After yesterday’s soul destroying 10-hour session of extreme enduro riding, today followed suit seeing the front running competitors having another almost ten-hour day on a shortened route starting at 06:00 this morning, with the first man home at 15:40. “This is by far the toughest race I have ever done,” commented New Zealand’s Rory Mead, who finished second overall in his maiden race on a 250cc Yamaha, behind his countrymen and defending champion Chris Birch.

Chris Birch on his KTM300. Photo by - Hubert Stanka

Where did the 500′s go? These monster two-stroke machines used to rock the race courses of America with a thunderous roar. Anyone who was anyone strove to graduate to the Open class. The 125 class was for schoolboys, and the 250 class was for paperboys-the 500′s were for men. The men might still be around, but the crackling cakle of the 500cc two-stroke machinery has faded away.

Today, the 500 class is all but forgotten. With the exception of the Service Cycle CR500AF and KX500AF, there are no classes for them in local racing, and not a single highfalutin” AMA National factory rider racing today has ever raced a true-to-life Open bike. It wasn’t always so.

We never rest here at 125mx.com, we needed to know some answers concerning race bikes, we wanted to know ‘’which is best’’ and why !

Going via any magazines stock bike shootout was not going to help us as we all know the PR guys have to keep everyone happy and tell us what we want to hear, plus we all change stuff on our stock bike’s before they even get to the start-line, so we all want a better bike than stock, Right ?

2009 has been a monumental season for the MC Federation. Running any championship successfully is difficult at the best of times, to run four National standard championships in what is realistically a debut year is a mammoth task. Not only this, launching the federation to every club across the UK is the final piece in the jigsaw that will firmly place the MCF as a major contender to help direct the sport, clubs and competitors. And with the introduction of the Elite Youth League in 2010, club racing is about to get the shot in the arm it so desperately deserves. It’s not all about a National Motocross race series at the MCF!

Two Stroke Motocross has teamed up with the  Carole Nash International Motorcycle and Scooter Show to offer our readers the chance to be one of  5 lucky winners to win a  pair of tickets to the UK’s biggest two-wheeled show, on from 27^th November – 6^th December at the Birmingham NEC*.

This year sees a fantastic line-up of 2009 bikes from manufacturers including BMW, Ducati, Kawasaki, KTM, Suzuki, Yamaha and many more, plus the return of Norton!

The Spanish produced Ossa brand of motorcycles were manufactured and sold from 1924 through 1982 when it quietly went out of business. Like a Phoenix rising from the ashes, the brand is back with one of the most technologically advanced two-strokes ever seen.

The Australian magazine Dirt Action compared the KTM 150SX against the Kawasaki KXF250. The surprising aspect of the test is the difference between the test riders preferences and their lap times.

Many people claim that they are faster on a four-stroke than a two-stroke, but how many of them have actually used a stop watch and checked? And with this comparison they still allowed the four-stroke an almost 100cc advantage.

So much news on the two-stroke front. This listing contains news from around the world featuring two-strokes.

The biggest news of the week is the announcement from Great Britain, for the 2010 race season there will be 3 separate two-stroke championships available for racers and fans!

As reported earlier this year, the FIM will be running a 125cc two stroke championship at 8 of the 15 World Championship rounds of the MX GP. The calendar of events was released today and is posted below.

With any luck these races will be broadcast on the Internet. Can’t wait to hear the sound of 40 125cc two-strokes blasting into the first turn. Just the thought sends shivers down my spine. This may be the year to visit Europe to see some real motocross racing!

One of our readers from England, WestYZ, wrote to say that Suzuki of Great Britain is still distributing RM125 and RM250 two-strokes. The web site says that the machines are new as of October 2009, could these be the 2010 models?

Even more interesting, is that Suzuki GB has an Enduro models of the 125 and 250 available as well.