Two Stroke Commuting

[R6_kid:Me]

What are peoples experiences with commuting on TZR/NSR/RGV/RS 250's etc?

Are they really as unreliable as they are made out to be, or is it just a matter of four stroke pride that they seem unreliable in comparison to similar sized/powered four stroke equivalents?

FYI my commute is 20-25km, generally 60-80kmh in the morning, normal motorway speed in the afternoon.

[McWild]

If you give it some revs then all of a sudden your commute gets really awesome, to the extent that you actually look forward to it.


... or so I'm told, I would never accelerate unnecessarily

[tigertim20]

I find it to be sweet as, I have been using the TZR the last few days for everything. I dont think it really makes a great deal of difference, I start the bike, put my boots and jacket on, and grab my helmet and gloves, take a piss, that all takes 2-4 minutes, by which time the bike is warm, and off I go.
I do this on the cbr as well, so there isnt any difference, I dont like riding ANY cold engine. I havent had a problem with the TZR at all, even in peak traffic with all the light stops etc, its been fine

[Str8 Jacket]

Well, I get that you prob want to know about 250's but......

My second bike was a KR150. I used to commute about 10 k's each way each day and it was fine, except for when the wind hit me and blew me over or off the road. This bike did 25,000 k's when I owned it. I did absolutely no engine work except replacing the spark plug. This bike was my little miracle though!

Later on I had an A100 for a non motorway commute, IMO this is (koba's bike now) the best lil commuter. Malcolm does about 50k's a day on it now (no motorway) and has taken over the rimutaka's several times now with no probs.

Quite a few bikes later I bought an RG150 and used to commute on that but I kept blowing it up on the track, on the hill and jsut about every bloody where else! I have taken it off the road and its just a race bike now.

To summarise (IMO): 2 smokers are awesome "fun" bikes. They are not reliable and never will be even with all the meticulous maintenance out there. The engine likes to be thrashed (or maybe not, that's whay they blow on me all the time). On the other hand if you go for a simple 150 water cooled, single then it will be cheap(er) to fix but you may get a little bored of fixing it.
Another good thing about commuting on an RG is the noise they make - the traffic know's you're coming and often let you through on the motorway.

I have now settled for an FXR for commuting. I do about 30k's a day commute and a tank of gas can last for a whopping 285-300k's. The engine is soo simple to understand and work on, its great. It also doubles as a Bucket Racer

[Burtha]

Hubby rides against the traffic and down here that means feet up for the most part easy. He scoots like a mad man collecting 25k per day.
The only thing with his is that he has to use a good quality oil or be prepared to change his sparkplug every 3 months.
But like I said, it is only a scoot.

[gijoe1313]

Daisy my biatch of a RZ250 goes great guns, I treat her harshly and I slap her around ... and she loves it! If you give her any attention, she just demands more and more of it, so you just ill treat her and she laps it up!

Daisy is special

[Str8 Jacket]

Daisy is special

Does she have a brother?!

[imdying]

They handle it fine, but that doesn't mean you should do it... it's a bit like having Megan Fox doing the dishes when, really, she should be bent over and raped stupid.

Don't do it, buy an FXR to commute on.

[R6_kid:Me]

I dont know that i'd enjoy rebuilding Megan Fox, but i sure as hell wouldn't mind a ride!

At the moment I have an 85 CB650 air cooled IL4 which is taking care of my commuting duties, i'm starting to miss the trackday buzz now, and this CB650 doesn't like corners too much!

[The Pastor]

i reckon (based on no 2stroke experiance at all) that a small 2 stroke engine that isnt a race type will be fine, like rg150 etc but when you get more to the rg250/rs250 etc i reckon they wont be suitable to commuting on.

but with all two stroke if you constatly vary the throttle/ RPM you should be sweet.

[Pwalo]

We all used to commute on two strokes back in the day. I commuted about 20ks to school, and later to work on a selection of two stroke singles (TS DT etc), and road bikes (RD, GT etc), without any problems.

Mind you I always carried a spark plug spanner, and a couple of spare plugs. As has been said get the best quality two smoke oil you can, don't thrash the thing from cold (and provided it's not an MVX) you should be good.

[driftn]

Have had a few RGV's in my time and as much as I love them to bits they are unreliable shit heaps for commuting. They are thirsty on gas and oil (have found that its best to run expensive stuff in them to give a little extra life). Also the fact that they dont really enjoy being ridden at low rev's around town.
And then here is the whole rebuilding thing. Should do rings every ten to fifteen thousand kays.
In my opinion the bad far out weighs the good for commuting.
Stick with the cb for to and fro and get a smoker for track days and the week coro gp.

[madbikeboy]

Have had a few RGV's in my time and as much as I love them to bits they are unreliable shit heaps for commuting. They are thirsty on gas and oil (have found that its best to run expensive stuff in them to give a little extra life). Also the fact that they dont really enjoy being ridden at low rev's around town.
And then here is the whole rebuilding thing. Should do rings every ten to fifteen thousand kays.
In my opinion the bad far out weighs the good for commuting.
Stick with the cb for to and fro and get a smoker for track days and the week coro gp.

On the other hand, maybe you deserve owning an RGV.

[Beemer]

My first bike (which was also my only form of transport) was an RG150. I got it new and apart from replacing the spark plugs I never had to do anything other than top up the oil and check the tyres. I did close to 24,000kms on it before trading it in and at that point the power valve was getting a little tired but otherwise it was in really good shape.

I used to ride it to work from Lower Hutt to Wellington every night (about 15-20kms each way) and apart from taking a bit of starting from cold when I left work to go home, it was sweet.

Nice and cheap to run too, and easy to park!