Posted by Armand on June 04, 2000 at 10:54:39:
In Reply to: Two-strokes posted by Skeeter on June 04, 2000 at 04:14:02:
I didnīt know two-strokes arenīt for sale anymore in the States. I always thought the Germans were on the weird side of regulations...
Two-strokes are still very common here in smalle engines up to 125 cc, mostly used in scooters. There is a VERY fast 250 cc two stroke bike still built by Aprilia, also there are some 125 cc motorcycles still sold by Honda & Aprilia (btw. anybody noticed Moto Guzzi has been taken over by Aprilia some days ago?)
But there are no big two.strokes around anymore. I donīt recall if / when Yamaha stopped selling the RD 350 over here.
When I was a teen there was this 500cc 3-cylinder Kawa which was very fast, but known for a mediocre handling. One of the guys around here was the first to own one. His name was Mike, since he was the child of a GI and a German mother and he a was very tall, not saying fat guy. And he was really a bloke, bullying us kids all day.
One morning he was commuting from or home town to the next smaller citywhere we all had to go to attend our local high school. He lost control in a long left turn and couldnīt manage to get off the bike in time. So he fell so unluckyly, he got jammed between the road surface and the guardrail, still sitting on his bike. No way of freeing himself, he had to wait in that position for the next car driver to come, who stopped and lifted the guardrail with his jack just enough to pull him out. Imagine all of us passing him by on our way to school on our bikes, scooters etc, stopping and watchinmg the scene...
I still believe he had just deserved it.
Speaking of two-strokes again, I recently read about some automobile firms (Ford?) developping a high-tech two-stroke engine for cars, which was of course lighter than a four-stroke but also produced less emissions.