Are two-stroke motorcycles still a rite of passage for young riders?

There was little choice when I was a kid, as we were in the halcyon days of the two-stroke motorcycle. Everything on two wheels that was fast was a two-stroke, be it on or off-road.

The early four-stroke Superbikes were okay and Honda's XR off-road four-stroke range was pretty agricultural. So for performance, two-bangers ruled the roost. From the pure terror of the 500cc GP era, where the bikes were close to 200 horsepower and only 130 kg, to the equally terrifying 500c two-banger MX bikes that could launch you clean over a berm on closed throttle thanks to a little pop from the exhaust.

If you aspired to ride one of these bikes, then you did an apprenticeship accordingly. After you learned to ride a bike (usually a 50cc something or other), you immediately tried to off yourself on a 60cc or (oh lordy) an 80cc motocross weapon.

And weapons they were. The 80’s and 90s era small-capacity two-strokes had all the sophistication of the riders upon them and the subtlety of the flouro colours that were the rage at that time.

You just need to search Youtube for “whisky throttle” for a fair indication of how things were on these machines. Someone once described riding a two-banger hard as being like “boiling milk, you’re either not hot enough and nothing’s happening, or it’s up and over the top”. And while it is a pretty fair description, it really doesn’t convey the terror of a bike that could double torque in just 800rpm of a 10k redline.

This apprenticeship did make the progression to the bigger two strokes bikes (with the exceptions of the murderous bastards that were the 500s) a lot easier as you already knew what it felt like when the Hand of God pushed the seemingly gutless machine forward in a worryingly sudden manner.

There was also the subject of maintenance. While two strokes often need replacement parts, they are also quite easy to work on. This was evidenced when I replaced a set of rings on my newly purchased chemist-delivery-job-paid-for CR125 when I was 16. I undertook this stupid project even after my mechanically-minded father told me “Don’t do it, you’ll bugger it up”. We didn't have a ring compressor and it turned out we didn't need one. Thank God for the tapered cylinders!

Fast forward to today and there are many four-stroke options from the usual Japanese and European suspects, plus some cheaper Chinese options and of course the whole of the second-hand market. For my eldest lad’s first bike, I went with what I knew – a brand-new PW50, mostly for historical reasons. I waited (okay, the Minister for Domestic Injuries made us all wait) until he was six and by then he was already very handy on a pushbike and this formed a solid basis for a motorised future.

Note and note well: get your kids a balance bike. Hell, get them a teeny-tiny one for their first birthday. It is money incredibly well spent as they learn how to actually ride and balance. This will serve as the backbone of their entire bicycle/motorcycle future.

There are also a number of electric balance bikes that serve as perfect starting points for a glorious motorcycling career.

This does somewhat become an incongruous mix. By now we (should) all know that electric motors provide maximum torque at zero rpm, so there are no boiling milk analogies. It’s just twist and go.

Our next bike was a Honda CRF110 and apart from the bent gear input shaft every time the thing went down, it was (and still is) a stalwart of the family bike quiver and frankly a classic Honda four-stroke situation – reliable, easy to maintain, and easy to ride. It’s now been passed down twice and still going very well, and goes even better once you get a bash plate and shift brace.

After our third child was allowed to start riding aged three (yes, I won that battle), he grew a lot and progressed quite well and as a well-known idiot, I bought him a KTM 50SX (COVID times notwithstanding). He took a while to come to terms with this smouldering dragon and was often found buttoning off just as the Austrian Beast was hitting its straps. Those two-stroke powerbands (get a fresh one installed today!) are pretty intimidating, especially when you are only five!

For his then 10-year-old sister however, the KTM was a breath of fresh air. She had grown quite comfortable (read: complacent) on her CRF110 and the arrival of the much smaller capacity but also very angry KTM was a chance to stop pottering about and really let rip. And let rip she did.

My eldest lad had been ‘gifted’ a mid-90s KX80 that was in a pretty sorry state that turned into a fun (also not fun) father-son-daughter project that should have taken six months but actually took a lot more.

Once the KX was ride-ready, my ten-year-old was now twelve and he was ready-ish to take it on. I told him all sorts of tales about the horrors of 80cc two strokes and it worked; he fouled so many spark plugs from lugging about that I bought a pack of 10 and pleaded with him to “just blaze the bloody thing for once!”

The sight of both of my older kids on two-bangers was quite a moving sight for a Gen X-er raised on two strokes. It also brought home a truth about the tuned-up two-stroke I had forgotten: there is no rest. You don't potter around on two-stroke like it’s a postie bike. Both kids would go out and cane the things for 10-15 minutes and then come in for water, a snack and sit-down/screen time. If they went out again, both would opt for a four-stroke and potter (we now have a CRF125 and a CRF250 in the shed).

Around the time my eldest really came to terms with the feisty Kawasaki, he had a massive growth spurt and had gone from an undersized 10-year-old pottering about to a nearly six-foot 14-year-old monstering about on a now seemingly small bike. Stepping to a CRF250 had him understandably worried, but this time I reassured him “If you can ride an 80 properly, you can ride ANYTHING.”

For once, I was right. The torque and user-friendliness of the bigger CRF was much to his liking and before long he was eyeing off my KTM450 as well – the cheeky sod.

All of this brings us back to the question; is a two-stroke still a rite of passage for the younger rider? Of course not! Ride what you want (or can afford). What it has shown me however, is that a diverse range of bikes, conditions and environments are the key to developing your young ‘un into a well-rounded rider.

All that said, I have saved searches on bikesales.com.au for a YZ125cc and a KTM/KX 65cc two bangers. The more things change…