The World's Most Advanced 2 Stroke vs Retro 250cc V-Twin

They say two-strokes are dead, but I don't think that's true. We love two-strokes here at 999 Laser, and I know you guys do too. No matter the discipline, whether it be road or dirt, I'm simply addicted to these things. Oh my God, that's so effing fun! The YZ125 is probably my all-time favorite two-stroke. This little engine is a classic. It's absolutely timeless. But what if I told you that you could actually go out and buy a brand new state-of-the-art smoker that essentially boasts not one, but two of these beautiful little motors crafted together to make one jaw-dropping two-stroke masterpiece? Well, that's what we've got in store for you today. Let me introduce you to the Langen two-stroke. It's a 250 V-twin, and in this video, we're gonna meet its creator. I'm gonna give the beast a ride and review, and then for an extra little twist, we're gonna prove to you guys how far two-stroke tech has come by comparing this thing to its equivalent from the 90s. My name is Max. This is 999 Laser. It's two-stroke time. Okay, here I am on board the Langen 250 two-stroke. It's a V-twin 250, as I mentioned, built here in Britain. And we are super lucky today to have a ride on board what most definitely is the most fun road bike I've ever had a go on. Now, admittedly, I haven't had a go on many road bikes, but I think this thing, the Langen two-stroke, is gonna spoil me for life. Pumping out about 76 horsepower from that lovely motor, an Italian motor. It's essentially, in principle, two YZ125 motors crafted together. That's what it is in theory, in concept, but in reality, the motor has been designed from the ground up over in Italy. Whoa-ho-ho! Just listen to that! Whoa-ho-ho! Oh, what a feeling! I've still got my indicator on like an absolute squid. Whoa-ho! Oh, yeah! Hard on the brakes. The brakes are good. Blimey! Now, this is an exquisite machine, and it does come with an exquisite price tag. I think to get on the road with one of these things, you're looking at about 35,000 pounds. That's a lot of money for sure, but as Chris, the founder of Langen, says, they built these bikes with no accountants breathing down their neck. They built them to be the most fun motorcycles that they could possibly build, and I think they have achieved that goal. So let's go and see Chris, the mad genius behind this machine, hear a little bit more about its backstory, the history, the tech specs, and things like that, and then we've got a few more surprises in store for this video. Oh, what a machine! Here we are with Chris Ratcliffe, founder, CEO, and boss man of Langen Motorcycles. Chris, my first question to you is, if you could just give us your background history, and then where this vision came from. I'm an automotive engineer, a design engineer. I've worked in the automotive industry, in motorcycles and cars, but I'm just a biker. I've ridden bikes since I could walk, bicycles and then motorbikes as soon as I could, including a TZR125, and that's what sort of gave me the buzz. After a couple of weeks of riding it, and then suddenly discovering there's a whole other bike in there above 8,000, 9,000 RPM, yeah, I got addicted. Yeah, I founded Langen Motorcycles three years ago now, and decided to develop something. First of all, it was built in Britain, you know, that's every component built in Britain where possible, apart from its Italian heart, and we're building something to a specification with no accountants involved, and making the best bike we could. Hope we've done it with this. Tell us about that Italian heart like you mentioned, and why you decided to go down that two-stroke route. One of my big beliefs, particularly with motorcycles, is light weighting, you know, the lighter the bike is, the more performance you have. It's the secret sauce, you know. There's no better engine to start from than a two-stroke engine for power to weight. All the other components are very light as well, you know, the carbon fiber and aluminum chassis, but it's just the buzz you get from a two-stroke, the sound, the smell, the power delivery. There's nothing else like it, and it hadn't been done for 20 years, so, you know, we thought, well, there's a challenge. Let's give it a go, see if we can make a two-stroke road bike. Tell us about that motor then. It's a 250V twin from Italy, so just tell us a little bit more about that. So it's a 250V twin on a twin rotating crankshaft. They're geared together. The whole engine is billet machined, the casings. Pretty much everything is new in there. It was first conceived by a chap called Vincenzo in the back of the Ferrari F1 workshop, who's a F1 development engineer. Two-stroke nut, even more than me, probably nearly as much as you. And he had the idea for an injection system and a lubrication system that was ECU controlled, so we could map it across the rev range. So he made an out-and-out monster of a race bike. This engine, 90 horsepower, 95 horsepower, fantastic on a racetrack, unrideable on the road. So we've been working with it for three years to turn it into a road bike, refine it, put simple things like charging systems, better cooling system, neutral lights, but really focusing on lower mid-range torque and drivability and bringing the power band in nice and gradually so you can come on the power in the corners, things like that. So it's just a refined version of a thoroughbred race engine. So just tell us some of the facts and figures, weight, horsepower, those kind of numbers that people will be interested in. Okay, yeah, the engine in this form, its road form, is 76 horsepower. The bike's 120 kilograms, so that works out over 600 brake horsepower per tonne, so that's 600 sports bike kind of territory. But the secret is it's so light, so it just flicks around the corners. It's built for A and B roads, beautiful countryside like we're riding today. Just go through some of the other components that you've got on this bike, bars, brakes, suspension, things like that. I mean, we start with a clean sheet of paper and we designed pretty much everything. And where we couldn't design it, you know, it's suspension and brakes. Then we work with the manufacturer, British if possible, so KTEC Suspension, they made some special shocks for this bike because it's so light and we've got this steep angle of the shocks. Dymag wheels, you know, we're saving three kilogram on these wheels per wheel of unsprung mass, so it's a great performance upgrade. Got all these forks on the front. You know, we design our own, make our own switch gear, triple clamps, just everything. I have tried my best to capture the beauty of the bike, but it's so hard until you see it in person. In your opinion, how far has two-stroke technology evolved? Obviously, this is state-of-the-art two-stroke. So what do you think, how much has it changed? I think there's always been a sort of secret underground two-stroke tuners and there's so much knowledge out there and people making wild engines and grafted engines together. Vincenzo and Vince, they are very methodical. They're very clever people. Before we touched this engine, they spent around five years developing this engine. They make everything in-house there over in Maranello. The best thing about the engine, really, is the lubrication system. That's a really special part of it. So there's a separate carbon fiber oil tank under here that holds a liter of oil, good for about 1,000 miles, and it's got some electronic control pumps which talk to the ECU, the fuel injection. They talk to the exhaust valves and we have machined oil ways that pulse the oil directly to the crank bearings, so the four crank bearings, and directly into the injection as well. And that changes across the rev range and you can map any sort of power delivery you want. You can map any sort of lubrication. So it runs something like 150 to one on tick over, on idle, because of 30 to one ratio on max RPM. So it truly is a state-of-the-art. Yes, you get more power, you get more durability, which is key. It's that refinement where it can be fun without you fearing for your life. A lot of the people riding this bike, they grew up on two-strokes, but now actually they want something a bit more rideable and refined. It is a state-of-the-art two-stroke motor combined with your artistry. Let's go meet Roland, who's got a two-stroke from the 90s, and we'll compare the two. You have to be very mindful of what you put inside of these exotic machines. Luckily for us, one of our new channel sponsors, Pewterline, have the perfect products for these types of bikes. And they also have an awesome tool to help us work out exactly what oil we need to put inside of our two-strokes. Just head over to the Pewterline website and enter your bike model into the search bar. You'll then be presented with all the products that Pewterline recommend for your bike. I'm really happy to be partnered with Pewterline because we genuinely have been using their products for years and years, ever since I was a kid on a Junior 65. So a big thanks goes to Pewterline for supporting the channel. And remember, if you need help finding out what oil you need, just hit up the Pewterline website. There's a link in the description down below. This is Roland Shaw, a massive friend of the channel and a fellow two-stroke fanatic. And this is his prized 1992 Yamaha TZR250R. This V-twin 250 smoker is essentially the early 90s equivalent to the Lange. And amazingly, Roland's bike is in absolutely mint condition. So it enables us to do a really fair comparison between old and new. Throughout our day filming with the bikes, Roland and Chris swapped back and forth, enabling Roland to experience the Lange in its natural habitat and allowing Chris to reconnect with the TZR, which was the bike that really kick-started his love for motorcycles. Let's hear how the bikes compare in Roland's opinion. Yeah, I tell you, I really like the chassis and the brakes and the setup of it. The engine took a little bit of getting used to, but once I had, yeah, no, a lot of smiles for my mouth there. What's the difference from the engine rides, TZR and that then? It feel, even though it's not, it is the same size bore bike. It does feel like a bigger bore. The power range is set at a lower RPM. So you're feeling like it's not so zingy. It is more torquey, which makes it easier to ride. And no, it marries to the chassis really good. So compared with the TZR, TZR comes in a little bit later and is a little bit more free revving. This feels more sort of torquey and pulls better in the sort of mid RPM, where if you want to go out for 30, 40 miles and lift your cap or whatever, you don't want to be ripping the revs out of everything all the time. So this is a much better, nicer thing to go out and do what it is, which is a cap race, a ride from cap to cap. Very good. So let me just clear some things up before we compare the numbers of these two machines. Back in the day, Yamaha made a few variations of the TZR for different markets. The V-twin version was never actually sold here in the UK, but Roland's bike is a Japanese import, which explains how he got his hands on this immaculate machine. The actual model name or number for this variation is TZR-250R-3X-B4. Weighing in at 150 kilograms and pumping out 45 horsepower, the Yamaha is leagues behind the Langen in these categories. As we know, Chris's masterpiece comes in at 120 kilograms, boasting 76 ponies. Price wise though, the Yamaha wins. Even the mint is conditioned TZR will come in way, way cheaper than the Langen. We estimate that you can pick up a TZR-250 from anywhere between seven and a half and 12,000 pounds, depending on the condition and model variation. So depending on your budget, you could consider the price a drawback for the Langen, but are there any other negatives? Well, you could maybe say that the seat isn't the comfiest or that the mirrors aren't really the best or the most helpful ones in the market, but let's be real here. No one that owns a Langen has bought one for the ride comfort or the visibility that the mirrors provide. Langen owners have bought this machine for one reason and one reason only, that undeniable feeling of two-stroke ecstasy. It was a feeling that we all enjoyed on the day of our test. Admittedly, I haven't ridden many road bikes in my life, but this is definitely the most fun I've ever had. I didn't want to stop. I came around that reel, I was like, oh, is this the end? That was wicked. I think you're going to have some fun on that. And you. We were all clamoring to have a go on the Langen and the last one left to take a spin was my old dad, who helps me make these videos. Wow. Like, it makes you realize how good two-strokes can be. You know, I come from a two-stroke era and that is just something else. You can have some fun on that. The feeling that the Langen provides is both addictive and nostalgic. I guess you could, and many people like Roland still do, get that same feeling from a bike like the TZR. Although when riding a vintage bike, you are lacking the extra punch of the Langen, as well as the reliability that a new bike gives and the extra care that a company like Chris's provides. I think we can all agree that two-strokes are bloody awesome, but do they really have a place in the future of motorcycling? I thought Chris might have a good answer to that question. This bike, the Langen two-stroke, is, like we said, state-of-the-art tech for this scene, this genre of bike. Do two-strokes have a future, Chris? What do you think? I think two-strokes could have a future. You know, we're doing our best to bring them back and show what could be done. You know, if the big manufacturers would have kept on developing the technology, then, you know, this is essentially where we'd be at. This is a trick version of where we would be at, you know, but you can see that there are, particularly in the off-road world, it's good to see it's making a comeback. We think, hopefully, with people like Chris, the future of two-strokes is secured and in safe hands. I am so thankful that people like Chris exist in this world. It must take some massive cojones to decide to start your own bike company and build a machine as unique and as beautiful as the Langen. This bike truly is a work of art, and I am just so happy that we were able to give it a try. Chris is only building 100 of these machines, and I believe 70 of them have already been sold. So if you do fancy one of these for your collection, I'd be quick about it if I were you. But have no fear. I'm sure Chris's next project with Langen will be just as jaw-dropping as the 252-stroke we've enjoyed today. Thanks for riding with us, guys. If you've had fun watching this video and you'd like to see us do more road bike content in the future, please do let us know in the comments down below. And if you're new around here, be sure to subscribe for weekly two-stroke videos. But as always, guys, my name is Max, this is 999 Laser, and until next time, I'll see you at the track.