Lots of crazy news over the weekend at Anaheim, including the Thursday announcement that the Lawrence family had parted with agent Lucas Mirtl, to Monster Energy/Pro Circuit Kawasaki bumping Drew Adams into the pros on Friday afternoon, to Jorge Prado going down with a shoulder injury on Saturday. Oh, and great racing!
Yet, even with all of that, there was another piece of news arguably more surprising than any of that. Kawasaki is going to make a new two-stroke!
Annnd that's about all we know. Kawi posted the following to its own social media and we snapped it up to repost on ours.
Well, it says two-stroke and they threw in the two-stroke sounds. So that's confirmation. Later on Saturday, Kawasaki's PR team was cruising around shooting some reaction videos from industry types. So, they're not denying it. But they're also not providing any other information.
So, we had to snoop around a bit. What did we learn? Steve Matthes says he did some digging and found out this is definitely supposed to be a real racing bike and not some sorta' beginner's machine. Matthes also heard two other tidbits: It's a 300cc two-stroke and it won't be out for "awhile."
We don't know how to define "awhile." And we're not sure the 300cc thing is truly legit, but, people can dream right?
One thing we are pretty sure of is that this will not be a 2005 KX250 put back into production.
Beyond that, the mind wanders when you think about Kawasaki two-strokes. There's the great legacy of the full-sized motocross bikes, the KX125 and KX250, and bringing back (new versions) of bikes like that would really fill some holes in the lineup. The 125, especially, would be a nice bridge for kids moving up from 85s and SuperMinis. Speaking of that, Kawasaki still makes two-stroke minis, but those bikes haven't had major revisions for a decade. Could the minis be in line for updates? Team Green racers would probably love that.
There are even more options out there. There's one other thing we heard Saturday about this new Kawasaki two-stroke, as someone let it slip that "GNCC racers will be happy." So let's say it is a 300cc two-stroke motocross bike. An off-road racing model might be announced right with it.
This just makes the mind boggle more. Beyond the legacy of KX85 and the KX Supermini (currently called the KX112) and the KX125 and KX250, Kawasaki used to sell thousands and thousands more two-strokes with the KDX200 for trail riders. Yes, once we go down this two-stroke rabbit hole, we can only dive deeper. What about a 65? What about a 50 that could battle Cobras and KTMs?
And speaking of that, with KTM's recent financial issues and confirmation that it will be making cuts in bike production, maybe now is the perfect time to jump into the two-stroke market, since KTM is one of the few still carrying that torch. Credit to Yamaha for keeping a two-stroke line, as well. Yes, the Japanese manufacturers can still do it.
But what will it be? We don't know, but we can't wait to find out.
