TM KZ10ES. Different ignition with rev limiter & has a starter motor. Similar maintenence intervals to stock moto.
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You reap what your sow in that regard. If you want spec-racing, then as a consequence you get class dilution unless a company utterly dominates, which is rare. Also, take Rotax. In the UK now a relatively stable class and the market has just been flooded with engines, especially senior, as owners attempt to offload so they can get the new cyclindered engines. So even in stable environments paperweightism is a risk.
Also the engines aren’t new, they pretty much fit in with the oldest karting tradition which is bike derived engines. The Yamaha YZ250 has been around for over 50 years in various forms. Arguably there’s some stability there as well as history.
I get the jadedness thing, but like I said already I have accepted that new classes will come in because it’s a natural market reaction.
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You can test the 250 when you can get to Adams Motorsports Park.
James is on his way
Re-reading the article today, some additional takeaways.
The Cadet shifter package requires front brake system, as will the Junior shifter rules for the FZ85 program. Musgrave and Factory Karts developed their Cadet frame to welcome the added brake
Factory Karts is also offering private-labelled karts to existing race teams and dealers that want to add the Cadet Shifter, Junior Shifter, or other shifter platforms to their programs.
For me this isn’t the case at all. I would love nothing more than to race shifters locally, but the class size needs to be there, and it is very cost prohibitive. There’s a lot of talk about the ongoing maintenance cost of shifters, but for me the cost just to get into the class is heavy. A rok shifter package is twice as expensive as a KA, and the chassis is more expensive too. For club/regional racing I wouldn’t really care about having the engine constantly performing at a top level because it matters a lot less than it does in say, KA. Fronting over $5k for an engine package, more for the chassis, and then burning through MG yellows doesn’t really sound great when I can go KA racing on reds.
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You can buy good used ROK shifters for $2k almost any day if the week. Add a rad and water pump and you’re around typical used KA cost.
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I’m not so sure. Where are you seeing those prices? Genuinely curious because that would change things for me lol I can’t find any on fb marketplace at that price, and honestly can’t find many at all.
But regardless, if the fz125 package comes in around $5k (we’ll see) that is a huge barrier to entry. Obviously there won’t be used options, so while I like the idea, the upfront cost is a major factor for me.
I saw 4+ separate sellers on Facebook < $2500 for a rok shifter. I sold a complete 1 year old rok shifter/OTK setup for $4500 last year. Ron White Racing has multiple for sale on their website. If you make a little effort to find deals you can get in to a shifter for cheaper than a lot of KA karts.
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It reminds me of when I used to sim and generally people tended to converge towards the blandest cars which more often than not are GT3. Not too slow, not too fast, not too hard, not too easy. I think that kind of translates to most of motorsport really. It’s often about comfort. KZ is anything but.
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I sent you a PM. We have a few actually.
I must have overlooked the second part of this when it was discussed last March, or didn’t understand what it really meant. Because the point came up again last weekend in Vegas.
Did anyone else catch on Kart Chaser the FZ Cadet Shifter demonstration run at the SKUSA Supernationals last Saturday? They were interviewing the Factory Kart VP during the run about the kart, and Mike Smith brought up a pertinent question near the end:
The part I’m referring to is between 3:08:12 - 3:09:02 in the video below:
If I understand correctly, these FZ shifter karts are like the old Easykart program when it originally debuted. They are only sold as a turnkey kart package, you cannot buy the engine separately.
Which was odd, because there karts with other chassis names on them during the demo run. But I guess those were examples of the “White Label”/“Private Label” karts they referenced during the interview, Factory Karts with other chassis decals stickered on them.
He then added at the end about discussions with the OEM (engine company) to possibly separate the engine package from the chassis in the future.
There was definitely a FK with Benik graphics.
Funny how this coincides with the Motori introduction of their “KZ” 80. Pure chance, or is the 80(ish) cc class being revived?
Coincidence that they’re pushing at the same time, probably.
Back when we were involved heavily and my dad was building engines (built moto), we were calling for a move to stock CR250 engines for sprint racing. Built 125’s were going for 10k. The 250’s had more power, reliability, easy access to parts, way less maintenance, AND were 1/3 the price.
The industry here in the US went ICC instead.
I think something like the 250’s would be fun, but having been around a while now I see that attempts like this often fragment the sport even further, making it more confusing and off putting for newbs.
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175 hasn’t been the game changer it was hyped as being. Carb issues (Why the switch to the Tillotson when the original SS worked with the Delorto?) may have contributed, but it’s noteworthy that, based on the reports of others who have driven them on sprint courses, the greater torque necessitates short shifting (instead of winding the motor to redline like a KZ). The thing is, keeping a shifter in the power band is part of the thrill & skill challenge of driving KZ, & I’m guessing this difference is a contributing factor. Not that a 2-stroke 175 doesn’t offer challenge, but the difference has been commented on.
Yeah - glad we’re on opposite coasts so we don’t immediately have to pick one or the other or chase ballast and fuel rules to make it fair.
My 250 runs well - it makes peak power at 9100 RPM, so it should be good for 60+ hours between rebuilds. We’ve sold a lot more 125s than 250s. I did not beat the 125s at the last race with it, but they were racing at 385# and I was at 425# and cooking tires midcorner.
Whole-kart packages are available and advertised from Factory Karts. I have not read our agreement with Yamaha about wholesale or retail engines. I will point out that Yamaha will sell engines if you’re willing to buy triple-digit numbers of them.
There’s a few 65’s here currently, so we’ll have that figured out sooner than later. There will be a cadet option with the L8 that will be the same power range.
The brakes will be the annoying part. 
Yeah. Willy Musgrave’s assertion is that front brakes save more money in crash damage than they cost. I don’t have comprehensive data to prove it.
Ford said that front brakes were dangerous; Chrysler’s response was that they were only dangerous because you might get rear ended by a Ford.
Either way the Factory chassis is designed to work with front brakes, so we sell them that way.
On a related note - is the M7 L8 80cc engine pump-gas compatible? Will it run on 91?