Rich Rohrich said:
you provide nothing to this type of thread other than simple parroting of third person " my friend's cousin's brother knew a guy" horror stories with no details, or the standard two-stroke zealot knee jerk response like you posted above.
Your insistance on constantly piping in with nothing useful is getting really OLD.
If you would bother to look you'd see I'm one of the few who has bothered to document some very specific issues with specific current four-strokes. Unlike you, I'm actually QUALIFIED to answer Birken's questions.
Rich:
First, did I represent myself as knowing as much as you in another life?
Second, I have received several complements on the usefulness of my posts, but you are entitled to your opinion. Apparently some here think I "pipe in" with useful things on occasion. And BTW, the other day I actually recommended a 4 stroke to a fellow on here - and I did not try to discourage my friend from getting the new 250f - he's got the money, knowledge, time and discipline to keep it going for years. If that's the way he wants to go, there's a 99% chance he'll have a fine bike for quite some time.
The point I was trying to make with the initial, sarcastic post is that most 4 stroke guys (and I do not deny that 2 stroke guys like myself are/have been biased as well) go on and on about how great the 4 strokes are, but when someone asks what the problems with them are, in many cases the response is a lot of crickets chirping - unless a 2 stroke guy posts something critical, then the 2 stroke guy will get flamed.
To prove my point, Birken asked for stories about 4 stroke problems at about 10:15 - and still 6 hours later the only two stories are from 2 stroke guys - one experiential and one anecdotal.
I don't recall EVER seeing a 4 stroke MX guy admit that if there were no double displacement advantage rule in MX, he'd be on a 2 stroke. I suppose those posts exist, but I haven't seen them. The refusal by many to acknowledge that gets "really OLD" as well.
And Rich, till YOU basically told me to shut up, I made no reference to YOU. I highly respect your knowledge of motorcycles, as you may have noted in the past, when I have sought your information and advice - and I would do so again should the need arise - you were VERY helpful on the fuel issues.
I
have bothered to look at your posts on numerous occasions, and I am well aware of the specific problems you have documented re: the 4 strokes and especially your fuel articles. I've read quite a bit of it, and I have used them to discuss the problems with others - to the point of printing them so others can read them.
Yeah Rich, I get it - I know nothing about motorcycle engines compared to you - and as noted, I have never represented that I do. You are the all-knowing god of motorcycle knowledge compared to me (and I am not being sarcastic here - that's a compliment). With the exception of Eric, I don't know of anyone else I would sooner ask a difficult engine question.
In fact, in the initial version of my first response to your telling me to shut up, I had a whole paragraph basically bowing down to you precisely because I know I don't know much at all about motors experientially. I took it out for brevity and because I thought you'd get the point. You get the equivalent in this paragraph.
And BTW, I provided details of my friend's RMZ250 in another post last week and saw no need to repeat it in this thread. Suffice it to say the bike is, in his words, "the biggest piece of junk I've ever seen."