The Future of Motorcycles and ATV’s

I decided to write my research paper on today’s new alternate powered motorcycles and ATV’s. I have been riding and racing sense I was 8 years old. I have seen a lot of changes with motorcycles and ATV’s over the years. I started out riding two-stroke motorcycles, then four-strokes and now I’m told that electric motorcycles will be on the tracks in the not too distant future.
Every year I enjoy taking annual trips to Colorado and Oklahoma. It’s refreshing to get off the motocross track and enjoy riding some very fun OHV trails. My favorite part about riding trails is seeing all the beautiful scenery. But it seems every time I go trail riding, my group and I get yelled at by someone claiming that “were are destroying their trails” and that “were just making noise.”
It irritates me that there are riders out there that don’t follow the trail rules, but I am not one of them. We stay on the trail, we are respectful, our bikes and ATV’s are under the required decibels and we love the land we ride on just as much as they do.
I’m glad to see our sport is getting a lot better about being more environmentally friendly with advances
When I first got involved with the sport of motocross in 1997, you had two different types of dirt bikes and ATV’s to choose from, the two-stroke or the four-stroke engine. The two-stroke motorcycles dominated the motocross classes because of their high performance and lightweight motors. Unfortunately, these two-stroke motorcycles were heavy polluters. Two-stokes produced eight times more carbon monoxide pollution than the average car.
While the heavier, less nimble four-strokes performed at their best in the enduro and trail circuits.
The two cylinder motorcycles seemed to be on top of the racing world and nothing was going to replace it. Well that all changed around 2001. Some states, such as California, started to ban the 2-stroke dirt bikes from certain race facilities and other OHV closed courses due to the toxic pollutants they emit. Why? Well according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the average two-stroke motor dumps 25 to 30 percent of its fuel mixture unburned into the air.
California is considered to be the mecca of motocross. It seemed like, if California couldn’t race the two-stroke, than no one could. Most the major professional motocross teams were based in California at the time and they weren’t even aloud to ride their own bikes on their private tracks to practice. This is when the manufactures had to make the decision, drop the emissions on the two-stroke or put all of there research and development into the four-strokes and slowly drop the two-stokes all together.
At first, the four-stroke was great for the manufacturers. They could treat it as a little pet project, and still make a sizable profit of it. It allowed them to explore the upcoming technologies while still making progress on their two-strokes. However, as the four-stroke gained popularity, manufacturers such as Honda, Yamaha, Suzuki, Kawasaki and KTM were faced with a tough decision. Economically, they could not keep producing and innovating on both the four-stroke and two-stroke platforms. Furthermore, it did not make sense for them to keep producing two essentially competing products. They had to make a choice, and they choose four-strokes.
At the time was very surprised with their decision. I was not a fan of four-stroke motorcycles at the time and I hated the thought of having to race one of those heavy, slow, and ugly machines.
The manufacturers started testing the feasibility of putting 4-stroke engines in some of the newer two-stroke models to reduce pollution. The manufacturers were also trying to reduce the emissions produced by the 2-stroke dirt bikes. They were successful but the four-stroke had already gained the popularity it needed. Ever since the manufacturers have chosen the four-stroke as their priority in R&D, the two-strokes have only fallen further behind. Most remain unchanged year to year, and thus there is even more motivation for riders to switch to four-strokes. Even chassis and control changes which could be fitted to two-strokes largely do not, simply because the manufacturers have moved away from the platform as a whole.
When the new four-strokes were first introduced in 2002, it was a joke. They were still heavy, expensive, loud and slow. Riding one was more of a way to make a statement about your personality than to actually ride the best bike available. So, racing organizations such as the AMA and FIM felt it necessary to give them a (huge) handicap. Almost double engine displacement for Motocross class and exactly twice the displacement for the Lites motocross classes. At the time this felt like a sensible move. The newer technology needed the extra motor size in order to even be remotely competitive.
These four stoke motorcycles had cleaner more efficient motors but they were considerably louder than the two-stroke motorcycles. It wasn’t until nearly 2004 when the four-stroke motorcycles started to really make a positive impact on the motocross tracks.
Back in 2000 the problem with dirt bikes and all terrain vehicles were the emotions, so we ditched the two-strokes and adopted and improved the four-strokes. Now four-stokes are better than the two-stokes ever were, a manufacture from Austria called KTM released something that may change the motocross world yet again.
In 2009, KTM released the Freeride. KTM’s first electric motocross motorcycle.
This started a new movement in the motorcycle world. Now that we have solved the emotions problems of the two-stokes by improving the four-stokes, we latter found a new issue with the new four-stoke machines, they are loud, very loud. They are pushing 100 decibels. These electic bikes seem to be the answer for trail riding dirt bikes and ATV’s.
They’re still very underpowered to be on a motocross track but I believe they are great for the trails. They are clean, quiet, and safe.
I’m honestly not a huge fan of someday racing a eclectic motocross bike and I don’t think it will ever make any real impact on racing in the near future, but who knows.
Other manufactures have also thrown their hand in the electric motorcycle game, and have actually begun making good quality fast bikes. The manufacture “Zero” for example just came out with a new electric motorcycle recently.
The Zero X is an all electric dirt bike with no emissions or noise. It has a top speed of 60 mph and the ability to go 0-30 in under 2 seconds; it’s no wimpy bike. It is driven by a permanent magnet electric motor that is powered by a special high-powered Lithium Ion battery. The battery along with its power grid ensure up to 2 hours of riding without any performance lag. When the battery is drained, it only takes 2 hours to recharge plugged into a standard home outlet. The batteries contain no cobalt, nickel, lead or mercury, and are 100% recyclable and rated landfill safe, which is nice.
I haven't had the pleasure of riding one of these yet but I spoke with someone who has and he couldn't believe how quiet it was. It wasn’t a gas-powered bike but non the less it was a fun toy. He said that the only noise he could here when he was tearing down the street was a little chain rattle. What a great way to get way, way out in the wilderness fast, without fogging up the trail and deafening every living thing within a mile.
Who knows, maybe someday electric bikes will make it on to a motocross circuit. I don’t believe it will be anytime soon but I believe it could happen. But for now, I’m glad that there are people out there giving us off road motorcyclist a good name and looking to the future with the environment in mind.