New classes!

Was thinking if and when 2 strokes dissapear from GPs,what would you replace them with?I thought 125 to 250 4 stk twins,250 to 450/500 twins.Much of this tech exists now,Aprilla etc.....what does anybody think,would it still provide good racing?

There was a formula placed by MotoGP for the 125 and 250 class to become for strokes. 250s were to be 600cc machines if I remember correctly and I don't know about the 125s. I don't know when it was scheduled to happen or if it still will.

I'd like to see a 400 class, having owned a 400 myself Maybe then the production manufactures will start rolling out new 400 sports bikes again................a 400 is a great first big bike, a 600 is too fast for most, yet a 125 is too puney..............and no-one wants a 33bhp restricted R6!!

Ben, Thank you! Someone finally understand the necessity of a 400cc sport bike. My uncle started off on a 400 and raced it and loved it and I think I understand why. 600s are just too big for a first big and everything that is of reasonable performace looks like it was built in 1989. A 400cc market would thrive, perhaps more so than the 600cc market.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Ooost @ Jun 27 2005, 02:05 PM)<div class='quotemain'>Ben, Thank you!  Someone finally understand the necessity of a 400cc sport bike.  My uncle started off on a 400 and raced it and loved it and I think I understand why.  600s are just too big for a first big and everything that is of reasonable performace looks like it was built in 1989.  A 400cc market would thrive, perhaps more so than the 600cc market.
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Obsolutly!

Even my wee GSXR400 could do 0-60 in around 3.5, and I had an indicated 135mph (+-10mph) on the clock ........very fast, and great round the twisties!

I didnt want a stroker, and I didnt want to kill myself or my license by hoping on a 600 straight away.

I rekon there would be a huge market for production 400's, they do in the far east.........think I remember seeing a hornet 400, brand new........& very sexy!

Ben.



any police officers reading this, it was on a closed strip so

I've read a rumour about using four stroke 450 1 cylinder engines derived from Motocross bikes, it makes sense, because that way they keep costs down (which is the main problem with swapping to 4 strokes).

But I'm not sure that a Motocross engine is suitable for a road bike, and they would be much less powerful than the current 2 stroke 250 twins.

125cc will go on at least until 2011 and I don't see it disapearing in a near future.

In Japan they got 400cc CBRs, ZXRs and everything !!! Insurance for bikes over 400cc is brutal (by law) and the speed limit is 110 km/h so there's no point in owning ZX-12Rs in Japan.

I gotta get a CBR400 shipped over here.

i seem to remember reding in MCN a good while ago that aprilia had developed a 4-stoke (450? - not 100%) which they claimed was better than their rs250 engine as well as bing more reliable and cleaner (this was said about road going engines but would transfer easilly) - so don't worry teomolca i'm sure if these engines were brought in then the racing would be worthy of our attention. a revival in the 400cc class would be excellent coz the insurance is cheaper the fuel costs r lower and the fun element of wringing a bikes neck to the max (and beyond) makes for good deals on pocket rockets. what about the 250 inline 4's too? - they won't match the good old 2-strokes but some stingy w#ks who bath in champagne reckon that their bad for everybody
450/500 4's replacing 250 2T's & 250 4's replacing 125 2T's? prototype versions too - definatly 1 for the engineers to think about, good way of blooding your junior engineers before the hardships off motogp

Aprilia did indeed develop a 450 V-twin 4 stroke, they used it in the Supermoto championship last year with some success. They intended to use it too for Motocross, but they had many problems, this year I think they are still using it, but their results are not convincing.

I don't see 400cc 4 cyl 4 stroke prototypes to sub the current 250cc 2s a viable option, that would be very expensive. Private teams will not be able to afford it.
And a 8 bike grid is not acceptable.

If the engines are made affordable by being based on Super Moto or Motocross platforms wouldn't that entice some private teams to make the switch? Also they could have rules similar to 2002 in MotoGP, where both 4 and 2 strokes are legal, when you had factory 4 strokes and satelite and private 2 strokes. However there is a very good chance that it would be too expensive for a lot of private teams and the 250 and 125 classes are made up of mostly just that, private teams.

The problem with Motocross engines is that they're all 1 cylinder (except Aprilia) so they would be much less powerful than the current 250cc 2 strokes.
250cc is supposed to be the last step before MotoGP. Currently going from a 120 hp 250cc to 250hp MotoGP is a big step, coming from a 450cc motocross (70 or 80hp) engine, the step would be too big.

Although they idea would be fine for the 125cc category (around 60 hp now).

Something more similar to a MotoGP is needed. Supersport bikes would be a good solution, but they can't be used in World Championship because they are not prototypes and Flamini (World SBK) has got the exclusive rights for road-derived bike racing.

400cc 4 cyl prototipes would have the correct power and weight (around 150hp), they would be a good learning phase for future MotoGP riders. But Aprilia will not want that, they are not in the same 4 stroke tech level as the Japanese companies, so they would veto the proposition.

It's a difficult problem to solve.

That's unfrotunate, it would certainly give the younger riders a bit more of an understanding for MotoGP bikes compared to making the jump from 2 to 4 stroke machinery.