Four stroke agenda affecting roadracing too.

[yo_marc]

Maybe it's well known already, but it seems as though the four-stroke agenda (tm?) is hitting the road racing world too.

Caught this blurb when looking over a race bike overview:

"With the four-stroke Moto3 class to replaced the current two-stroke 125cc Class in FIM Grand Prix racing, Honda will release the 2012 Honda Racing Corporation (HRC) NSF250R in America.

...

The NSF 250 R features a liquid-cooled, single-cylinder 249cc four-stroke engine that will be legal in USGPRU Moto3 and WERA racing in the USA, and others."

...

To twist the knife further... I quote HRCA:

"Just as off-road riders can purchase and race one of our full-on CRF450R or CRF250R motocross bikes, now road racers have the means to buy a race-ready track bike."

The price:  $28,600 USD.  28K is Ducati 'S' teritory.  What's a good Yamaha TZ or Honda RS or Aprilia RS worth?  A lot less! 


http://ultimatemotorcycling.com/2012-honda-nsf250r-to-america

[VintageBlueSmoke]

There is a company that take 450F mx bikes and turns them into Road Racers. It was touted as the perfect class for new (read: young) riders. They did a show on TV with a pretty little girl turning hot laps on them and then they had (I think) Freddie Spencer comment. He thought it was neat and fun but really hate the 4$ and the added cost it was going to take to keep them in racing form.

I wish I had save that show.

[EJ]

Yamaha has just announced they will stop their World Superbike factory teams' race efforts at the end of 2011.
This will be their last year in SBK.
However, they will continue to supply some private teams.

I read it here;
http://www.motocrossactionmag.com/Main/News/BAD-NEWS-FOR-RACING-YAMAHA-TO-PULL-OUT-OF-THE-WORL-8073.aspx

[ACMX]

That may be because the 125cc class is dominated by KTM

[Chris2T]

i've suffered with that since 2002, when MotoGP allowed 990cc 4 strokes to compete with the 500 2 strokes. Honda showed up with a 5 cylinder 990 which promptly won every race. The press, the teams, the manufacturers all hailed it as such an incredible, fantastic machine. 4 stroke was the future they said. All the while i'm thinking they needed more than DOUBLE the engine to finally beat the 500's! Needless to say the cost was astronomical, and now the entire MotoGP grids is only 17 riders. 2 years ago they outlawed the MotoGP 250 2 strokes in place of a SPEC ENGINE 600cc 4 stroke class. And guess what? SLOWER LAP TIMES!! But still they hailed the new 4 strokes. So now the 125's are going, to be replaced with presumably slower 250 4 strokes. There's a mentality out there that i just don't understand...