‘The MotoGP murders’

‘Nothing beats the sound of a two-stroke’

Two-strokes are celebrated elsewhere in this week’s MCN. Sadly not, however, in the sports pages. Their shrieking skirl is a distant memory; a generation of riders (and fans) have never experienced a twostroke coming on song.

A modern MotoGP bike extracts upwards of 230 horsepower per litre, with fearsome technical complexity, mechanical and electronic. The metallurgy of the bearings for the whirling shafts, the striking and sliding surfaces, is marvellous. And expensive, in every way. Meshing gears transfer rotary motion up to cams and back through the gears. Pistons and valves reciprocate at huge speed; complex pneumatics serve as springs, unless the surgical accuracy of desmodromics is in place. The fit of highly-stressed parts is microscopically accurate. Two-strokes, by contrast, had a similar specific power output more than 30 years ago. Only the pistons reciprocated; the only valves were simple open-or-closed intake reeds and vaguely approximate and relatively static objects varying the size and timing of exhaust ports. The engines were more compact and vastly lighter, with none of the top-heavy apparatus of cams and valve gear. With consequent huge handling benefits.

All this was lost to racing when Dorna, hand in hand with the Japanese industry, murdered twostrokes. Or was it the market that did so – led by misguided anti-pollution regs and misinformed customers? Much was lost to racing in the process, including a potentially vitally important role in developing a modern generation of clean-burning road-going two-strokes. Compared with a current superbike, these would be lighter, faster, handle better, be cheaper to build and easier to maintain.

Proton rider Jeremy McWilliams speaks for many about the simple benefits. “So many fewer moving parts and less material – in itself a huge manufacturing cost.

“And to ride… I wish they were still racing them, and have them on the roads. Nothing beats the sound of a two-stroke.”

Proton engineer Tom O’Kane, taxed with the same ideas, remained philosophical. “Well, that’s how it goes. If the Beatles had gone another year before they split up, who knows what would have happened?”

But he allowed there would be many in racing to agree to my proposition: there’s just one big thing wrong with MotoGP bikes. They’re not two-strokes.