Joshtruction Posted June 15, 2007 Report Posted June 15, 2007 I can't take it anymore. I NEED a banshee. I have wanted one for far too long. I sit here and get my joy out of watching all you guys buy, build, and part out bikes. I want to be part of it but I can't ever afford it. I rode one Banshee in like 01 and I have been hooked ever since. My mom is sick with cancer and I am taking care of her and her mortgage, and I also have a 3 month old baby boy. I am so excited about my son, yet so sad about my mom, and all of it has me in the pits with the cash situation. I know I can never afford to buy a bike right now. That being said here are a few questions... You guys mod like crazy. I see some amazing shit going down here. Makes me wonder if I can part together a beater banshee off of all of your used stock parts? How much cash do you think that would set me back? I just want so bad to be out there riding and sharing stories with you guys and having fun. Now my day dream stuff... Once I get a quad I know I can only afford one single one, and I like to do all types of riding. I am talking sand, drag, small jumps, and trails. I live in an area where I can find anything from muddy trails to miles and miles of dunes so I need a bike that can do all of it. I also have a group of friends with yfz's, cannondales, and the new zuki 450. They all have near stock bikes but love to drag. When I say near stock I am comparing them to bikes like the ones I see here. The YFZ and cannondale seem to always be battling back and forth. I know both are cammed, and have exhaust and a few other mods. How hard would it be to get a shee to smoke a cammed piped YFZ? Would stock port and stock stroke cubs be too much for what I want to do? Do you guys think I should go with a stock, longer, or shorter swing arm? Perhaps a dune port and in frame drag pipes? Just build a nice MX shee and hope it has enough punch to hang with the guys in the drags? I weigh about 260 so it's a little bit harder to get me going haha. What would the downfall of cubs be on the trail? Do they just make so much power I will hurt my self? I rode MX on assorted 250 2 wheelers for years. Once I finally get a quad, it will be my first one. I ride my friends bikes quite a bit though. Quote
KaosBanshee44 Posted June 15, 2007 Report Posted June 15, 2007 Sounds like you wanna bike to ride around on and have fun but yet have power (cheap power) and be able to control it when you ride trails etc but yet still wanna beat your buddies. If your buddies are running 450s with just exhaust and a few things here and there you should be able to hang with them with a banshee if you get pipes, jet kit, reeds, and a few other things. Your still gonna look at spending over a grand to beat them. Quote
RagunCajun Posted June 15, 2007 Report Posted June 15, 2007 How hard would it be to get a shee to smoke a cammed piped YFZ? My opinion is impossible if they can drive well. A stock yfz450 w/o the baffle killed my shee with basic bolt ons. YFZ's are a beast. Mod for mod, 450's will beat a banshee. But if you go beyond just the basic bolt ons, the banshee takes the lead and it's cheaper to do. Get a shee, port it and mod it according to the port job to really bring out that port job and you will be fine. That's my 2 cents. Oh yeah, learn to drive it. It took me a while. Quote
Washburn Posted June 15, 2007 Report Posted June 15, 2007 First Im sorry to hear about your Mother best wishes and I understand kids can be a handfull and a wallet full. Your best bet is to save up a grand or soo and go hunting for beater bikes. Broken down, need rebuilt, and if you know how to rebuild them then your set on a stack. If you cant find one outside of the papers be prepared to spend 2500 but most Banshees come with pipes jetted mabey a few other things. Depending on the rider you can smoke some 450s and be prepared to get smoked with just pipes. A Banshee with pipes milled head advanced timimg and bigger carbs/carb is hard to beat in a drag for an all around bike. Good luck with whatever you do but like I said save up a grand it goes a long way when someone needs cash on the spot in any case. Quote
Joshtruction Posted June 16, 2007 Author Report Posted June 16, 2007 First Im sorry to hear about your Mother best wishes and I understand kids can be a handfull and a wallet full. Your best bet is to save up a grand or soo and go hunting for beater bikes. Broken down, need rebuilt, and if you know how to rebuild them then your set on a stack. If you cant find one outside of the papers be prepared to spend 2500 but most Banshees come with pipes jetted mabey a few other things. Depending on the rider you can smoke some 450s and be prepared to get smoked with just pipes. A Banshee with pipes milled head advanced timimg and bigger carbs/carb is hard to beat in a drag for an all around bike. Good luck with whatever you do but like I said save up a grand it goes a long way when someone needs cash on the spot in any case. I was thinking of this too. Problem is finding Shee's in my area. They are rarely for sale and it seems like no one around has one. I have never seen a broken down one and I have only met two people that own them. Shops up in this area would not even order them new when they were available. If I do get one I will have no problem fixing it since I wrench for a speedshop for a living. I have full access to all thier tools plus my tools and discount on typical machine work like rebores. I know I am not going to get a bike that can beat my friends bikes right now. At this point I will jsut be happy to be out there. Down the road I would like some big power mods though. If I could get something piped, and jetted with a cool head in the next year or two I'd be a very very happy guy. Here are a few more quick questions... Whats the downfall of cubs on a trail? Could I get my crank welded and be fine with cubs, or should I look into aftermarket cranks? How much does it cost to get a crank trued and welded? Is a drag/dune port on a stock cylender too much for trail riding? Thanks for the kind words about my mom. I appreciate it. Quote
fastrthnu Posted June 16, 2007 Report Posted June 16, 2007 Build one some at a time. I buil`t mine part by part from nothing. was really easy and more rewarding. I have more respect for it than the last one I had which got stolen. if you cant save up enough money, a bit at a time might be easier. Just a suggestion. Its not difficult and with the help of this website, you could do it with no knowledge of the bike whatsoever. When I first put mine together it was all stock to, I got the pipes and head n whatnot later one I could afford it, but still had a running bike to ride. Good luck to ya, hope you get one one way or another. Quote
Joshtruction Posted June 16, 2007 Author Report Posted June 16, 2007 Build one some at a time. I buil`t mine part by part from nothing. was really easy and more rewarding. I have more respect for it than the last one I had which got stolen. if you cant save up enough money, a bit at a time might be easier. Just a suggestion. Its not difficult and with the help of this website, you could do it with no knowledge of the bike whatsoever. When I first put mine together it was all stock to, I got the pipes and head n whatnot later one I could afford it, but still had a running bike to ride. Good luck to ya, hope you get one one way or another. Thats exactly what I was thinking of doing. How much did it cost you to get yours going part by part? If it is going to be a ton more than buying a complete I may have to save. Seems like when ever I save the world throws a curveball at me and I have to spend my savings. If I buy part by part I can't go paying a bill with a banshee frame haha. thats what really has me thinking. Maybe I can find a cheap roller on here. I doubt I will find anything near massachusetts though. Quote
fastrthnu Posted June 16, 2007 Report Posted June 16, 2007 Thats exactly what I was thinking of doing. How much did it cost you to get yours going part by part? If it is going to be a ton more than buying a complete I may have to save. Seems like when ever I save the world throws a curveball at me and I have to spend my savings. If I buy part by part I can't go paying a bill with a banshee frame haha. thats what really has me thinking. Maybe I can find a cheap roller on here. I doubt I will find anything near massachusetts though. It cost me about $2400 after all said and done parts+shipping. Some stuff like rims, bars, levers, blockoff, tors elim. and whatnot where aftermarket, motor had 4 hours after rebuild. Took 2.5 months to kick it over a roller. Now frames and parts are selling much cheaper becuase so many people are parting out bikes. You just have to put your feelers out and watch what everything is going for so you dont pay to much and take your time. Dont buy a complete set of a arms because its all there together for $350 when a week later you could win em from an auction for $200. If you buy from here, make sure its someone with a decent rep, look throuh the feedbacks left. Im sure there are alot of guys with 35 posts that are honest, but it can be an expensive mistake. Never use cash, try to use paypal or something where there is a record of payment unless they are a well known seller. Quote
Joshtruction Posted June 17, 2007 Author Report Posted June 17, 2007 OK so I spent all weekend checking all the papers, want ads, online classifieds, and spent some time asking friends. Here are my results... "Super Race J-Arm baha Banshee. Rare J arm Model highly collectable. Has motor issues. 5500 Firm. Get it while it last!!!! I called the guy for shits and giggles and he thinks it's a gold mine because it's a J arem frame. He also thinks either the carbs or the top end is shot but he can't tell. "1995 Yamaha Banshee 350 V twin. Low hours, all stock, never raced, never abused. Save thousands over new, 3700obo" I got a kick out of the v twin and save over new since there is no such thing as a new one anymore. Then there was one 2001 with laeger a arms, MX port, cool head, and all the other typical mods. Works shocks and what not for 4500. Seemed like the best find so far. Still far too expensive for me especially in my current situation. I wish I could find a roller for the 600 bucks I have saved up but I know thats not gonna happen. I can't wait until my financial situation turns around so I can blow lots of cash on a banshee. Who knows when that will be though. Quote
HammerShee99 Posted June 17, 2007 Report Posted June 17, 2007 Ebay might not be a bad place to look... I wouldn't recommend eBay if you're looking for something that's running and in super-good condition because there's always the possibility of getting hosed on that deal unless you can really inspect the quad up close before you commit to buy it, but since you're mainly just looking for a roller, I don't think you'd be too disappointed. Also, there's always the chance that you can find something around your area on eBay that hasn't been advertised anywhere else. For instance, I bought mine on eBay for $2100, and the guy delivered the quad halfway to here so I only had about a 3 1/2 hour drive to go pick it up. He wasn't completely up front about how well it ran (it was waaaaaay low on compression when I got it and he didn't mention that) but even that considered, I still got my money's worth, since I bet he had at least twice as much in mods on it (he also didn't mention that it has a 4mil stroker crank). Long story short, I have about $3000 into it now, and I figure I have something that'll be at least almost as fast as any 4 stroke that'd cost me twice as much to buy, so I'm happy with how things went. Quote
Joshtruction Posted June 18, 2007 Author Report Posted June 18, 2007 (edited) is this a good deal? http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Yamaha-Bans...1QQcmdZViewItem I kind of really really want this. I actually think thats an incredible deal. I asked him how much for shipping, and if he is reasonable I am going to grab it and have my first banshee project. Edited June 18, 2007 by Joshtruction Quote
wwhite749 Posted June 19, 2007 Report Posted June 19, 2007 i dont know where you are at in the states but i have a buddy getting ride of a 93 banshee for 1000 bucks, has some issues but its a banshee.... its near san diego. and sorry to hear about your mom her illness will make you a stronger person may not seem like that now but you will see some day... Quote
Joshtruction Posted June 19, 2007 Author Report Posted June 19, 2007 i dont know where you are at in the states but i have a buddy getting ride of a 93 banshee for 1000 bucks, has some issues but its a banshee.... its near san diego. and sorry to hear about your mom her illness will make you a stronger person may not seem like that now but you will see some day... Massachusetts. I'd say a little too far away to make a deal unfortunately. Quote
wwhite749 Posted June 19, 2007 Report Posted June 19, 2007 yeah that might be a little bit of a drive for him Quote
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