....and round & round it goes, every season, with no one having any more or less a clue than what we had before.
If you search around a bit you'll find that the "EPA ban" rumor has been prevalent, the ban "imminent" for
years & tends to crop up in a recurring cycle - with
every season being the last you can get them & every time the vendors swear up, down & sideways it's the gospel truth.
It's been going on as long as this forum has been around & longer... with the merchants proclaiming that what they have is the last in stock, better get 'em now while you can & jacking up the prices for that and the summer rush - yet interestingly, every winter they all mysteriously restock and the prices drop again.
Can we, the consumers make heads or tails of the information available, the legal jargon complete with a near endless list of exemptions as per application from the EPA themselves? Can we separate fact from fiction when our only "clear" information comes from advertisers otherwise proven unscrupulous?
I think not.
Until it reaches the point where we can no longer purchase any of these 2 strokes in the off season, where "out of stock" issues can't be due to demand alone, when
all other generic, no-name & clone two strokes are also completely unavailable - I would suggest just shrugging it off as no more than the rumor it's proven to be, time and time again. It may well be a "boy who cried wolf" scenario, but I believe it has far,
far more to do with jacking up prices & soliciting this response than anything else;
If it is i better stock up on the chinagirls then huh.
& so far, that's the only clear truth I've seen.
It's essentially irrelevant in any case - the market, the demand has been on the rise exponentially so even were all 2 strokes banned outright, there'd be an equivalent 4 stroke engine developed to fill the niche, a low cost vertical designed to bolt into a bicycle's frame just like the HT... the time is well past & the only thing that's been holding it back is the easy availability of the in frame 2 strokers w/their high profit margin - the market is already swamped with such inexpensive four strokes, not only are they of far better quality - they're actually "cheaper" as they come complete with actual gearboxes both automatic and standard... only problem is they're horizontal & not kits;
http://motorbicycling.com/showthread.php?t=19630