what happend to the 2Ts

[Mully]

When did Benelli turn chinese?

Yes, and when did they finally put the brake on the right side??

 

[XRpredator]

When did Benelli turn chinese?

or American, for that matter?

 

[inotocracy]

I'm not sure if I love or hate that dirt bike... its like I want to love it, but it looks so space aged..

 

[ToddHawaii]

It looks a little like the Aprilia V-twin offroad...?

I was considering a 2008 Husqvarna...and KTM - even the Aprilia - amazing bikes. The KTM dealer informed me that the oil changes $50/pop? :coocoo: So I thought about my options -

I found a brand new 98' ATK 260lq - right down the street. I didn't want two stroke, and certainly knew nothing about ATK, being a Husky guy since birth. However, when I test rode it, I fell in-love with the powerband ad feel. So I bought it, for a measly $1800.00.

The first ride I was quickly reminded at how light and nimble the 2-strokes are - and how easily I climbed a crazy straight up mountain trail like it was just another day at the park. Anyway, I do hope that the two-stroke is here to stay - it's light, easy to ride, and way less maintenance.

TrailTramp
98' ATK 260lq
04' KTM 125SX
03' KTM 65SX
99' ATK 50MX
71 Toyota Land Cruiser FJ40
03' Land Rover Discovery II

 

[stumanarama]

When did Benelli turn chinese?

When Qianjiang Group, of China, bought them out.

 

[Chili]

When did Benelli turn chinese?

October 2005 http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1651236-1,00.html

 

[Matt Fisher]

Well then someone at Suzuki owes me an explanation why my sons RM125's put out roughly 35 HP and my RM250 only put out around 50. I can't believe those idiot engineers at Suzuki forgot to include the extra 20hp on my RM250 no wonder I went to a 4 stroke!

Your RM's need a fairly broad powerband in order to maintain traction in adverse conditions, be predictable going off jumps, have some semblance of reliability in the face of poor maintenance, and be capable of trail riding despite it's MX bias.

GP bikes have very tight, peaky powerbands; this allows them to make much more peak HP. Given just the powerband and super close ratio transmission, a GP bike would be almost unrideable on the street (their version of trail riding). Simply put, the GP roadracers are tweaked much harder than MX bikes.

 

[whenfoxforks-ruled]

So what do you figure? Did they haul the name to china? Is it the usual stuff, and a 900 dollar price tag to boot? Or, is it a quality bike and price tag to match?

 

[Chili]

Your RM's need a fairly broad powerband in order to maintain traction in adverse conditions, be predictable going off jumps, have some semblance of reliability in the face of poor maintenance, and be capable of trail riding despite it's MX bias.

GP bikes have very tight, peaky powerbands; this allows them to make much more peak HP. Given just the powerband and super close ratio transmission, a GP bike would be almost unrideable on the street (their version of trail riding). Simply put, the GP roadracers are tweaked much harder than MX bikes.

The point of the tonque in cheek post was that twice the displacement does not equal twice the HP as a standard rule of thumb.

 

[_JOE_]

So what do you figure? Did they haul the name to china? Is it the usual stuff, and a 900 dollar price tag to boot? Or, is it a quality bike and price tag to match?

I'll take two please! :)

 

[whenfoxforks-ruled]

For 900 or 9000? I tried vainly to get a price, it has been out since last year, 07 anyways? Wonder if a guy could get white plastics? Back in the day, 76? They were nice, expensive parts and hard to get, and no dirtbikes!

 

[Rich Rohrich]

hmm, an authority no less than Kevin Cameron said in the September issue of Cycle World that the 125 GP's - and i paraphrase - "put out in excess of 60 rear wheel horsepower".

Just a quick update on this. In the latest issue of Race Engine Technology magazine (Issue 33) , Neil Spalding (the author of the excellent book MotoGP Technology) wrote a nice article on current 125cc GP technology that directly addresses what we were discussing.

In the article he wrote the following :

"Aprillia has now been using the 125cc RSA motor for two years and officially it develops over 52 bhp and 3 kg/m of torque. The motorcycle it powers is the current weapon of choice in 125cc Grand Prix racing. Like it's rivals the RSA has bore and stroke of 54 x 54.5. Where it differs fundamentally is that it uses rotary disc valve induction albeit with the disc set at 90 degrees to the crankshaft to combine the benefits of disc valve induction control and 'rear of cylinder' breathing."

Neil is talking about crank horsepower not rear wheel numbers.
Aprillia won the 2008 Constructor's Championship with this engine so it's likely that the rest of the 125 GP engines are in the same basic range, mostly lower probably. It's really trick the way Aprillia have the disc valve mounted in the rear of the cylinder. I'll see if I can scan the picture of engine and post it.


Link for Neil Spalding's book on the big MotoGP bikes: http://www.bullpublishing.com/shop/item.asp?itemid=54

 

[Tom68]

KTM Australia has increased its 2009 2 stroke imports by more than 300 additional units for 2009.

 

[OldTimer]

Hey Pred,
Didja read the first line in the Maico ad?

"Whoever said the two stroke was dead, was dead wrong."

He he...
That's you Pred... You're famous!
Well.... riding on Bigfoot's coat tails and all. :cool: