2003LimitedBanshee

Sredish, thanks for the bump up. To answer your questions, the main modification you have to make is to the lower arms; the uppers do not require a thing, they simply bolt in. As for the lowers, you must trim the outside of the lower mounts, i.e. front of the front mount and rear of the rear mount, ON the A-ARMS; requires no frame modifications at ALL! However, this leaves a gap between the a-arm mounts and the frame mounts on the inside; that's where my spacers come in. They serve a dual purpose. First they take up the extra space to eliminate any possibility of flex within the a-arm mounts and second they also serve as the bolt sleeve for the a-arm bolts. The modification is not terribly difficult, but I took the extra step to design a jig for cutting the a-arms so that I can repeat the process to exact specifications easily. I'm now also offering a service where I will modify your lower arms, bushings and set you up with a set of my spacers for $125. That covers shipping back to you as well; all you have to do is come up with the core parts and cover shipping on the lowers TO me. Dgrey, I did get your most recent PM. I am currently out of stock on core a-arms. Good, clean stock parts have been hard to come by lately. I had a good rush and supply earlier in the year; think a lot of the MX guys were modding their new bikes before the race year. But now everything seems beat up and priced high; that is if the parts even show. I've been stiffed on a couple deals now; makes any kind of profit hard to come by. So, sob story aside, I'm looking for stock parts, if you come up with them first I'd be more than happy to modify them for you, but in the mean time I am constantly on the lookout and I keep record of who is interested so that I can contact individuals as they come available. I tried, and was able to early in the year, keep a couple kits on the shelf ready to go out the door. In most cases I was able to have people in kits within about a week from the time they ordered. But now with parts.... As always, thanks everyone for the interest and keep me in mind for your 450 suspension needs! - Brian

Both I suppose would be the correct answer. They are specific to the banshee in that you can use your stock rod ends, but made to the specific length for installation of the YFZ arms on the banshee. Sorry for the crappy response, I'm actually stealing a last dunes trip before academy and trying to keep current from my iPhone. Thanks! - Brian

John, why don't we try and plan to do up the arms at the end of october. My academy actually lasts 9 months, so we don't want to wait until it's over to modify them. I will let you know when it gets a bit closer, but let's try and get them to my shop about the third week of october and i can modify the the weekend of the 27th. Thanks! - Brian

Sounds great John, bear in mind that I will be leaving on the 22nd, approximately one week from today, so hopefully the timing will work out. Beyond that point, I know I will be back at my shop on the 27th of October, with a slight possibility of being able to get back down on the 13th, but that is just a one day break and it is an eight hour round trip drive back and forth, so I can't guarantee I will be back on that date. I am more than happy to do the work, I just want to make you aware of my schedule. Hopefully everything will all work out with the timing of it all. Thanks! - Brian

Thanks again Zach, still not sure what their deal was, but glad we were able to both come out happy. John, that's too bad about your a-arm deal falling through. Although it will be more intermittent, I will still be able to keep some contact with BHQ while I'm at fire academy. It is looking like my first break to get back to my shop is going to be near the end of October, possibly one day a little earlier in the month, but that is still tenative. Everyone out there, keep in touch with me and we should be able to coordinate things even in my back and forth schedule. Thanks to everyone!! - Brian

Sounds great John! Keep me posted and the sooner the better. I leave for Fire Academy on the 22nd of the month and it will be nearly a month before I have a break to get back to my shop. PM me and I will PM you my contact details so that we can get something arranged prior to my departure. I've got all the necessary parts that I need to convert over your arms so we should be in good shape there. Thanks! - Brian

I would say to have them modified and then powdercoat them. Believe me I completely understand about being picky about your toys, I am the same way. Like I say, that has been my problem as of late, locating parts that I would not be ashamed to sell to someone. Essentially, if I wouldn't be willing to put it on my bike, I'm not going to sell it to you. Keep me posted on you parts status. I will be starting at my fire academy towards the end of the month but we should still be able to coordinate something. Thanks!! - Brian

Sorry guys, long holiday weekend. The long and short of my current stock is that I haven't been able to locate core parts lately off of the 450's. So, if anyone knows where to come up with good cores fill me in. My normal sources have dried up as of late and I've had a couple bad experiences trying to buy parts off of eBay lately, mainly with messed up parts once they showed up. Keep in mind I am still offering the modification service. For $125 I will modify your lower arms, bushings, install my spacers for the conversion and cover the shipping back to you. I can also pair them with NOSS tie rods for a little extra. So if you locate your own parts but feel uneasy about modifying them yourself, contact me and I would be more than happy to chuck them up in my jigs and modify them for you. Also, I still have the parts for converting them if you locate and feel comfortable modifying your own parts, but need the spacers and tie rods to really complete the conversion. I feel the spacers alone are truly what make this conversion a sell. Thanks! - Brian

As far as the YFZ taillight goes, absolutely!! I've been running one for about a year and a half now; ever since they switched to the clear LED taillight. The mount is slightly different so I fabricated a mount that would accept the YFZ taillight, mount to the stock banshee location and recess the taillight a little farther under the bike. If you do a search in the Appearance forum for YFZ taillight you should be able to find the post I made with some pics etc. I'll see if I can find it too... - Brian

Yes, it does. Track width is widened by approx 2.25" per side, so the bike will track nearly 4.5" wider than stock with the 450 a-arms.

Man, page 3, I must have fallen out of favor! Anyway, I have had some recent requests for pictures etc. of my kits and spacers again, so I thought I would bump this towards the top and let everyone look it over once more. Also, I've been having trouble locating core parts lately, so kits have been harder to package... BUT, I do still have conversion parts and I am willing to convert core parts using my jigs for you! In my for sale posting I have this listed, but, I will convert your lower arms that you ship to me, for $125 I'll modify them to spec, modify the bushings, install my spacers and ship them back to your door. Spacers are still $49 shipped to the lower 48, NOSS tie rod and spacer packages are $95 shipped to lower 48. Tie rods available separately as well. Thanks! -Brian

I "made" a real nice ball joint separator for the banshee spindles that was easy out of some older parts I had laying around. I used a "drag" style lug nut, open all the way through, and a fine thread (just what the lug nut happened to be) 1/2" bolt. Essentially, you take one castle nut off and thread the bolt and lug nut apart until it provides pretty good pressure, then with one, two at most usually, medium hits with a ball peen hammer it will pop right loose. Plus, you'll never damage a boot this way. As far as balljoint separators or pickleforks or whatever, I have a whole mess of them, but have yet to find one that will work, so not sure about that.

Frank, got your PM and shot back my opinions to you. Look forward to doing some business with you! Also, FYI for everyone else, my PC has been down (tried a CPU upgrade, less than successful!), but I'm back up and running now! -Brian

Sorry about that, my PC has been down. I PM'd you back just today. Now you won't be able to see it, but you may have noticed that I hadn't been online in almost a week. Sorry to leave you guys hanging, but I'm back up and running again! -Brian

Glad you like them! Again, my apologies on the shipping snafu. Can't wait to see what they look like on your bike and hear how you feel about them! -Brian

Man page 4, how did I fall so far from the front? Anyway, just wanted to bump back up and let everyone know that I'm still doing the 450 A-Arm kits. I'm actually completely sold out right now, but I am working on getting parts back in stock. Please let me know if you are interested in spacers, kits, tie rods or whatever to make a conversion and I will accumulate parts for people. Thanks! -Brian

As long as they are straight, I will definitely take one. Let me know, thanks!!

I absolutely love mine! The 450 arms do soften it up a bit as the gain a considerable amount of leverage being 2.25" wider per side. I am running the 2007 SE Hi/Low speed compression adjustable shocks and I can tune them to my liking great. Good luck and let us know what you think!

Enjoy those spacers!!! I hear they are from a real reputable guy... :biggrin:

The sand pictures I have posted up are actually from the Spinreel area, around Spider tree more or less. But, I do some riding up at Winchester also. As far as being too wide, I haven't run into any yet that have been TOO narrow for me to pass, but I have ran across several that I wouldn't what to be more than an inch or two off the line or you would probably start scuffing the sidewall. As far as some of the quicker trails along the edge of the dunes (mainly referring to Horsfall to Spinreel stretches) I absolutely love it!! I used to hate the trails and sand roads with the whoops, but now I eat them up. For the most part, I can crank along with my buddies on their dirtbikes on the sand roads while the rest of my quad buddies fall behind. I could never do that on my stock suspension. I don't jump much, but my last trip over I was with a couple guys that do and so I was jumping some also. The bike came up great and landed feather soft! Not just because I have them for sale, but I think this is a really good swap overall. Sure, you can get some added adjustability etc. with aftermarket stuff, but I bet most people won't use it to 50% of its potential. :cool:

I like the second link especially... :biggrin: However, a big tip of the hat to MulletMan in the first link. His write-up was definitely the driving force behind my swap and then later decision to package kits for everyone who is interested. kfngrn, yes this swap utilizes the 450 A-arms, both upper and lower, with the lowers being modified to fit the stock Banshee frame mounts. I have taken, I feel a step further, by designing a spacer/sleeve specifically for this swap that takes up the extra space created when the lower arms are modified. The links tedd1 (a "customer" of mine) provided will give you an even more in depth explanation of what is going on. By the way, I have more kits available, NOSS or stock 450 tie rod and spacers too for you do-it-yourselfers. Thanks! ~ Brian

Well right this very second I am out of stock on the spacers, but I hope to have them by late this week. I can ship to Canada for another $15, so it makes them $330 shipped, for a NOSS tie rod kit that is. The only colors I have in right now are silver, but I have found a source for factory matched paint which I am willing to share with anyone. I have stayed away from painting them at this point personally. Thanks for the interest!!

Man, I just got back in town after being gone for the weekend and this was a great surprise/welcome to come home to on the HQ!! First, glad you liked the kit so well, I feel they are turning out real nice. Sounds like the install must have gone as painlessly as I anticipated, another "glad to hear it!". I hope you continue to enjoy the kit and thanks again for everyone's (peter also!) good publicity/review. How are those SE Banshee arms treating you Roost? NY98Banshee, I think you contacted me a little while ago correct? Kind of neat to see that I have spoken to everyone on this thread so far in regards to parts and pieces... :thumbsup:

Pics to come fasstbanshee... nice looking bike by the way! Anybody else?

Alright, so I've still got some stock parts kicking around that I would like to get rid of... -Stock Airbox (filter etc.) (x2) - $35 shipped each, not cut or modified in any way -Stock '03 Limited Front Shocks (yellow w/Black Shockwears) - $90 shipped -Stock Reed Blocks with Boyesen Power Reeds (less than 20 hours) - $40 shipped -Heelguards - $20 + shipping TBD -Stock pipes (2 sets), stinger tubes (2 sets) and silencers (1 set) in factory new condition - $15 + actual shipping for a complete set -Stock taillight & bracket ('03 brake light ready) - $15 shipped If you don't like the prices or are looking for something else let me know, we'll see what we can work out. Oh and did I mention I have 450 A-arms kits??? :biggrin: