Quote:
Originally Posted by karlosdajackal
Don't take my word for it re the 2 stroke 
http://www.125ccsportsbikes.com/foru...howtopic=31334
For the 4 stroke that engine is well over specified for the power its gonna produce, which even if they could get 100 bhp out of, it would ship with 14.5bhp to meet regulations. How much gain is anybodies guess but aprilla made a lot of money in the past from having a legal 125cc bike that could be tuned quite easily into something a lot more fun. They knew full well that these restriction laws are near impossible to enforce. As far as a cop is concered if it looks like a wolf in sheep's clothing, they have to treat it as a sheep.
This is a full power rs125, you can see it indicates 160km/h which is 100mph, assume the same inaccuracy as our ninja speedo's, another vid on youtube shows one doing 174km/h which is 108mph!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r5zP0...eature=related
I was thinking of picking up a 2nd hand one of these |
I totally believe the 2 stroke can do it. That's well within their range at that 125CC.
In regard to the over engineered 125 with restrictions. That would be a great idea though it seems a little too forward thinking for the American market. Why sell me one bike that will last me 5 years when it's more profitable to try to sell me 5 bikes over 5 years.
I agree that detuning a 500CC single down to 14.5 HP would make more sense ,lower prod cost due to only needing to mod the motor and re-brand the body work. I wish more manufacturers would do that. Instead of the foolish resleeve they did to the ninja 650 to make the ninja 400.
I guess what bothers me the most is that very few companies stick with known good parts. Why redesign a wheel to look slightly different, have slightly different dimensions yet perform and weight roughly the same? The ex500 and the ex250 should have had many common components. Kawasaki could have saved a good % by doing so. Even at large scale production, there is a difference between carrying 2 different versions of the same thing. Shipping, lower order volume so higher pricing, extra inventory space, and the burden of other parts that are also different due to the first different part ( different fork leg makes for different rotor, caliper, fender, ect.
Best part is a redesign of one could more readily allow the redesign of the other.
Anyway, I think the better thing to keep an eye out for is what the engine dimensions are on the new Aprilla 125. If you can swap in a 250 or 500 then you have yourself a perfect bike. Street capable supersport that is fuel efficient.
Bob