Wheatchex

I'm using renthal's half waffle grips. But then again i'm also using a twist throttle. Dunedemon: Thanks for reminding me to get streamers for the bike this year. I'm sure they will add 5-10 HP along with the matching powerbands. Wheatchex

I'm with Micorps1. Even though I may or may not like what any specific president does, I still have to support them being that they are the leader of our country. I am given (as is every eligible citizen of the US) every 4 years an opportunity to give my opinion in the form of a vote. Whilst it may seem as though my voice is not important, at least I am given a chance to voice it. Those that do not vote have no reason to bitch about what happens or who is chosen because they did not care enough to let their voice be heard at the election. The president can steer the country but the congress and senate make the rules. To blame one specific person for the troubles or triumphs of an entire nation is totally unrealistic in most cases(There are exceptions). They may have an influence, but it is up the people to decide their fate. So support the President regardless but if you want change then make your voice heard and vote. Wheatchex

In this order: 1. Job 2. Car or truck (since you won't have a banshee at this point the car may be a better choice) 2.A. sell car if that is what you currently are driving then goto 3. 3. When ready a truck. (useful to haul your future banshee around) 4. Finally the banshee. Keep the job, stay in school and get good grades, and show some responsibility so your parents will know that you can handle all these things. Wheatchex

Here is my two cents: On a stock fuel injected engine, changing only the filter to one with higher flow should not be a problem. The computer and the sensors will adjust the injector timing to bring the fuel air mix back to the specific ratios based on the factory fuel/air map. When you really start modifying your engine, you need to be aware that you will probably need larger injectors at some point. Dyno testing along with measuring FI mix ratios will be very helpfull. The reason you have to rejet the banshee is that the jets control the fuel air mix. They are non adjustable on the fly (there are exceptions, Dial-a-jet for one) so you must change them to compensate for any changes in weather, altitude, engine modifications, etc. Wheatchex

Hey Street, I fixed my mistake. At least I care enough to do that. :6 Wheatchex

I absolutely hate people who can't spell and punctuate in some semblence of legibility. No caps, all caps, spelling, shortcut spelling, mixing caps, mixing symbols and letters, poor grammar, etc is extremely frustrating to wade through. Makes me wonder what the schools are teaching kids these days. Your writing is a reflection of you. If you take pride in who you are and what you do then punctuate and use proper grammar. It shows who really cares and who doesn't. It may seem cool to use the cyber-slang and abbreviations, but for the rest of us it's a pain to stumble through. There are quite a few people for whom english is a second language that write better than those whose first language is english. At least they make the attempt to communicate well. Off my soapbox. Wheatchex

Stay in school. Use your friends for rides. Nice cars are expensive. If you must have a car a beater works just as well and has more character. As far as your bike goes, in the shape its in right now, don't expect to get much out of it. From what I was able to make out, the case is cracked, the rear shock is shot, and the radiator fittings are broke. Sounds as though the bike has been beat and abused. Save your money for your car and gradually rebuild the banshee when you are able or fix the banshee and sponge rides off your friends, walk, ride a bicycle, ride a bus, ride a horse, ride whatever. If you do sell it for 2K make sure you can either run faster than the guy you sell it to, move imediately and leave no forwarding address or are bigger than buyer is or have lots of friends who are bigger than his friends. Wheatchex Learn from this well known Bill of no rights, take note of articles I, VII and IX: The Bill of No Rights We, the sensible people of the United States, in an attempt to help everyone get along, restore some semblance of justice, avoid any more riots, keep our nation safe, promote positive behavior and secure the blessings of debt-free liberty to ourselves and our great-great-great grandchildren, hereby try one more time to ordain and establish some common sense guidelines for the terminally whiny, guilt-ridden, delusional and other liberal bedwetters. We hold these truths to be self-evident: that a whole lot of people were confused by the Bill of Rights and are so dim that they require a Bill of No Rights. ARTICLE I: You do not have the right to a new car, big screen TV or any other form of wealth. More power to you if you can legally acquire them, but no one is guaranteeing anything. ARTICLE II: You do not have the right to never be offended. This country is based on freedom, and that means freedom for everyone - and not just you! You may leave the room, turn the channel, express a different opinion, etc., but the world is full of idiots, and probably always will be. ARTICLE III: You do not have the right to be free from harm. If you stick a screwdriver in your eye, learn to be more careful. Do not expect the tool manufacturer to make you and all your relatives independently wealthy. ARTICLE IV: You do not have the right to free food and housing. Americans are the most charitable people to be found, and will gladly help anyone in need, but we are quickly growing weary of subsidizing generation after generation of professional couch potatoes who achieve nothing more than the creation of another generation of professional couch potatoes. ARTICLE V: You do not have the right to free health care. That would be nice, but from the looks of public housing, we're just not interested in health care. ARTICLE VI: You do not have the right to physically harm other people. If you kidnap, rape, intentionally maim or kill someone, don't be surprised if the rest of us want to see you fry in the electric chair. ARTICLE VII: You do not have the right to the possessions of others. If you rob, cheat or coerce away the goods or services of other citizens, don't be surprised if the rest of us get together and lock you away in a place where you still won't have the right to a big-screen color TV or a life of leisure. ARTICLE VIII: You don't have the right to demand that our children risk their lives in foreign wars to soothe your aching conscience. We hate oppressive governments and won't lift a finger to stop you from going to fight if you'd like. However, we do not enjoy parenting the entire world and do not want to spend so much of our time battling each and every little tyrant with a military uniform and a funny hat. ARTICLE IX: You don't have the right to a job. All of us sure want all of you to have one, and will gladly help you along in hard times, but we expect you to take advantage of the opportunities of education and vocational training laid before you to make yourself useful. ARTICLE X: You do not have the right to happiness. Being an American means that you have the right to pursue happiness - which by the way, is a lot easier if you are unencumbered by an overabundance of idiotic laws created by those of you who were confused by the Bill of Rights.

One thing if testing continuity of the stator coils. If you get continuity, it doesn't necessarily mean that the coil is good. Banshee stators are have known problems in that the wires of the coil will break even though the epoxy looks sound. I had the same problem with mine. I had checked everything and it all seemed good. Had the ignition coil tested and checked all the switches and wires. What was weird was the the lighting side of the stator was fine and intially when being towed and trying to bump start the engine the lights worked but no fire. That's what threw me initially. But a systematic elimination of all the parts determined that either the CDI or the stator was bad. I decided to try the stator first and sent it out to Ricky Stator and had them rewind the ignition side after seeing the cost of a new stator from Yamaha. Well worth the investment from Ricky Stator and they can also rewind the lighting side for more power output while doing the igniton side. You could also rewind the stator yourself if you can find the wire and epoxy as some have done here. Wheatchex

The handling is not changed simply by switching to a twist throttle. What does change is your riding technique which will affect how your bike handles and what you need to do to ride it well. I switched to a twist throttle after getting tired of having my thumb limit me to the length of rides I could go on. I will say that it takes some getting used to. Things to watch out for are tight right hand turns and having your wrist lock( like this _/O side view of your wrist and grip), if you do lock your wrist like this you will have full on throttle. Also jumping and landing be carefull not to grab too much throttle. Left turns aren't as bad as right turns. Go slowly at first and build up your technique being carefull to avoid over throttling. Be prepared to ride a lot longer and not have your buddies want to ride since it has the twist. Wheatchex

Seems as though RC is a common thing amoungst a lot of us. Myself included as I have quite a few RC vehicles. Planes, cars and a boat. Car wise, mine are pretty old except for the Kyosho Mini-Z and Radioshack zip-zap. Just don't have the time and places to run them. Finding a field large enough for my planes is also a problem as well. Wheatchex

Looking at it, it appears to be a removable handle or spindle for something. I assume that the way it works is that the wooden part is the handle and the metal arms rotate and grip as the plunger is pushed into the handle. But then I could be wrong.... Wheatchex

To set the rear spring, you need to set what is called Sag height. This is determined using the following method. And works best with a buddy. 1. Set the bike frame up on a stand so that the swing arm is hanging at its lowest point. 2. Choose a convenient place on the bearing carrier near the center line of the axle to measure from. 3. Now choose a convenient spot on your frame to measure to(as close to vertical as possible). Note these two spots for future reference. 4. Take the measurement and write it down. 5. Place the bike on the ground, level is best. Fill the tank with your normal amount of gas when racing, correct oil and water levels as well. 6. Get all your riding gear on and sit on the bike in your normal riding position. 7. Now take another measurement from the same two spots you used before. 8. Subtract the second measurment from the first. This number is your sag. You should set the Sag to somewhere between 3 and 4 inches(75 to 100 mm for the metrically inclined) Adjust it as needed. I believe the rebound and compression adjustments have been discussed. If nothing else play with them at the track when you are practicing to see what the effects are when adjusted to the extremes. (the adjusters are there for you to play with and change to your liking) Record your initial settings so that you can return to them if things get too far out of wack and nothing seems to be working. When making suspension adjustments, adjust only one thing at a time and evaluate it. Making more than one adjustment only confuses things and you will not know what did what. Most importantly keep a logbook of what you change and your thoughts on the change so that you can determine what works best. Also use a stop watch to help in determining if it helped or hindered your laptimes. Wheatchex Here is a good link: ATV SUSPENSION And another: Suspension

It happened again, another person dies on an ATV. Sunday in NE Ohio a 14 year old girl died after losing control on a road and running into a tree. According to the news report she was an experienced rider. Her passenger was severely injured. Both were not wearing helmets. Note to all: 1. Wear your helmets! 2. Don't ride double. 3. This sort of thing can happen to anyone at anytime. Wheatchex Heres the link to the story: ATV Accident

Mechanical Engineer for a company that produces ATM's.

I'm throwing these out: Save the whales! Collect a whole set. Vegetarian is another word for lousy hunter. Jesus saves! But Gretsky scores on rebounds. Wheatchex

The best way would be to use an airflow meter like a UniSyn or something similar. You need to synchronize at idle and just off idle(with the engine running). You want the airflow to be sthe same. The other way is to visually watch the slides to make sure they lift off at the same time. Also use a drill bit or rod to check the clearance at idle(with the engine off). Wheatchex

It just goes to show that if you are considerate and complain clearly as to what legitimately happened then more often than not you will be treated fairly. Those companies that treat their customers poorly will not be around long as word of poor service travels fast. Wheatchex

I'm going to toss this out for ya. You didin't say how old your bike is, but it could be that the crank seal is going on the right side and you are sucking in transmission oil. Do check to make sure that you have the carbs jetted the same and synchronized. You might also want to have a leakdown test run as well to confirm that the engine is sealed correctly. Also you might need to go to the next hotter plug to help keep the deposits from building up. Wheatchex

Here's to everyone having a safe and happy holiday season. Keep the men and women who are in the military and who can't be with their families in your thoughts and prayers and wish for them a safe and speedy return. Wheatchex

I would suggest a new axle. Like was said before eventually the studs will fail as the bending load on them is increased because of the spacer. The further you space them out the worse it gets. I cringe everytime when I see those ricer cars on the road that have their tires off set to the outside of the fenders. I just can't help but wonder when their wheels are going to fall off so I avoid being near them when driving. Wheatchex

First off you need to do some investigation of your own. Checking continuity of the stator lighting coils, checking the wiring for frays or broken wires, checking the switch, checking the grounds, checking the bulbs for continuity, checking connections, etc. Next any suggestions that may be given are going to be wild ass guesses (WAGS). Diagnosing problems with out being in the presence of the bike is hard enough for mechanical symptoms and damn near impossible for electrical problems. Your best bet would be to invest in a clymer manual and a cheap multimeter from Radioshack or an autoparts store. Then proceed to the wiring diagram, look at it, understand it, and begin tracing the wiring and eliminating potential sources of problems. Fortunately the wiring on the banshee is pretty simple. (Sarcastic mode on) So if you can't do any of the above, I suggest that you buy a new Banshee to replace the bad one. (Sacrcastic mode off) Wheatchex

The clymer manual has a drawing for making your own ball joint separator. I made one and it works slick. You can also make one out of an old flywheel removal tool which works on the same princple. You basically have a hollow cylinder that uses a bolt threaded into the cylinder to push the joint out. It fits between the arms over the threaded ends of the joints and applies pressure to the joint. The pickle fork while it works will destroy the boot. And once the boot is ripped you might as well throw the arm out. Avoid using the hammer as you can't get a good straight shot onto the end of the joint. Wheatchex

Try this: Loosen the chain till it's as loose as it goes(best would be to take it completely off). Then support the frame so that the rear wheels and swing arm are completely off the ground. Then try to move the axle relative to the carrier and then try to move the swing arm side to side relative to the frame. I would bet that the bearings are shot in either the axle carrier or the swing arm pivot. Possibly both. There should be no movement of either the axle relative to the carrier/swing arm or the swing arm relative to the frame. If these two checks are ok then you may have a tweeked frame or swing arm. Wheatchex

Whether you need brakes or not is determined by the state you live in. Here in Ohio anything over 2000 loaded weight is required to have brakes. It's better to be safe than sorry. Also Even if your state has a higher load limit, the states you travel through can still enforce their law if it is lower. Wheatchex

So let me get this straight. You call them up and they send you 2 games to keep for as long as you want. But you have to pay a rental fee of $22 a month. So if you keep them a year (12 months) you have paid $264 for the privlege of playing the two games for a year and then send them back. You get nothing and have paid 264 bones with nothing to show for it. Seems to me that it makes more sense to buy 5 $50 or 6 $40 games and get to keep them for that kind of money. Plus if you want you could always sell them if you didn't like them and get some money back. I'd think twice before going the Gamefly route. Why not rent them before you buy and at least you'd know if it's one you wanted to have. If I was your dad, I might buy one or two games, but not rent them from Gamefly. Wheatchex