Welding crank

[BansheeBoy08]

Tomorrow me and my dad are going look at a 97 shee. It has fmf pipes and a cool head, IDK about anything else on the bike. I want to get it ported for some serious top speed, is welding the crank necessary?? also, wil lthe stock clutch be able to handle a lot of HP??

Thanks

[RNBRAD]

Well that's a really debated topic for sure. I've seen more articles that are against it than for it, same with builders. You could have a welded crank and a non welded crank and either could last a long time or either could grenade tomorrow. Welding them comes with no guarantee and they will generally crack right around the weld. Trinity Racing said when a cranks is ready to seperate, a weld isn't going to stop it. You best bet is to take care of your motor, keep it properly tuned and check crank tolerances when redoing top end and this should hopefully give you a sign of impending doom. One thing I know is racers from the rd350 days never or seldomly welded their cranks and were running close to triple digit power on their cranks. Some say the cranks in those bikes aren't as abused as a banshee's. In certain instances maybe not, but as a whole I would disagree. Most important thing is to have a trued crank to within .001 of round. This is defintely worth a couple hp and mainly why the rd racers didn't weld their cranks. A welded crank won't be as true after welding as before. Now it may hold a lower tolerance longer, but for how long is the question. I dunno, the research hasn't been done as far as banshee's are concerned but their is plenty of information on the rd rz cranks and race bike stuff.