Another two-stroke on the way out.

[Danger]

From MotorcycleUSA.com:

"In order to concentrate on producing and marketing the best full size four-stroke motocross bikes in the market, Kawasaki has discontinued the distribution of the KX250 in North America. A 2008 model will be available in Europe, Japan, and Australia with the same technical specifications as the 2007 KX250."

I find I'm not even buying many bike mags these days due to them being full of tests on four strokes that I don't have much interest in. When Suzuki announce their last RM250 I will for sure snap one up. Along with a KTM250SX. Four strokes just don't inspire me. The 250's are not much fun and the 450's are too much of a hand full in the woods and don't like the corners in the sand. Good thing that KTM and Yamaha seem still comitted to the two stroke.

[ArcherWC]

tis a sad day indead

[scott411]

the 08 kx250 2 stroke will be in NZ next month,

yanks are stupid,

they stopped the KX125 after 05, but its still avaialbe everywhere else

[Danger]

Scott I thought that the KX125 had now been discontinued after 2007?
I have also heard that Kawasaki have changed their mind about discontinuing the KDX200?

[sAsLEX]

yanks are stupid,

We can narrow that down to Californians are stupid, and the rest of them stupider for following.....

[Paulus]

Sad but I guess the writing has been on the wall for a while (no real updates to the bike). I'd imagine the RM will follow soon. At least Yamaha will have a lot of the market fall into its lap and hopefully that'll keep the YZinger around for a while.

Good to see the 2 stroke enduros doing so well in all the shootouts. Hopefully KTM and Gas Gas will keep them alive for a long while yet.

[scott411]

thier is another shipment of KDX's coming, they were sourced somewhere in else in the world, still not being produced,

KX125 will be avaialbe as an 08 model next month as well

[cheese]

I guess its just the way everythings going.

[Reckless]

Shit it was only last month or so the Kawasaki guy at East Tamaki told me Kawasaki had no intentions of stopping the 2smoke 250.

I rode my mates brand new WR450 (with a yz plastic kit) at the Woodhill day yesterday it felt tight etc but just didn't have the sting of my CR250. It was smoother and more sedate for going through the trees etc. But my over all impression was that Id miss the extra wack I get from the CR even though I've fitted a fly wheel weight etc. I'd like to try it at Ardmore or on the Kimis track to see what it was like there. The seat postion was a bit lower which was better then the CR, as its quite tall and sometimes I hit the dirt when going slow simply because I run out of leg length to jab it upright again. For all you guys with 2001 or similar bikes I thought there wasn't 8 grands worth of difference between the 2 now that Danger has done the forks and I've fitted the flt wheel weight. Another thing to remember is I've just recond both the Cr125 and Cr250 for a total of $350-00 odd dollars, thats 2 bikes.

[Factoryjohn]

Face it guys the two stroke is finished. Don't blame the Californians, the main reason they're winding down production is the simple fact 4 strokes are better.
When was the last time a 2 stroke won a World Enduro or MX championship?

[Paulus]

Face it guys the two stroke is finished. Don't blame the Californians, the main reason they're winding down production is the simple fact 4 strokes are better.
When was the last time a 2 stroke won a World Enduro or MX championship?

Maybe not a world championship but they cleaned house in the 07 Erzberg Enduro.

How can lighter, cheaper, quieter, more powerful and more reliable be worse? Just because they put out a little more pollution - how much really do competition dirt bikes contribute to global pollution? 1/10000th of a percent? Less? Thankfully the Euros are still making them.

[cheese]

Face it guys the two stroke is finished. Don't blame the Californians, the main reason they're winding down production is the simple fact 4 strokes are better.
When was the last time a 2 stroke won a World Enduro or MX championship?

You're not comparing apples with apples.

4 stroke you use a 450 against a 250 2 stroke. I know that they just changed the rules here so that you can race a 250 2 and 4 stroke together, but a 450 4/ v 250 2/ isn't really the same is it. I know some of the bikes review similar, but you still have 200 extra cc's belting about which is going to give you more power.

[Danger]

Face it guys the two stroke is finished. Don't blame the Californians, the main reason they're winding down production is the simple fact 4 strokes are better.
When was the last time a 2 stroke won a World Enduro or MX championship?

Oh boy, don't turn this into yet another 2 vs 4 stroke debate. Just realise that there is a large amount of people that prefer the 2 strokes and don't want to see them dissapear. Same as some people prefer 4 strokes for different reasons, and I'm sure they are pleased that they have improved in the last 10 years. The modern 4 stroke has really revived the dirt bike scene for many people. But we just want the choice.

[scott411]

Face it guys the two stroke is finished. Don't blame the Californians, the main reason they're winding down production is the simple fact 4 strokes are better.
When was the last time a 2 stroke won a World Enduro or MX championship?

when the rules were fair, they cleaned up

[takitimu]

I'm no engineer, but it seems to me if you look at the Evinrude E-Tec 2/ which has lower emissions than any 4/ outboard, then the bike companies could clean up the 2/'s with some form of direct injection, at that point california let's them back in & everyone can again pick the / count that suits them , which would be great.