Saw this on eKartingNews and was curious to get the group’s thoughts. The idea of the lease program is interesting.
https://www.ekartingnews.com/2025/07/23/more-shift-less-spend-fz-shifter/
Huh, cool idea. Devils in the detail I suppose but neat idea.
Stock moto 2.0
It’ll be interesting to see how it goes
What’s interesting is I know originally they couldn’t sell the 65 without it being on a Factory Kart. Something must have changed with their deal with yamaha.
At the Skusa amateur nats in 2001 there was a 60cc shifter class and it was awesome. They were so good.
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Looks like the 125 is about $1000 more than a RoK shifter?
Looks like you’d have to buy an airbox and water pump for the Rok for it to be a true price comparison. Seems like an air filter might be included with the FZ and I’m going to assume it has an in built water pump.
So the advantage has to be maintenance costs?
Further reading:
Yep, I posted that one too a while back but it seems like now the program has more formality and commitment than before. I couldn’t even find the price of one before, and it’s interesting to me that it has become its own program instead of under Factory Karts.
My first impression is that I’m not sure what problem is exactly being solved here. For a market idea to be successful it has to solve a real-world problem.
A couple worries that I have:
- The entry price is still very very steep. The lease program is intriguing, but the details aren’t fully available on their site. It shows $299/month for the 125, but for how many months? It would be awesome if the lease included maintenance at specific intervals, since that would really take a burden off the lessee.
- It being a completely spec package. I personally think that while it seems like a good idea on paper, it ends up causing the scenario where people buy 10 motors looking for one that has the tiniest edge. In the KZ classes a tiny horsepower advantage doesn’t equate to much and the motors are all close because builders have access to them - given that the FZ125 shifter motor has only 75% the hp of a KZ, I worry about the performance advantage that some big spenders will inevitably find. Even if the motor parity is good, it will be interesting to see if doing more frequent top end work allows for more power. If that is the case, the front runners will be spending just as much as they would in KZ.
- Still doesn’t solve the problem that you need a shifter chassis. What’s great about single speed chassis is you can jump from LO206 to KA to X30 all without needing a different chassis. Personally if I’m going to make the jump to shifter, I want to race the KZ since more hp=more fun
As a positive, it seems like this could be a great program with proper adoption and some proof that the maintenance is actually low. I think it would be especially great to bring shifters back to the club/regional level since that is non-existent right now. Most folks are not ready to go up against the STARS or SKUSA shifter field, and that is a big deterrent.
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I know ahead of time that this opinion will probably be unpopular or laughed at, but given my background racing 500cc two stroke dirt karts, I have always thought a stock 250cc two stroke sprint shifter class would be incredible. My dad and I were advocating for it back when mod honda went to icc in 2003.
If the tire was selected such that gearing the kart for peak accel would toast the tires prematurely, the fun of finding gearing and driving style to make the tires last and be fast would be super fun with the crazy wide torquey power band.
The power of a KZ with the character of a stock moto, and more torque than either. It is hard to imagine that not being insanely fun.
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From the looks of it the programs looks something separated from Factory Karts?
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I agree the 250 would be pretty sweet. Like corn through a goose.
I’m guessing the 250 will be close to $6700.
To me it looks like a distinct program, but under the same ownership of Factory Karts. Same contact address for both of them.
$300/month lease on the FZ125. Might consider it for the offseason to keep the hours & miles off the KZ.
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I agree with you here David. If you’re going to make the jump, why not go big or go home?
The chassis thing was something that was appealing to me and honestly making me think about switching to a KA so I could also run 206, or maybe X30 if I wanted to. In the end, I love driving the shifter too much to switch.. but every time I drive a honda, I notice a power loss, or notice that I have a millisecond longer to think about an input. The KZ power difference is definitely noticeable.
That’s why a 250 two stroke has appeal. I have never driven a 250 sprint shifter but it has to be crazy fun trying to wrangle all that torque at kz pace. I am actually curious to try one, I feel like there’s a chance it more drivable than the kz given how jittery and abrupt they can be. You can grunt a 250 off the bottom a lot more.
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I still have my old Stock Honda for lapping (I’m finally putting the kart back together). The lease deal sounds pretty tempting, is there a minimum number of months you have to commit to? Would be awesome to just drop the $300, get a couple weekends of seat time and run a race.
The 250 really is that good - big time power and minimal mechanical trouble. It does not run KZ laptimes despite matching it on power and only giving away a few pounds, as it is too rough on tires.
We are still waiting for production pipes.
Why, why, why? The arguments of the expensive and fragile KZ engines are an ICC rhetoric that died a decade ago…anything 10B and beyond is basically bulletproof and uber competitive. Not sure why anybody would embark on this platform when you have an endless supply of KZ engines and parts and finally we have some critical mass in US of drivers tuners etc that actually witnessed the reality of it first hand. Sorry to be the contrary voice here, but this is 10 years too late. Let it go, learn the KZ and move on. Why do we think it’s that terrible?
Calling @KeslerDesignWorks : you recently switched, is that terrible? Un-manageable? Did it blow up in your face? I wonder how many could speak up to try to bring some real perspective to it 
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Good for anyone trying to get a stock shifter class up, including offering finance arrangements such as leasing packages.
But, as I’ve mentioned previously, I still don’t understand the need to go back to bike engine packages when there are dedicated kart engine offers such as the euro version of the IAME 175 SS, or their 125 ES, or TM’s 125ES.
In the case of the euro version of the 175 SS (and speaking from personal experience) it has an electric start, runs seemlessly on the 36mm Dellorto (not the 34 mm Tillotson), gets at least 15 hours on the top end, at least 30 hours on the bottom end (when I have done my service intervals), starts every time, never seized it with the Dellorto (running both sprint and road/long circuits), likes unleaded pump 98 and goes as hard as a KZ with circa 48/49 hp and plenty of torque. I’m still mystified why SKUSA went down the 175 SSE rabbit hole.
Equally the TM and IAME 125 ESs have their place.
I don’t understand.
To me, more engine packages just further confuses the market, particularly for new entrants.
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+1 to that. That’s the secret sauce of KZ. It’s one choice. Period. You can get an older or newer engine version, but it’s still one spec. Tune it as you like, you will still be competitive if you are good driver. There’s plenty of power, supply of spare parts, etc…to each its own. Do you want a common TM platform? go for it. Do you want a more boutique flavor? Godspeed. Do you want to race it in US, Italy, Brazil or whatever? Same thing, same platform. It’s very un-complicated.
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I tend to agree for the most part. The one benefit I see with the FZ concept is being able to get kids back in shifters. The leasing thing is cool but that could be done with KZ’s as well.
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