Four-Stroke Articles
The friendliest face of motorcycling
“Hey look, it’s a grown man on a 50cc scooter!” Laugh all you want, but this grown man is getting 117mpg, parking anywhere he wants, carrying his laptop under the seat and cutting through traffic, all for $1,999. If transportation is your only goal, and you’re moving through a dense urban environment, you seriously can’t do better than the new Honda Metropolitan 50. Photos: Alfonse Pal...
05 June 2012
The next great Honda?
A list of awesome things: Honda CBR250R, riding off-road, low prices, accessible performance, lightweight bikes. Now imagine combining all those into a single product. We give you this new Honda CRF250L. Currently planned for Asia and Europe only, Thai manufacturing could, like that CBR, bring it to America at an incredibly small amount of money. Accessible, affordable and desirable, could this be...
13 April 2012
23 photos of the fully liveried KTM Moto3 racer in action
These photos mark the first time we’ve seen the KTM Moto3 racer in all its fully-painted, ready-to-race glory. Including the rider, this tiny gem weighs just 326lbs and is powerd by a 250cc, four-stroke single making something in the region of 54bhp. Lap times are still slightly slower than the 125cc two-strokes its replacing, but Moto3 has yet to see even its first race, which will occur next m...
20 March 2012
Custom: Ellwood Two-stroke/Four-stroke Hybrid
Conceived in Siberia after an unfortunate encounter with a dentist's ultra-sound machine and 100 days of 'medicinal purpose' Vodka, the Ellwood Hybrid is as strange and crazy as its maker, John Ellwood. Essentially a greatest hits of internal combustion, it breathes through the crank cases with reed (one-way) valves and uses the underside of the piston as a sort of supercharger to compress air and...
23 August 2011
68 high-res pictures of Italian teenage hotness
No, this isn’t the RSV4, it’s the Aprilia RS4. The difference is three cylinders, 874cc and 165bhp. The point is that European teenagers, restricted by tiered licensing, can ride this superbike-alike and, soon, so will Americans. Later this year, the four-stroke, 125cc sportsbike will be imported to America, where it won’t benefit from enforced capacity or power caps, but where we hope it wi...
02 June 2011
KTM 350 EXC-F in action
The 2011 KTM 350 EXC-F is significant because it represents a third way between the horsepower of a 450 and light weight of a 250, claiming it combines the power of the former with the weight of the latter. We scooped it along with the rest of the 2011 KTMs back in October, so figured we should be the first to bring you action photos and more info too. Photos: Freeman G./KTM This is a factory ...
09 February 2011
News
The Moto3 rulebook
Here it is, the rules that will transform grand prix racing’s smallest class from two-stroke 125s to four-stroke 250s. Other than the obvious two-stroke-racing-dying thing, this appears to be a change for the better. Costs will be controlled through the use of spec components and attainable parts, which should mean better racing, more competition across the field with rider skill, not team budge...
08 November 2010
News
2012, the two-strokepocalypse
The end of the two-stroke motorcycle is nigh. Word from this weekend's Dutch Grand Prix is that the 125 GP formula will be swapped for four-stroke 250cc engines in 2012 or 2013 and the class will be renamed Moto3. According to MotoMatters, these engines won't be based on existing 250cc four-stroke motocross engines, but will instead use an 81mm bore, effectively making them a one quarter of a 1,00...
26 June 2010