I created this reply on a technical 2stroke board hoping to raise hopes about the future of 2strokes as a technology. I thought I'd post it here too.
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Marketing. Marketing is the answer. The technology and the product are almost completely secondary. If the product sells itself, you can spend less on marketing, but let it be absolutely clear that products on the verge of failure have succeeded with an overhaul in marketing. One example that I always use is the successful thighmaster exercise fad gadget that we all remember. The original owner marketed it as a total body fitness solution. The new owner buying the rights for dirt cheap, picked up Suzanne Summers and pointed the application at one body part – thighs. An inferior product with an excellent marketing strategy (we all know diet and exercise is the product people really need to buy).

As technologists we aren’t necessarily good marketers. There are occasional occurrences like Bill Gates, Jobs who make it well in both worlds, but from what I gather, it’s more the exception rather than the rule. It’s just a completely different discipline.

Another good marketing example is the 4stroke “revolution” itself! In the 90’s 4 strokes in the offroad market were not the high performance platform. 2strokes were, and everyone knew it. No one was racing an XR400 in the supercross. No one. That was the job of the 2stroke and was obvious. So, now we have 4strokes in the supercross and everyone buying 450’s – a completely shift in a long running held belief and product landscape. Why? Marketing. If you look at history, it’s unbelievable the things you can sell the public with the right marketing and in the political arena, propaganda. Don’t underestimate the inability of people to think for themselves. That’s a harsh way to say it, but it’s not untrue and it can and will be capitalized on, over and over and over, every single day.

Now give the public a good product and some decent marketing and it will take over the marketplace, as you said, overnight (you wouldn’t go back to VHS over the DVD right?) Besides, didn’t it already happen when 2strokes came onto the GP scene, (when the displacement rules weren’t bent to allow an inferior performance engine to compete - which is a tentacle again, of marketing)? I can’t remember where I read it honestly, but I believe Honda prior said they would never make 2strokes. But soon after they realized they had to compete to sell a bike and were forced to make and sell them. The point is that 2strokes have taken over before in large part because the product has overwhelming merit in high performance engines. Again, good product, good marketing will equal a sales following. Stated from that broad level, I don’t think it’s a matter of opinion or speculation.

Lastly, the pain is swelling in people who are paying the maintenance bill for high performance 4strokes. Evinrude capitalizes on this in their advertisements very heavily. There is a youtube video of an ad of theirs where the shop a customer goes in to pay his bill at actually kicks him in the crotch as a metaphor for the cost associate with maintaining his 4stroke. They also hit on emissions. They claim their engines have fewer emissions than 4strokes even. With the emissions technical hurdle out of the way, the rest is up to marketing professionals to sell the rest of the advantages.

I’m not pessimistic about the future of widespread use of DI bikes in terrestrial applications – at all. That kind of conviction will be required to see it through too. You have to believe strongly in your vision if you want it to materialize. We’re all accomplished people in here and we know that first hand probably many times over already. Don’t have doubt.
* 2stroke have made 4strokes irrelevant before.
* Inferior products make lots of money all the time with the right marketing.
* 2strokes can easily be a superior performance product than a comparable 4stroke.
It CAN be done.