b00sted

My buddy runs a speed shop. Overhead is pretty high, profit margins aren't exactly great, and the market sucks right now. Making the extra few bucks off the parts helps alot. Although he'd never turn anyone away for buying their own parts, he definitely prefers they buy stuff through him. Plus there's always the problems with guys ordering the wrong stuff, and then it turns into a huge nightmare because they have to return the stuff themselves(usually ship it back to where ever, wait for the new part to ship back, etc.). But then again, he will also beat Summit/Jeg's pricing, so the guys really have no reason to buy it somewhere else when they can get it quicker/cheaper through him.

That's incorrect. You obviously don't want to run a stock bore piston in one hole and a .020 over piston in the other. But you definitely want the machinist to bore the cylinder and hone it to fit each particular piston. Especially in a high performance application. GOOD machinists won't touch a motor unless they have the pistons in hand. If some machinist is going to bore your big dollar setup without having the pistons to mic and match, you should probably take your stuff and leave.

When I first learned on a dirtbike I would just gun it in first gear and bring the front up. Then I'd bring it higher and ride it out longer until I reached the balancing point. Then I started doing the same in 2nd gear. And then someone suggested I start shifting gears once I get it balancing in 2nd...And I've been doing badass wheelies ever since. I was on a 4 stroke though, so it had great torque off a low rpm, and good engine braking...Keep your foot over the rear brake because if you go too far backwards that'll be the only thing to help you on a 2-stroke. And out of the 100's of wheelies I've done, I've crashed twice. Both times sucked. First time taught me not to start the wheelie in 1st and shift to 2nd, because for somereason 2nd hit too hard and the bike would go over backwards quick. The second time taught me to not try doing wheelies with a cold motor...Because it sputtered, I gave it more gas to keep it going, and then the power came back and I went off the back again. I skinned my knees and forearms decently...And my first reaction was to jump up and push the bike home...And I felt great until I got in my house, and then I felt like crying because it burned so bad.

It can be treated like 104-105. With a slightly higher detonation threshold due to the high alcohol content. The mixture of ethanol to gasoline varies too. The mixing is usually done at the gas station itself. A few local guys have been testing all the different stations here that carry e85, and the percentage of alcohol varies from 80-90%. e85performance.net has some good info regarding all of this.

And believe me, I know all about those expensive roads...

I'll probably just start with the usual bolt-ons and then probably just build a cub eventually. I want to stay away from methanol. At most I'd run straight ethanol, but meth is a little too high maintenance for me. What I'm aiming for is a fast trail bike. Something that makes nice power, but can still be ridden all day without any problems. Probably a +4 arm at most so it's still capable in tight trails, and I hear the Pro Circuit and FMF pipes have great powerbands.

I've been looking at a cool head with domes to up the compression. Probably convert to run on E85 and up the compression/timing to make use of the 105 octane. Plus the supporting mods needed to run that fuel, and bolt ons.

They've been mixing in Ethanol to our gas around here for years now. It's no issue. Ethanol is basically the same alcohol you consume. Methanol, on the other hand, is highly corrosive and may cause issues. People confuse the two all the time. E85(85% ethanol, 15% gasoline and other misc things) is the shit. 105 octane rating, high alcohol content(cools the combustion chanber) meaning you can run slightly more compression and timing, etc. Price wise, you save a few bucks a gallon over 104-105 octane race gas even after factoring in the 30% loss in fuel economy.

Nope, 6500. But if the motor warms up and the piston slap goes away, it shouldn't cause any problems. If you beat on it while it's still cold, then sure.

This isn't really hardcore drag-racing, but how does an 03 banshee compare to a 06-07 YFZ 450? I know someone with a 450 and he swore up and down it was the quickest production quad out there...Just wondering if there was any truth to that. Also, just wondering, stock for stock, how the two would compare.

Most LS1 camaros/vettes/firebirds come from the factory with piston slap...And they'll go for 150k miles without any issues. My firebird sounds horrible until it gets warmed up(and then it mostly goes away). The car still makes all the power it did from the factory(13.0 with just a catback.stock auto trans/ 97k miles). Just warm the motor up well before you go beat on it and it shouldn't be an issue for quite a while. I don't think you'll have any performance loss until the piston/wall tolerances open up too much and you start to lose compression.