2015 Husky idea

I agree. Most guys want the biggest/baddest things. Doesn't mean you can ride them faster, just means you have a b ad bike.

When you go get a truck, are you gettin a V6 in it or a Hemi? Most will get the Hemi.

So let's get a 430 or 500 2st and I bet they sell like hotcakes.

When the owners say "get back to their roots" it appears to me they mean KTM roots so if you guys are wishing for a big bore 2 stroke you should be looking back at the KTM engines sorry to say. Not knocking KTM but all my readings of the old talk and new talks brings me to a different conclusion and that being KTM based products totally.

True, a modern 300 makes all the power you really need. However, there is a certain mystique about a 500cc two stroke. CR500 and KX500 af's still sell. Plus I don't care what anyone says, a big 500cc RULES in the sand! If team Kawasaki still ran a KX500 in the desert, it would still dominate. I think with more cc's you have more headroom to tune the power characteristics while keeping tons of torque. Again, just my two cents, I think having a modern 500cc 2 stroke would not only fill a niche, but just create a ton of industry buzz

So, you think that the Kawasaki factory team, plus a TON of guys out there who are racing as privateers, are simply cloosing not to run a KX500 because they don't want to win?

No way. If a KX500 would still win in the desert, people would still be racing on them. Racers race to win, they don't purposely pick slower equipment. The 500s were cool bikes but their time has passed.

Okay, let me be a little more specific. If Kawasaki continued to build and sell a modernized KX500, it would still win. They all race the 450 because well, that's what all the factories sell. Lets face it, they're still heavy and those motors are an EXPENSIVE time bomb. The big KX dominated dez racing in the mid to late 90's till Kawasaki pulled the plug on their race efforts. And I guess by sand I mean dunes. Nothing can beat a big two stroke up a huge dune.

I agree that a big 500 doesn't really make sense for most types of riding. I ride my 250 90% of the time. But riding motorcycles isn't always about practicality, it's about adrenalin and passion, and for me and some others, nothing beats the rush of pointing a 500 in a straight line or towards a huge hill and pulling the trigger

Only a blokes with big balls could ride a 500 2t
So the japs stopped making them

add on, rode some baja set up KX500s, when setup well-blueprinted and balanced, with well tuned suspension and especially the ones with heavier add-on flywheels. These were actually quite smooth, still high power, but with those high gears and heavy flywheels they were "4 stroke like"

They need to produce bikes that sell so they will stay in business this time

thats a 50cc junior model for you in usa so peewee's can ride the same as dads motor.

Rasputin - do some research and educate yourself , just, that little bit.

250cc twin 2ts, in their final years, were getting well over 100 HP at the rear wheel. The Aprilia / Gilera, somewhere between 110 /120. "Rumour" had it, that the "favoured riders" were into the 120+ mark. Standard rs250r Hondas, that you could purchase, had 92PS / 90.74HP @ 12,500rpm and 52.3NM 12,000rpm , or more, and they were completely uncompetive, at high levels. You'd have to fork out a lot of money for at least basic kits, and even more bags of money, given to noted tuners. Pedrosa's Honda, was reputed to have 109 HP at the rear wheel. In 2005. Goodness knows what Hiroshi Aoyama's 250 had, in the last year of 250 GPs - sure, it just used Pedrosa's spare parts....... Anyone that think's Honda did not 'help' in the background, to win the very final 250GP Championships (that they'd had a large hand in killing off) - well, I've got a prime bit of real estate a few Ks away from me, on Single Ridges Road, Yellowrock, going that's perfectly safe in bushfires, that you might just want to pay through the nose for............... (insensitive, Moi? - nope, just having ridden in the Blue Mountains as my 'back yard" for decades, and saying, rather loudly, at various council meetings, that houses should never have been built in so many areas, we are now in the middle of a few hundred of those houses burning).

If you want to 'play with numbers', then knock the total down a smidge? - I've given you some numbers above to play with, go for it. So, 2,4 x say, 90.74HP, of a 'garden variety' rs250r, from over 1/2 a decade ago = 217.776. I've used the 'gutless' 250 number, to make up for any error / fudge factor within the simple 2.4 multiplier.

Seriously, are you that uniformed about 2 strokes? Are you that locked into the 4-$ Stroke delusion?

The NSR500vs were produced between 1996 to 2001 - I think first "for sale" ones were in 97. Apparently, only 20 /22 full bikes were made, but, of course, more engines were made. Still, they were a sold item - not a leased bike, and quite a few still exist, in private hands.

So, another set of numbers for you to play with - Honda gave out specs of 135HP @ 10,250rpm, in 1997, I think. Over a decade and a half ago, with a VTwin, reed valve 2t, with 2 x 40mm Keihin carbs. So, go 'click, click' on a calculator, with a 1.2 multiplier = 162 HP, with a 103KG weight. Give thought to just what a small amount of 'progress' that could be applied to that 'base' power unit would bring to those figures.

Exagerating makes you look foolish, to me. And, my understanding your point? Understand this point - educate yourself, and you'll become more knowledgable, if you take it in.

Yup, Moto 2 Racing ( and, 'lower down', Supersports World Championships - hence my referal to 600cc 4s and 675cc triples - that have more HP, still, I think, than Honda's 'spec' 600CBR engines in Moto 3) - cutting edge 'mid' ( and there's a very visible joke on what racing has become, even at 'near' the highest level ) capacity Road Race GP competition.

It's a bloody sad state of affairs, I think. Just as 250cc 4t and 450cc 4t racing is. Handicap class racing, it's as simple, and 'sorry,' as that .

300cc 2ts? Quite the weapon, but, in a tip to old, old FIM rules that banned simple overbores of 250 2ts, as they started to 'swamp' the big 4ts in the mid / late sixties, I'd like to see more than just overbored 250s being used, in a real, Open / or 'up to 450cc' class. When private owners, through the use of existing companies, and existing parts, can make their 250cc KTMs into up to 434cc bikes, I'd like to see Manufacturers oblidge to make more of an effort, that just overboring a 250. In the 500 class days, over the years, many different sizes, were run against each other. Husky owners / officienado's, surely would know that. There was no 'universal solution', until the dieing days of the 500 class, which, of course, then allowed up to 650 cc 4ts in. The faster / easier to ride 'privateer' Honda 500s, right up till the CRF 450R was realeased - well, quite a few of them were debored etc, down to 400 /430 cc.

I remember in the 60's when top Yamaha riders would race their 250 2T bikes in the 350 race, to get the start money. They would then drop out, as not to get technical scrutiny, if they had finished.

500 and larger 2T singles are just a "Buzz" producer.... if they had any real potential at this time, Maico would be the market leader!

i swear kawasaki did a 720 2 stroke, h2 so yeh if big cc was viable then we would still have the option to buy one, manufactures dont support a dead market too often.