I'm curious how many hours people are going on pistons in general (specifically, I'm on a 300 2t). I come from the enduro world, and two strokes typically go 60-80 hours on a piston.

I'm assuming, and have been told, that trials bikes will go quite a bit longer (obviously we're generally not tearing around while on the pipe 80% of the time), but I'm not sure what 'quite a lot' amounts to.

Just curious...

In my experience the life of a piston in a well-maintained and looked-after two stroke trials bike is measured in decades rather than hours.

Edited May 12, 201412 yr by 2stroke4stroke

Well then... something to look forward to in my retirement I guess.

I replaced the piston on my sons 98 TXT last year, it was still on the original piston and I only replaced it because you cannot buy the rings separately, it was worn but not excessively !

In my experience the life of a piston in a well-maintained and looked-after two stroke trials bike is measured in decades rather than hours.

That's because you thrash them !

i have a 09 evo 250 very well used hundreds of hours still fresh as a daisy

I've found after four years of riding most weekends a set of rings freshens it up a bit but even that isn't a necessity. Trials manufacturers don't sell a lot of pistons.

Edited May 12, 201412 yr by dan williams

as far as modern trials bikes go, I have not known of any two stroke piston needing to be replaced due to normal wear (a few due to seizing though), and of the bikes that get owned by the one person for long enough to be able to measure such a thing, the rings seem to last 6 - 8 seasons.

If modern trials bikes were used on the road (they are not used on the road here) piston life may become important, as it was in the 1970s when it was common to ride a trials bike on the road. My original TY175 was road ridden for many years and after about 20 years had finally had enough rebores that it needed a new sleeve (at the time the biggest OS piston was +1.0mm).

Another of my old trials bikes (a 1973 TY250) is still going on it's original piston and rings and runs like a dream. I bought it in 1994 and the speedo showed 3000km, and it has had lots of trail and trials riding since 1994, but has never had the cylinder head off.

I have come back to trails from racing, where an engine is flat out for a long time on a lean mixture to get the speed, Trails bikes don't go under so extreme treatment for any length of time, just short squirts (unless you have just done a road/moor run in the scottish)!

I think the number of hours is dependant on so many factors, not least air filter maintenance and whether you ride in dust or not.

I have some bikes from 1970s and 80s that have never been bored or piston replaced but I have been told one British youth Championship rider is on his third 125 this season because they wear out so fast.

Oddly enough, beta specs a piston replacement every 80 hours. Given that I ride most days for 6 months every year, I expect I'll put 100 hours on it this season. We'll she how she fares...