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Anyone ever done a trip on a 2-stroke?? Anyone ever done a trip on a 2-stroke??
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Equipment Reviews Post YOUR REVIEWS of ANY Motorcycle, Camping or Travel Equipment and accessories. Tell us what worked and didn't work for you!
Photo by Ellen Delis, Lagunas Ojos del Campo, Antofalla, Catamarca

I haven't been everywhere...
but it's on my list!


Photo by Ellen Delis,
Lagunas Ojos del Campo,
Antofalla, Catamarca



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  #16  
Old 29 Mar 2008
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Quote:
Originally Posted by PocketHead View Post
nothing wrong with 2 strokes!! arghhh I have seized the piston on my RM250, very frustrating as I am trying to save for my trip! I have removed the top end and the piston is shattered (I too am shattered), bottom end was fine at first and then that seized too! A part broken off the piston must have fallen down there and jamming it, I think I will take it into the shop to have the bottom end looked at because I don't have the tools.
Yep, I can relate to that - I seized the RD in the main street of Nairobi, 600km down the road after ingesting a little water whilst river crossing on the way to Lamu.

The bottom of the pistons broke off where the windows are for the crankcase injection intake ports.

I ended up buying new pistons from Yamaha in Nairobi and rebuilt the motor in my $2 a night el cheapo Nairobi hotel room.....

but get this....

On that same river crossing I'd lost my tool kit (yep in the river ), and I took the complete motor apart, and rebuilt it, using just a spark plug socket spanner, an allen key, shifting spanner and pliers.

Two strokes are amazingly simple to work on.

Garry from Oz.
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  #17  
Old 29 Mar 2008
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Kawasaki AE80
Hi there,

15 yrs. ago we travelled through Westafrica on a Kawasaki AE80. Some 5k km without any problems, usual maintenance understood. I had a Yamaha Tenere, my wife drove a two stroke. Nothing wrong with that...
Read the german "Tourenfahrer" 1/2 1993...

Harti
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  #18  
Old 2 Apr 2008
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If you look around the world at all the l
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  #19  
Old 4 Apr 2008
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Thumbs up Two-Stroke Touring!
Norwegian Ed B. Larsen Rides two-stroke all year round. 2 days ago he got a "new" russian IZH Planeta 350. A year ago he started riding a Minsk 125, covered 38.000 kms since then. That bike replaced his Jawa 350 after a crash. The Jawa covered 140.000 kms. He has done several trips in East-Europe and Russia. The Jawa did Oslo - Irbit - Oslo, 9000 kms in 4 weeks. No bikeproblems at all.

Take a look:

LANGTUR TIL BANDITTSTAT PÃ… MINSK 125 - mc24.no

Ed and Martin touring Moldovia om Minsk and Jawa:

http://www.nmcu.org/tur/turforslag/lett_mc_moldova.pdf

Two-Stroke Touring is no problem
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  #20  
Old 9 Apr 2008
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As a veteran MZ aflictee I can say there are good points and bad points. Keep the timing and carburation right and you'll be fine. Let them go wrong and you'll be walking until you get a new piston! Don't worry about decokes so long as you can get decent synthetic stroke oil, but carry a head gasket in places where they use old engine oil etc. if you are planning on more than a few months riding.

Fuel range would be my only real issue, but I know the mechanicals.

In 15 years and probably 100,000 Km of riding MZ's as fast as they'll go I've siezed one. That was new to me and was on a trial run to find the bugs! I still rode it 70 miles home after putting a can of coke down the plug hole to free it and used it for work for a month before the new bits turned up.

If it looks right for you, go for it and enjoy.

Andy
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  #21  
Old 13 Sep 2008
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Talking vespa trip up the himalayas
2 weeks trip, i had a 150cc 4 stroke Hero Honda i'm glad to say but of the 4 bikes with us one was a 125 Vespa. Trashed it up and down the Himalayas for 2 weeks without problem. The best bit was watching Indian filling station guy adding diesel engine oil to mix with the petrol, i guess he'd ran out of Putoline MHX ;-) Didn't cause any problems what so ever. Worth remembering that oil is oil (pretty much) if you run out of options.
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  #22  
Old 24 Nov 2008
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Hi,
in 2004, i made a good ride to my hometown Ankara,Turkey to England (for Jawa&Cz Owners Club 50th anniversary meeting) with my two stroke 350cc Jawa (dualsport, converted by me). with any problem.
total km was little more than 7000Km. it was fantastic ride.
i used good synthetic 2t oil, good far east tires some spare parts that i'd never need them.
cheers
moderen
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  #23  
Old 5 Dec 2008
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I guess it would depend on:

1) Where you are going
2) What bike you are using.

I don't know a lot about the RM250 but.... a couple of years back my brother and I rode around Oz on PX200 Vespas (2-strokes). Decent 2 stoke oil was hard to come by in a lot of places. You could find machine type 2 stoke i.e for chainsaws, etc but few name brands which i'm not a fan of. We were also suported by Castrol and could only get it in boxes of 8litre bottles. This provided us with some entertainment playing 'where can I stash this'. Were we not supplied it though, I would have still bought quite a bit and taken it with me.

On the plus side... the engines were dead simple to work on/service/fix

The PX isn't too highly strung so as long as the autolube tank was filled and a dash added to the fuel tank we could sit with the throttle pinned for hours on end with no hint of seizure... and they smell nice too
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  #24  
Old 5 Dec 2008
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Originally Posted by greystoke View Post
Decent 2 stoke oil was hard to come by in a lot of places. You could find machine type 2 stoke i.e for chainsaws, etc but few name brands which i'm not a fan of.
Yes, I know what you mean greysmoke. The first 3 words I learnt in German were "zwei takt ol".

In Africa, I gave up trying to find it and just used the cheapest motor oil I could find, as this is what the locals did. It didn't seem to do any harm and the bike ran just as well as ever.

Garry from Oz.
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