2 stroke poll: Fuel Injection or Carb?

Rode a few KTM injected bikes. 250xc, 300sx & a 300xc. Comparing them to my YZ250 or any other carbed two stroke I’ve owned/ rode. Give me a carb. There is just something about the feel of a carb I prefer. Maybe they just feel more crisp & responsive to me but I didn’t like the feel of the injected bike.

My Beta 300 RX with a carb and aggressive/mild selector.  Which they call sunshine/rain mode. Kinda best of both worlds.  

KISS = Keep It Simple Stupid

I’d much rather do my tuning with a screwdriver and a wrench, than a laptop. 

Give me a carb all day. I can understand the appeal to the injected bikes but they’re just not for me. I like the engine characteristics of a well tuned carbureted bike, the simplicity of it, and you just can’t beat the raspy raw sound of a Carb’d 2 stroke. 

FI all

Would You knuckggershas be doing carb swaps on your 2027 Honda 450 works edition? 
 

And yes I like carbs but my 2024 mc250 has been nothing but amazing.  

I would actually prefer a Keihin PJ but since they're all worn out, PWK it is!

Have an injected 150sx and its been an amazing bike. You hear a lot about carbed bikes hitting harder, but I'm not a pro rider, I'll never be a pro rider, and this bike is plenty fast for what I want to do.

Messing with a carb was such a pain and I just don't have to deal with that on this bike. Previously had a 2003 CR250 and it was such a hassle to be constantly fiddling with the carb. 

Using the '03 CR250 as an example of what to expect from a carbureted bike is like saying Lorena Bobbitt is your typical wife.

One can do much better. 👍

FI

I've only had one carbed bike in the last 20 years and it was that CR. I loved the way the bike handled, but I could never get the carb dialed. Setting that power valve also sucked nuts, but that's for another thread. Fuel injection has hugely simplified riding dirt bikes and I'm all here for simplification.   

Like I said, you couldn't have picked a much worse bike for carb issues.

I've owned several of them (still have one with single-digit hours on it) and they earned their rep. Not unfixable, but a far cry from when they had the "set it and forget it" Keihins. 

And FI is only "simpler" until something in it goes wrong and the consumer doesn't have the tools or knowledge to correct it. Then it can be very frustrating and expensive. It's just trading one set of potential issues for another. 👍

People demonise the carburettor specifically, but as mentioned above some bikes require constant fiddling, then another bike with the same carb can be mostly set and forget.

The entire package matters for good carburation. It's often the manufacturers fault for bad carb experiences, spec'ing incorrect slides, silly rich/lean jets as stock, or letting the bike leave the factory with massive squish numbers or badly set ignition timing etc.

Personally I like the old school carb, it used to be a part of the overall package of speed. If you were smart, new your bike well and could tune for temps and elevation, it could give you an edge. With Fi, everyone's bike runs perfectly all year round.

Having owned a fuel injected 450, the ease of its use is bliss. So I'm not a 'hater'. But the art of tuning a carb and getting it perfect can be fun and rewarding.

Lectron carb. 👍🏻

Interesting.  I had an 03 CR250 also and I remember making carb adjustments constantly.  I had a ziplock bag of jets that came with me and it wasn’t unusual to make adjustments as the temps changed through the day.

I don't know about a fuel injected 2 strokes, but i have new klx300 trail bike and I sure wish I could jet it for a few bucks vs a few hundred.

I don’t mind playing with carbs on my vintage / evo bikes….I too enjoy the simplicity of carbs and kick starters….but both of my 300SX” are absolute perfection, no messing around, just warm up and go…they can be setup for whatever you are riding with an ECU tune/ gearing/ pipe/ silencer. I understand the 125 lost some overrev and gained weight….but the 300”s have greatly benefitted from the FI….I was constantly playing with the jetting on my carbed 300”s…..never really satisfied with what I came up with…

125/150 carb 250/300 FI

Been looking for a low hr orange 125/150 in the northeast….

FI is great until something goes wrong and you're chasing a gremlin, don't ask me how I know. 🤣

I just picked up a 2026 BETA 350RX and I was very excited that it was still a carb bike. I had to change jets to get it to my liking, but other than that, so easy to work on. 

I'm with you on that. I rode a few TBI models at a demo day last year, then jumped back on poorly jetted Mikuni carb KTM and I was shocked at how much better it felt compared to TBI.

Give me EFI on the four strokes all day though.

I have a 23’ MC250(last year of carb) and 250SX TBI. Both with near identical setups, except the TBI has a 100octane head, MC stock head. The MC is a powerhouse in comparison to the TBI, way more off the bottom all the way through the top. I find that between jetting and PV tuning(springs/preload) the MC provides way more tune-ability. I’ve had the TBI remapped 3 times, it runs good, as good as it could imo but still find the MC stronger, more fun to ride, and it’s about 20lbs lighter, tbi weights as much as a 2022 450sxf. 

Carb on a 4 stroke?  No way.  

But give me a carb on a 2 stroke, all day.

Carbs are great, pure simplicity and easy to work on. I never owned a fuel injected mx bike. So I can’t comment on them. Although I own a direct injected 2 stroke snowmobile and that is a game changer.

If direct injected 2 strokes come to the motorcycle world, you will have a 1200 rpm idle, smooth and seamless power. It also is very easy to start. There are stories of people leaving the key on and rotating the clutch and having the engine fire up as they are working on it.

Don’t have to worry about that if you don’t plan on owning a 4 stroke MX bike 🤷🏻‍♂️

In the 2T flavour I've had 17, Im on my 2nd TBI now and still would choose a carb, but not by much... The power delivery is just so much fun, no electrical or ccps issues to work through.. My last carb bike was a 21 250sx, excellent even with the Mikuni... Moto & offroad. 

2003 CR250 is my current bike. Went from Mikuni to Keihin to SmartCarb. SmartCarb or Lectron, there are modern alternatives to fuel injection that work great. 

I have a Beta 300 with a carb and a KTM 300sx with FI, and I'll take the carburetor all day. There is nothing wrong with the FI, but I did have to do an ECU tune to make it run well. I have a 2023, so maybe the FI settings from the factory have improved, but in 2023 it was very rich off the bottom and did not run clean until you got way up in the rev range. It made it difficult to ride - the ECU tune dramatically improved the riding experience. Anyway, with modern ignition systems, it's hard to beat a carburetor on a 2-stroke, IMO. My Beta runs flawlessly and I have done nothing but correct the float height and tweak the air screw as necessary. Now when it comes to 4-strokes, no way would I ever run a carburetor again!

I’m in the same boat, two strokes carb all day.  My 2024 Beta has been flawless.  4 strokes, injection all day long.

If my wife wouldn’t kill me I’d build YZ, add after market electric start, heavy fly wheel.  Make a do all trail, track old guy carb two stroke.

The poll needs a 5th option:  Don't Care About Fueling

I have a carb 150SX and have owned an FI 150XCW.  I now have a 300XCW and have had many carb-ed 2Ts going back to 1971.  I do not care about fueling.  The modern 2Ts all run very well.  Now my 1972 Bultaco Pursang?  If I could have afforded it at 16 I would have replaced the plug before every moto.

I chose carb, but curiously enough it's because of the lack of a kickstarter on the EFI bike in your poll. I've never ridden an EFI bike, but I'm going to assume I could get one close enough if there's a tuning tool available. The downside for me would be having a dead battery and not being able to start the bike. (Can you bump start an EFI motorcycle???)