Yamaha Banshee

The Yamaha Banshee quad bike has been my favorite for many years, i currently own one and it gives me nothing but pleasure. This quad has been in production for so long but it has always been a top seller due to its unique features.

The powerplant is a liquid cooled 350cc twin cylinder engine derived from the Yamaha RD350LC road bike. It is not the greatest liquid cooled design as is basically an air cooled bottom end with liquid ...
...save on design costs when Yamaha first borught out a water cooled version of the original air cooled road bike engine. There are many aftermarket products to improve the cooling of your machine but unless you are modifying it for racing then i do not recommend the need for such parts. The engine characteristics are very appealing due to the revvy nature and screaming sound, even at factory condition they can rev up to about nine and a half thousand ... more

The Yamaha Banshee quad bike has been my favorite for many years, i currently own one and it gives me nothing but pleasure. This quad has been in production for so long but it has always been a top seller due to its unique features.

The powerplant is a liquid cooled 350cc twin cylinder engine derived from the Yamaha RD350LC road bike. It is not the greatest liquid cooled design as is basically an air cooled bottom end with liquid cooled cylinders and head stuck on top. This was to save on design costs when Yamaha first borught out a water cooled version of the original air cooled road bike engine. There are many aftermarket products to improve the cooling of your machine but unless you are modifying it for racing then i do not recommend the need for such parts. The engine characteristics are very appealing due to the revvy nature and screaming sound, even at factory condition they can rev up to about nine and a half thousand rpm so i am told! If you were deciding to upgrade your banshee then a good step would be to consider some aftermarket exhaust pipes and a fuel mixture change to suit. My personal favourite set up is a set of Toomey T5 exhausts with 34mm Mikuni carbs and a 310 main jet to be on the safe side with engine temperatures.

The frame is of mild steel contrustion and of a good solid design, my banshee is 13 years old, having many of those years out on the race track and the frame is still in reasonable condition. This is a credit to Yamaha's original design and as long as the machine has been looked after reasonable, this should not cause too much concern for a potential buyer of a second hand Banshee.

The suspension set up it reasonable as standard and after a bit of time playing with settings you should have a comfortable bike that will handle most of the terrain you throw at it! The use of a good front A-Arm set up in conjunction with this suspension provides for a good level of handling overall on this quad bike. There are many different options for altering your suspension set-up, for instance a great handling improvement for a road legal banshee user would be a simple lowering bracket, available from many shops and internet sites, which will bring your centre of gravity down and improve the stability of your quad in higher speed cornering of tarmac surfaces.

The bike comes with disc brakes all round and these provided sufficient stopping power for almost all off-road applications. If you are considering a Banshee for the road you may want to upgrade the fron brakes slightly. This may seem like a problem but actually there is a pleasingly easy remedy. If you can find a set of second hand YFZ450 calipers then these will bolt stright on to your banshee stub axles and give you much improving braking distances. A good set of these calipers may set you back £100-150 but it is a well worthwhile upgrade for the higher speeds of road going use. You definatly dont want to be getting brake fade at 90mph!! In fact what i have done to my banshee is cut some small plastic air scoops and fix them at about a 30 degree angle to the disc in order to funnel more air over the whole system!

The handlebar and controls are similar to most other quad bikes and once you have altered the factory setting on the handlebar position you will find it quite comfortable to ride. I do recommend a set of aftermarket handlebar grips to make long rides more comfortable!

Also the Banshee has proved a winner at many race events over the years, from European Supermoto championships to the Pond de Veux 24hr race. I green laned my bike for a year or so without problems then decided to get in supermoto racing with it.
The aftermarket options for this bike are incredible, from ignition to exhausts there is a company willing to help. Currently i have increased the cc to 420 and am getting 83.1hp running on race fuel!! However there is no need to modify this bike in order to go racing or just have fun.

As an overview i recommended this quad to any 2-stroke lover or someone who wants to be unique in the modern field of 4-stroke machines while still being competitivly matched. Also the looks of this bike are a very love/hate affair, to me there gorgeous but some feel they are outdated, i will leave this to you!

Engine:

ENGINE TYPE 2 CYL. LIQ. COOLED 2-STROKE
DISPLACEMENT 347 CC
BORE AND STROKE 64 X 54 MM
COMPRESSION RATIO 6.5 : 1
LUBRICATION PREMIX
CARBURETTOR MIKUNI VM 26 SS (2)
IGNITION ELECTRONIC CDI
STARTER KICK
PETROL TANK 12 LITRES
FINAL TRANSMISSION CHAIN
GEARBOX 6 SPEED

Chassis:

OVERALL LENGTH 1866mm
OVERALL WIDTH 1100mm
OVERALL HEIGHT 1080mm
SEAT HEIGHT 800mm
WHEELBASE 1280mm
MIN. GROUND CLEARANCE 135mm
DRY WEIGHT 175KG
BRAKES - FRONT HYDRAULIC DOUBLE DISC
BRAKES - REAR HYDRAULIC DISC
TYRES - FRONT 21 X 7-10
TYRES - REAR 20 X 10-9
WARRANTY 12 months (subject to conditions)
COLOURS BLUE

Spec info taken from UK yamaha dealer 

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