Dirt Rider Magazine

Neither the four stroke or the two stroke are dying.  It depends on the rider, the mechanic, and the type of riding they are doing.  For my shop, and my area in particular, four stroke MX bikes sell the most and the big bore dual sport bikes are right up there with them (like the 350 and 500 EXC).  Southern California is a HUGE center of motocross, and my shop in particular has an outstanding amateur race program (we are a Yamaha Track Side and Team Green dealer).  It's only natural that we see them selling more frequently.  However, many guys who were riding WR's or CRF-X's are switching to things like the 300 XC-W for off-road riding, mostly because of weight, not necessarily power or ease of maintenance.  The four strokes only become expensive when you grenade them or race them very competitively.  We also sell a ton of 250 XC and XC-W's because it's a light weight bike, that now, due to current AMA rules, run in the 250 (light weight) class in the desert….so now you have a bike with roughly twice the horse power than its competitors in the same class, and in the desert where the riding doesn't rely on quick blips of the throttle (like coming into a jump right out of a corner) but more flat out speed and extremely technical sections, this is a huge advantage.  

It basically comes to this:  the industry as a whole is hurting.  The economy is down and manufacturers are forced to narrow their focus.  This is why there are almost no sole factory teams anymore.  Motocross and Supercross are where the money is right now…off-road riding, while more universally run across the world, doesn't have the money behind it.  It's not a spectator sport and it doesn't draw the attention that motocross does.  Not to mention, your average weekend warrior will buy a bike and make it last for 6-10 years…well a hard core moto guy will buy a new bike every year or two.  So, they produce the bikes they can sell more of…the ones that will get their name out there more than others:  those are the moto bikes (four strokes).  You don't see people coming into the shop to come buy a 450XC-W because Kurt Caselli, Mike Brown, and Ivan Ramirez raced it in Baja…but you do see people coming in to buy the KX450F because Ryan Villopoto won Monster Cup on it. 

On the whole though, no the two stroke isn't dying.  If anything, there is an increased demand for it and companies like Husky, Beta, and KTM (and by proxy Husaberg) are taking advantage of this.  The Japanese guys will need to play catch up eventually.