Gxh50 is finally dead. What is the replacement in the US? No one wants comers where I am because they aren’t sealed. One of the local tracks won’t allow 206 kid karts because there were several rollovers in left hand turns.
I know there is a Rok Kid, but are these available in the US?
Is that decided at the series level? I would imagine so but I didn’t race my boy that little alas
The series here starts in 3 weeks. At least one person has dropped out unable to find a motor. I talked to the president of the series last week who said they are evaluating what motor to use next year and is open to ideas
IAME Bambino is a good replacement. But sadly it is not sealed. And it’s not cheap. But compared to a new Comer race prepped it’s fair.
Did HPD drop the engine? I thought they were still involved, somewhat with the GXH50 in karting.
Haven’t been able to buy one for for a couple years now. Very frustrating.
I called HPD back around June 2024 and they said they may not sell them anymore. I’ve been trying to buy a couple since then and no one can get them in.
It is very frustrating for sure. I really with Briggs had a smaller engine similar to a gxh50 that they’d have built and sealed for kid kart versus the 206 which is a bear to get on a kid kart.
Wow, I did not know this. We are all 206 KK now, but started out on the Hondas and loved them. They really are the perfect KK engine.
Maybe do a bulk purchase with your local racers of the Predator 79cc engine, have it sealed locally, and have fun? At this level of karting, the focus should be fun and building driving consistency, IMO. Parity is ideal, but the driver variation probably exceeds the motor variation. And once your kiddo is good enough that parity on the engine matters, other classes beckon. Just my opinion…
FWIW, I have the Comer 50 on mine, and find it bulletproof when the clutch isn’t horribly abused. And it’s easy to rebuild those if it is…
The Predator needs some motor mount mods to fit if your KK came with the welded C50 mount, but nothing extreme
In Brazil we have cadets nationals racing with Honda GX160 (5.5 hp) for a while.
Unsealed GXH50 or GX50 seems like the best option these days.
Peru only uses GX35 and Bolivia you can use Honda or its chinese copy
Small update. The US distributor for Vortex isn’t currently importing “Rok Kid” engines. It wouldn’t be impossible but I don’t this it would happen without getting other US regions on board. It’s not just buying a bunch of motors, but the entire spare parts supply chain.