2 stroke or 4 stroke?

[isell]

Rode my Timbersled last year with a 2012 KX 450 and had a blast with it. Lately I am seeing a lot of attention given to the 2 stroke 300 class bikes.

I have a chance to pick up a Husqvarna 300 and am wondering what I will HAVE to do to make it snowbike worthy. I know I will need some sort of carb heat to prevent icing up, but other than that what needs to be done to the smokers to make them rideable in the winter?

 

[mrquick68]

Rode my Timbersled last year with a 2012 KX 450 and had a blast with it. Lately I am seeing a lot of attention given to the 2 stroke 300 class bikes.

I have a chance to pick up a Husqvarna 300 and am wondering what I will HAVE to do to make it snowbike worthy. I know I will need some sort of carb heat to prevent icing up, but other than that what needs to be done to the smokers to make them rideable in the winter?

lots of threads on this subject. Check out the "ultimate 300 build" thread.

in a perfect world, i wouldn't use a 300 Husky, but it will work. 300XC seems to work best if you want to try out a 300 smoker.

 

[n16ht5]

I was a on a YZ450F last year. Not enough power. I wouldn't run a 300 as they have even less. Going CR500 this year. If I had the money for a new bike it would be a RPM CR500/CR640 or a Maico 700. That said the 2016 KTM and yz450 should have a good amount of HP compared to older years..

power to weight is everything - 2 stroke 500CC+ will get you there reliably. I can't keep myself from banging the rev limiter on 4strokes, so turbo would be a bad idea for me. I'm not an armchair rider like some people on here..

 

[IceAge Performance]

making a 300 competative with a 450 in the snow takes around $1k minimum to make it run hard. Pipe/silencer/shrouding/pipe/head/sx cdi. We have rode a few and they are super fun bikes, we have 2 customers building up some pretty trick ones. Winter will tell what the ideal setup is.

They are sick summer bikes and modded are insanely nimble. But $ for dollar a 450 is a hard setup to deny. Stock they work incredibly well, skidplate, thermostat and they rip, with a little more love then can be pretty serious rippers.

Everyone who works here runs various brand of moto 450's with very mild mods and loves them. So maybe we are just biased

 

[isell]

Thanks for the replies. I did read the ultimate 300 build..... Lots of cash went into that one, and I am sure it rips! Just looking for the most nimble ride I can find for the winter, and had a chance on the 300. Looks like I may end up on a 4 stroke moto bike again.

 

[Corban_White]

I run a 2012 KTM 300 XC with almost no mods. It runs great. My dad is on a 450 and the 300 runs just fine with it. I prefer the smoker summer and winter, he likes the stroker. I have to shift a lot more than he does. The only mods I have are ktm electric carb heater (it's not quite enough but it helps-some days the avid heater or other would be nice, but I'm too cheap), I made a carb jacket out of some industrial vinyl, and I re-jet. That's it. Runs great. Tons of fun.

 

[summitboy]

Really comes down to rider weight etc. 200lb guy on a 300 won't cut it in the deep imo. Kids on the 300 another story. You can throw all the money u want at a 300, but it just won't build the torque like the big 500. 300 is an excellent summer single track weapon or a great kids snowbike ! Yeti had a kid on a KTM200 with a Yeti kit and it smoked a lot of BB bikes and gave some turbos a run for their money LOL. Thats where weight is your friend in this sport.

 

[WaBackcountry]

13 or newer sx450

Sent from my SGH-M919 using Tapatalk

 

[mxracer299]

I've had a slightly modded kx 500, 13 ktm 450 xc with a few mods and a fully modded 300xc that I ran last year and I'll be on it again this year. The 450 was my least favorite but the easiest to set up. 500 had the most power for climbing but was the slowest tree riding, the chassis, kick starting and lack of proper stator sucked. Mod 300 is the quickest in the trees, more powerful than the 450, hardest to set up right and is by far the most fun to ride. If someone released a bigger 2 stroke with electric start I would choose that, but until then it's a 300, and the 300 is killer on dirt! I ride dirt more than snow so having a good bike on dirt is my highest priority. If I was building a bike purely for snow I would build a sx or yz 450, they are simple to set up and work good stock.