Cody Webb, from Sherco Factory One, has achieved great success in Trials, Hard Enduro, and EnduroCross throughout his career. He has always raced a 300 2-stroke in Hard Enduro, but switched to a 4-stroke in EnduroCross since 2016. The 4-stroke was believed to provide superior torque, which was crucial for traction and speed in clearing big obstacles in the technical and jumpy EnduroCross tracks.

However, things have changed recently. Jonny Walker from Beta has proven that a 2-stroke is a viable and winning option (second in World Super Enduro and the winner of the 2022 AMA EnduroCross) on the man-made circuits of EnduroCross. This year, Cody Webb followed suit and appeared in the first round of the AMA EnduroCross series riding a Factory Sherco 300 2-stroke. Cody had a good day, finishing second overall behind Walker’s Beta 300 2-stroke. Here’s his explanation for the switch.

Cody explained, “I ultimately made the decision to go back to the two stroke since that’s what I race year-round and I might as well stay on what I’m used to. We made some changes like a high compression head and some VP race fuel to increase the throttle response of the bike. Since we know two strokes have that slight delay before the power kicks on, this was for me to have instant power delivery of the bike that matches what I’m trying to make it do out there on the track. When things are going well on a four stroke, they’re going very well. When mistakes are made, however, I find it very hard to recover with all that extra rotating mass in the engine. For example, in the rocks, if I get offline I find it very hard to recover, and I am most likely going to end up off the track with the four stroke. When on the two stroke, the bike is a lot more playful underneath me, and I can get it back on track a lot easier without losing much time. Another reason is that the fans love two strokes, and so do I! It was an easy sell for me.”