When Kawasaki stopped making the KX250 two-stroke back in 2008 we feared they would go full Honda and drop all two-strokes. Emissions laws were tightening and big companies like Kawasaki, Honda and Suzuki wanted to be seen to be doing the right thing.
Development in the dirtbike sector is largely dictated by the American motocross scene and manufacturers were getting better performance gains from high-performance four-strokes. Many of the Japanese manufacturers thought the two-stroke motor had reached the limit of its development and the modern four-stroke motor still had plenty of room to grow. So, sadly a decision was made by head office and Kawasaki dropped their adultsize two-stroke dirtbikes.
We expected the kids bikes to follow suit but someone in the marketing department must have acquired nudes of someone in the PR department because to this day, the KX65, KX85 and the KX112 two-strokes are still available. It was as though Kawasaki realised they needed to keep kids on green bikes in the hope they would stay green as an adult. So fortunately, 15 years after the decision was made to
