Sports Cycle

The Stroker Age : The Japanese 2 Strokes !

This is one of the last Japanese 2 stroke (road-legal) in the world. 2015 - Kawasaki Ninja 150, or also known as Kawasaki ZX-150.

With the exception of Honda, Japanese manufacturers originally invaded the U.S. market with small, two-stroke motorcycles.

Japan produced mainly strokers, as two-stroke engines are called, ranging from small, 50cc mopeds to Suzuki’s GT750 and Kawasaki’s infamous three-cylinder 750cc H2. Although some of these bikes continued in production until the late 1970s, by the early 1970s, it was clear that increasingly stringent air-quality rules would make the strokers extinct, at least in the United States. Other than Yamaha, which continued to develop its popular RD series of strokers throughout the decade, most manufacturers quit developing strokers for the U.S. market. By the early 1980s, you couldn’t buy a brand-new street-legal two stroke in the United States.


Many of us grew up riding these fast, lightweight, cheap machines, and our memories of them are probably clouded by all the fun we had on them (and perhaps all that exhaust smoke has damaged our memories).

Strokers are still out there, although they become tougher to find every year. Their inherent unreliability accounts for much of the reason they are not as plentiful as their four-stroke counterparts. Because these bikes relied on the proper amount of oil being mixed in with their fuel, they could easily be starved of lubrication, leading to a seized engine. Most of the later bikes had automatic oiling systems, but they still seized their engines more frequently than four-stroke engines.

Yamaha was the last Japanese company to import a stroker streetbike into the United States with its popular RD/RZ series.

Even if you can find one intact, strokers tend not to be practical motorcycles. They generate a lot of power for their size, but that power usually comes on only at the very top of the RPM range. Often, this power hits like a switch has been turned on. Before that switch is turned on, these bikes can hardly get out of their own way. I’ve found it takes a special type of lunatic to make good use of a 2 strokers, a crazed motorcyclist who rides with the throttle wide open and controls his or her speed with the shifter. Every ride is a Grand Prix event for these folks, even a simple trip to the local convenience store. While you may be just the sort of lunatic I’m describing, this is not a good way to learn to ride.