It was a dark day when Kawasaki discontinued the 2-stroke back in 2007. I cried. Our writers cried. The world cried. Collectively, we bemoaned Team Green killing our favorite brappy-bois, though we understood that it's hard to build an environmentally neutral 2-stroke and make a profit.
Plus, 4-strokes are just so much easier to deal with on a maintenance level, too.
But according to Kawasaki, enough people were sad when the 2-strokes of its lineup went away, it's been working on something in secret. Something secret and fun. Something with a "2" and "strokes". Something that, as Kawasaki puts it, "everyone's been asking for." Yep, you guessed it, Kawasaki is buying Yamaha's snowmobile business!
Just kidding, it's bringing back its 2-stroke dirt bikes. Woohoo!
Here's all Kawasaki's teaser press release states, "Kawasaki teases new two-stroke model currently in development." That's all we get, well, apart from the video embedded above with a distinctive 2-stroke rev in the background of a host of social media posts asking the company for a new model.
But I'm impressed that Kawasaki has been able to develop a new 2-stroke model in such secret. We're pretty good bloodhounds when it comes to patent discoveries here at RideApart and we haven't found anything in recent memory indicating that Kawasaki was developing a new 2-stroke engine. We've found EV patents, but nothing that braps.
I'm also surprised that Kawasaki is even bringing out a new 2-stroke as, honestly, I thought we're almost at the point of 2-stroke extinction. With tightening emissions restrictions around the world—though they may be loosened here in the US in the coming weeks and years, but likely won't stand past an administration or two—the 2-stroke engine is on death's door. And designing and manufacturing a new engine platform, one that'd only reside in a handful of models doesn't seem to make good financial sense.
Yet, if Kawasaki thinks it can market, sell, and turn a profit, then I'm sure it will. Let's just hope it sticks around for some backwoods and sweet-sweet roller fun.
