A friend of mine's father toured all over France on a 1974 Aprillia licence built CZ250, two up no less.
My mate inherretted the bike in the 1980's, as a teenager, and when he finally sold it to a collector, it had 82,000 miles on the clock.
A quick pre-sale service revealed that the piston, rings and bores (standard size) were all still within manual tollerance figures. The bike could still make the stock 92 MPH with the rider prone on the tank.
I've toured France on a 1979 350cc version of the same bike.
I also know people who travel all over the place on JAWAs, CZs and MZs without complaint.
I know a guy from Sweden who attend rallies all over Europe and the UK on a Swedish 1948 CZ powered 125cc Monarck.
Only Japanese two stroke are gas guzzly and fragile.
The European 2 strokes were developed as transport and therefore were built to endure long constant cruising over vast distances.
My old 1977 JAWA 350 used to do 67 UK MPG at 70 MPH, used to carry my tents and kit, luggage, other peoples kit, the tools, occasional female passenger, etc. reliably for many expeditions.
I never need the tools for the JAWA, they were for the fixing of the motley collection of bikes ridden by some of my mates. Also, I'm yet to attend a bike rally where I don't end up fixing some stranger's bikes on site.
Oddly enough, on long rides to bike rallies, in the past, it was always the 4 strokes that needed to be recovered when they broke down.
I own 1 4 stroke and 14 s strokes. Guess which bike gives me the most hastle to service and maintain.
Think of it this way.
You're cruising along and the head gasket starts to blow (Sod's law!!)
OK, now if you're on a 2 stroke you just pop the gas tank, pop the cyclinder head and replace the head gasket. A simple roadside repair.
Ah, but if you're on a 4 stroke, this becomes a major problem. Chances are that the oil flow to the head will start leaking as well. OK, this is not a simple roadside repair anymore. Removing the head on a 4 stroke, unless it has push rods is a pain in the arse.
Camchains just had to the headaches.
I have to replace the head gasket on my 4 stroke ROTAX 500 engine sometime soon as the little rubber O ring oil way seal through the head gasket has decided to leak a lot. I'm going to have to psych myself up for this one.
A 2 stroke has onlt 7 moving parts in the engine, 4 strokes have a lot more. Yep, a hell of a lot more things to go wrong.
As for soft seizures on 2 strokes.... I've no idea what your friend was on about. The old 1980's 2 stroke oil used to hot seize engines but engine used to give a minute's warning of this, hence why experienced riders rode with a open hand covering the clutch lever.
However, modern refined 2 stroke oil has done away with decokes, seizures and increased engine life.
And another thing, a US government investigation found that the 2 stroke ban of the 1970's was a bit premature.
2 strokes emit 2% N2O per volume of fuel compared with the 48% N2O per volume of fuel of 4 strokes. Yep, 2 strokes are cleaner than 4 strokes now with the new oil.
Diesel were found to be the dirtiest engines by far.
Another interesting fact is that if you fit a catalytic converter to a 4 stroke to reduce the N2O emissions by 3 or 4%, you trebble the CO2 emissions.
Good job the CO2 causing Global Warming is just a crock!!
