GasGas and the future of 2-strokes

[Berkyboy]

It's always interesting working with Boni, the man behind the GasGas two-stroke engine, from the GasGas factory and this North American WEC trip, as usual, has been very rewarding so far.

Boni loves to talk GasGas motorcycles and his technical knowlege about GasGas two-strokes is incredible.

We've had a busy couple of days here in New York and last night, after the Hancock, NY, WEC closing ceremonies, he and I shared a couple of "ice cold Buds" and talked shop.

After a couple of beers our conversation turned to the future of two-strokes and he assured me that GasGas will me the stricter European Homologation emission rules that will require two-strokes to run on an oil mixture of no greater then 1%, or 100 to 1.

He stated GasGas has succesfully been running two-strokes motors at 100 to 1 ratios for years and that given proper jetting thay have run stock GasGas 200, 250 and 300 engines (with the current stock cases, cranks, connecting rod bearings, piston, rings, reeds carb etc.) with out crank bearing failures at oil ratios of as little as .03 percent.

Of course he could not varify or deny if the 08's will be able to run with 1% oil mixtures but he said they have succesfully run engines for hundreds of hours under load on dynos without any troubles. The only exception was the GasGas 125 motor which is still in development.

To make my above statement clear, he did not say that the '08 GasGas will run with 1% oil mixtures he has said that they have been able to do it.

It's also interesting to share some of our tuning tricks with him and this week he will get a chance to ride one of our MC250 / EC300 hybrids complete with a Rekluse clutch, some LTR goodies and RB Designs carb mod to mention a few.

So far he's reluctantly given the thumbs up (remember they have been working on similair improvemets as well and he jokingly hates to admit that someone else, especially a group of Americans, came up with something that works) to the LTR impeller, Motion Pro throttle cables, ceramic main bearings and the RB designs carb mods (although he had to rejet a little to meet his standards.)