I've burned up some 2-strokes that were going lean and, YES!, they go like hell before they melt down.
I had a Jawa moped back in the 70's...I took the baffle out of the muffler, ran a hotter sparkplug, bumped up the timing, and put Sears gas in it...(you could get two grades of hi-test from Sears auto back then...IIRC...it was 98 octane for mid-grade and 108 for Super..!)
It ran better for a while...the engine must not have been broken in yet...
but...one night in the summer I was coming home from the other side of town...and I musta been a little lit from some bootleg beer...
I was going down hill and I decided to run 'er wide open and if it was going to fly apart...oh, well...
It was a two-stroke...and you know how they will run ok until it hits a sweet spot...(we used to call it...'getting on the pipe'..)
and then it cut loose and ran up to an RPM that I had never seen or felt before...
Sounded something like this...
(normal accel)..."BBBBRRRRRRRR....MMMMM....
(former top RPM...a 'burble'.." BUDDBBUUDDBBUUDD"
(then scary...like it was winding to the moon...)
"WWWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANNNNNNNNNNNN......"
First thing I thought was that it WAS going to fly apart..!!!
BUT...IT DIDN'T....YYEEEEEE....HHAAAAAAA....!!!!
After that night...if I was on level road or a slight down hill...it would do it kinda regularly...
I got the thing to almost do 40 MPH...I loved it...
Was it running lean, guys..?