2023 Two Stroke vs Four Stroke Dirt Bike Battle

It's the eternal battle, the fight that just won't go away. Two-stroke versus four-stroke. Today we're going to find out which is best. We're here at Fat Cat Motorpark for the United in Dirt Gas Gas event where they're launching all of their 2023 models across the entire range. There's, yeah, driver bikes, trials, supermoto bikes and of course the motocross bikes which we're really interested in. The entire range 125, 250, 350, 450, 250 four-stroke. You know Sean, he's our resident test rider. He's been out there today hitting the track on all of the bikes and of course we did some past laps in here Sean to work out which is best for the normal racer, the weekend warrior. As you know, Sean races more than anyone on this planet. So we're here today to try and work out which is fastest, two-stroke versus four-stroke in the little class and the big class. Let's start with the little class. Sean, you rode both of the bikes, the MC125 and the 254 stroke. Give us your thoughts and feelings on each of those bikes in the MX2 class. Let's start with the 125. I've not ridden a modern 125 in a long time. Jumped on it and thought straight away it's just a fun bike. Straight away, you know, just within a few corners felt very planted. I felt stable, punchy, punchy power out of it. Off the bottom, revved hard. Really, really good. Really good. Came with a smile on your face. There wasn't anything where I thought, no, that's not very good. It was just exceptional. Because it's deep out there. The fact is, if you don't know a deep, sandy track, it can suck power. But you felt good out there on it. Yeah. Yeah. Very good. Yeah. It's very punchy, very powerful. I was surprised. Yeah. And lots of fun. Lots of fun. So then you rode that literally back to back on the 254 stroke. When you made that jump, what was the first thing that went through your head? The first thing, when I jumped on that 250, was it didn't feel as planted. It felt a bit sketchy on the front. That was the first thing I noticed. The 125 felt so planted into the ground. Once I got going and got dialed in, obviously, you get the feel of it and everything comes back. But then first initial few corners, I did actually think, Cor, this is a, you know... Which is surprising, because you do ride a two-position race bike. Yeah, I do. And I was massively surprised. You know, didn't think it would feel like that. But, you know, you get yourself dialed in and familiar and work out what it does and what it don't do and how the suspension's working. And then you feel at home and, yeah, you're on the gas. So moving on to the fast laps then in the MX2 class. Before we have a look at the GoPro footage and look at the lap times, what bike do you think, because you don't know the results yet, I don't know the results yet, which bike do you think you put a fast lap around the fat cat practice track today? That's a really tough call. Because the 125, I could have rode that all day. So much fun on it. Well, you did your fast laps at lunchtime and everyone's going, there's more than one lap each day. It was like someone had to go and drag you off. Yeah, they did. But it was so enjoyable. And it's so consistent, lap after lap after lap. You could just bash them out. But the 125, it always feels like you're going faster than it, because of the way they are. You're shifting gears, you're moving about, and you feel active on the bike all the time. So it feels really fast compared to the 250F. You don't have to work as hard. But the 250F was quick. It was quick. So it's very, very hard to call when you're sitting in. You ain't got a clue. You don't want to be too confident and say one thing and make yourself look stupid. I wouldn't, no. But if I was a betting man, and I'm not, right, I would say I was quicker on the 250F. Yeah, if I was a betting man. Let's find out. Yeah. So first up on track is the MC125. This is the little sibling of the group. Let's see what she's made of. So the clock is on then. And Sean is sending it straight away on the little rip of the 125 here. It does look like he's having fun out there, that's for sure. So as you can see, the track is very dry and very dusty. We're in the midst of a heat wave here in the UK. So we haven't had much water down on the track in the last few days. So that's why it's so dusty. So it's over, John. Might not be the best riding conditions, but it does look good on camera, that's for sure. We've got our main man as well, Dan, the drone man, on the FPV drone here, following Sean all the way around the track. What a cool view this is for a hot lap. Sean just heading over to the back side of the track now. Listen to the MC125 sing down there. So just two corners left to go for Sean on the 125. Strong lap time around the Fat Cat practice track here. Just outside of Doncaster. Here we go, one more jump. Up and over and here he comes to the finish line. It's a 1.27.140 on the MC125. Hitting the track next is the MC250F. Let's see what the four banger is made of then. So it is worth noting that Sean does actually race a 254 stroke week in, week out. That's his typical normal race bike. And it is a KTM, the bike that he rides as well. So be interested to see how comfortable he feels on this MC250F. How fast he can lay down a lap around Fat Cat here. So far so good though. Sean is looking strong on the four stroke. So we're just coming up to the halfway point of the lap. It sounds like Sean is using every cubic inch at his disposable on this machine. Onto the back straight he goes. Two corners left. It's going to be tight. This lap time is going to be close. Which bike is going to pull out the W? Let's find out. So there we go then. It's the MC250F. Just about a second quicker than the 125. Okay, moving on to the big bikes. Two stroke versus four stroke in the MX1 class. Two stroke, 454 stroke. First of all, just compare them for us. What were your thoughts and feelings after riding them back to back? Starting with 252 stroke. So the last time I rode a 252 stroke was a 1997 CR250 alley frame thing. That was a long time ago. You know, rigid as hell. Yeah, not a very good bike. No, no, no. So I didn't know what to expect if I'm honest. I've always shied away from the 252 strokes because, you know, there's that snappy power. And I jumped on it and it blew me away. It was, again, just like the 125. Very stable. The front felt so planted stable, you know, on the track. It felt so good. Because it's deep out there. You can use that power. Do you know what I mean? It didn't want to skid about and it didn't fold the front. Didn't want to push and, you know, tuck under or anything like that. It just felt so planted. So obviously that gives you confidence. So then you can hang it out. What I did notice is you can't hang the gear out. Well, you can, but then you get no more power out of it. So I found I had to short shift to make it work. It revved and it pulled well and it was real good power. But you hit that peak power and then it just went straight flat. No, it didn't drop off. Yeah, it just didn't go anywhere. So you have to shift. That's what I noticed on the 250 more. But again, lots of fun. And you could really, really, really hang it out on the corners with the gas. You know, just keep it wide open. There'll probably be a bit in the footage where you'll see it's just absolutely lit. And you don't have to shut off and just turn it. That's just the grim fact of the night. It was like, and I've not been, like I say, back in 2000, I think, the last time I rode 252 stroke. OK, so then moving on to the 450, back to back again. What were your thoughts when you jumped onto the big dog? The 450, not really a fan of 450s. But you steer away from them usually, don't you? Yeah, I do, yeah. But yeah, it set me at ease. It felt pretty good. I think it helped today with the track because it was deep in places so you could bury it and lose the power. So then you've lost that initial surge of power. Then it's revving. Once it's revving hard, you can hold on to it. It's that initial when you've got that power. With these big bikes, I'm just third gear. I'm a third gear slog. I don't change it out of third and just ram it everywhere. If it works, it works. Yeah, it does. And a bit of clutch and just, yeah, that's it. OK, let's put your money on the table then. What were you faster on? We don't know the results yet, do we? We haven't looked at the footage. I think this one will be an easy one. I think that 252 smoke. You reckon? Yeah, I do. The 450, right, it's fast from point A to B. So whatever. Maybe not like a little bit of the turn after B. No, no. It was quick from jump to jump, from corner to jump. Linking it all together, you lose a bit. Yeah, yeah, yeah. There was some bit, again, you'll see on the footage, there's some bits where that, on that 250, you could like, there's a tabletop through the middle and you could just, as soon as you land, hit that berm and you're wide open all the way around the right hander. But that 450, it's like push you out wide and you know, you have to back off a bit. You're not flowing like. No, and a bit of the back brake to drag it in and yeah, so. Before we jump into the lap time, you rode the 350 as well. Yeah, I did. What do you think of that? The last test we did, the 23 KTM launch, 350 came tops, didn't it? So in the lap time challenge, yeah. I don't know because the 350 that I did today had cone valvetrack shock. So it's something I'm not used to. And it did feel a bit alien, if I'm honest, when I got on it. It's very deceiving, the 350, because it's one of them bikes where you don't think you're going fast, but you're going fast. You know what I mean? So that's a toughie. I'm not a betting man. Let's find out, before we jump into the GoPro laps, let us know in the comments down below, what do you think Sean will be fastest on around the Fat Cat Motorpark circuit here? It's deep, it's sandy, which bike will be best? Let us know. Here we go then. It's the turn of the MC252 Stroke. And that bark sounds deep and powerful. Immediately, Sean is looking good on board the MC252 Stroke. Baring it deep into those dust berms and letting the bike feed. It does look good on camera. My god, does it sound good as well. So the great thing about Sean is he's so consistent. He will always put 110% in every single time he's spent a lap on a bike. And as you can notice, his lines are very similar, almost identical lap after lap, which gives us a great comparison between each of the bikes. Look back straight for the 252, let's listen to her sing. Final corner then. Sean is coming around to complete his hot lap on board the MC252 Stroke. It's 1.26.5, a strong, strong lap time for the 252. Next up, I'm going to pair the MC450 and the MC350 together. Let's see what they can do. So on the left is the MC450, on the right is the 350. The middle child in the MX1 class. Now you can already maybe tell that Sean's a bit more tentative around that corner on board the big 450. Let's see if just the pure might of that engine can make up for that. That's a nice corner from Sean there on the MC450. Looks like he's already got a slight advantage on the big bike then over the 350. So like we mentioned earlier, Sean was actually quicker on the 350 at the 2023 KTM launch compared to the 450. So let's see how this lap turns out. Just three corners left to go in our hot lap showdown. Which bike is going to grab the W, the big win here today? Will it be a two-stroke? Will it be a four-stroke? Let's find out. There we go. The MC250 two-stroke takes the win in the MX1 class. But when we add all of the results together, it's actually the MC250 four-stroke taking the overall result. Right, so there we have it. Once again, you guys know the results and we are oblivious. We have no idea. So look forward to find out. I'm sure you will be texting me. What was it? What was it? What was it? I might make you wait until the edit comes out. I'll be very intrigued to find out what would be the fastest because I felt good on all of them. You said that earlier. I'll say, what bike do you like best? I felt great on all of them. Yeah, all of them. That's a confident rider right there. Yeah, I felt good on all of them. That's a test rider that you need, isn't it? A rider that can just jump on everything and feel comfortable. That's why he's the man for the job. They all done the same thing. Each line you hit, everything you hit, they've done all the same thing. There was nothing where any of them were a bit sketchy. If anything, I would say was a little bit like that was the 350. But I think that's because I'm not used to that suspension setup at all. But the others, nah, you could just ride with your eyes closed. Right, that's the next video then. As always, guys, my name is Max. That's Sean Smith. If you enjoyed this video, be sure to give it a like. Share it with your friends. Subscribe to the channel if you want to see more. Let us know what else you want to see Sean ride in the future. Till next time, we'll see you at the track. Let's go for a fast lap. Here we go. Let's see what happens here. Oh, that's it. Oops. Oh, dear. I have to go round again.