They rear up and clobber such an idea at the govt level. If the bikes are quiet then those folks have a lot less ammunition and in these days of sucky economy a track can dangle tax revenue and some jobs under a politician's nose. There could be many closer places to ride/race then there are now.

So you don't like electric bikes. I get that. And I agree. To a point. If they get as good as our beloved two strokes are now in capability/reliability/cost and can open more places to ride (or at least help keep what places there are now open) then we would be fools to turn our backs on them.

Time will tell.

And no throwing rocks, ok? -- well, rocks that come from knobs are fine  ;-) 

[TotalNZ]

The series i just raced just had a senior class that was open to any displacement, with the field split into pro and intermediat after qualifying at the first round. It worked very well and engine size or type wasn't an issue and had very little bearing on the results.
It came down as always to rider skill.

[VintageBlueSmoke]

Just have a full open class and riders are split into their skill category.

By full open I mean everything on two wheels that has handlebars: Rotary, Diesel, Electric, Petrol, Methanol, etc.

I could live with this kind of thing (since that is what I generally run) but what people who want the 500 class back don't realize is that a late '80's 250 had  as much power as a '70's open class bike thanks to the power valve and other technologies. It was also easier to manage that power. Don't get me wrong, I have several open class bikes and love to ride them, but when chosing a weapon, the 250 is usually the best.

What I would suggest would be forcing the manufacturers to put up the purse and having an A main and B main with only the A main riders getting a check from the purse. Even 40th place would get points and paycheck. I don't know how to FORCE a manufacture to not pay their 2% riders gobs of money and investing it in the purses but I'm sure someone could come up with something. - Something like homologation being that you agree to pay $X amount to the purse for every motorcycle in the A main that is your brand.

[_X_]

here in new england all vet classes are run what you brung and each ability level has an open class 125 to what ever. ive seen quite a few 125s win these classes.

[msambuco]

Who are the fast 125 riders? Are K. Johnson, Mayo, and J. Waddington still smokin? When I moved from NY to MA and ran some NESC races I was amazed at the number of fast riders. In NY we had what we called the Kurt and Carlo show and a few other top 5 guys who could win it. In NESC expert classes there were about 10 guys who could win it and no one else was much further behind. Was like watching a National every weekend.

[_X_]

right now its all connecticut's own josh clark representing on his yzed 250, ryan wadsworth, seth ciccarelli, some paul lamb, marshall and decotis when racing. the younger guys are dowd's son, ziggy's son, matt frantz,derrik barnaby. i know what u mean by national, those guys would put on a show. i remember kurt and carlo joining in as well as a few chanuks to boot. good 'ol days msambuco.

[Stusmoke]

 At my track the kiddos that have been racing since they could crawl ride 125s and destroy the 250F jokers. And I mean DESTROY these kids bleed gasoline and have crazy talent. I was watching a kiddo on a '13 85 sx lapping 250Fs. I had a good giggle he just left it wide open pretty much everywhere. Three guesses who I kept my eye on the whole time.

It proves a couple of points: Growing up through the ranks of the two strokes, from 50sx through 125sx makes you a weapon of a rider and builds your skills like nothing else. It also says to me that it comes down to rider skill more than anything.

I spoke to one of the blokes wailing his YZ125 and asked him what he thought of the two stroke. He was about 20 I would guess and he said: "hahaha mate I rode four strokes for 3 years and watched my skills get progressively worse, I picked up this little screamer, rebuilt the engine for 500 bucks and started thrashing my mates again, I wouldn't dirty my ass on a four stroke again".

It was good to see.

[_X_]

agreed stu.

[shanes]

agreed stu.

+1 i love watching the kids on 65's and 85's whipping the big 4 stroke arses