Yamaha Banshee

march 98 HIGH-PERFORMANCE TWO-STROKE For the past ten years, Yamaha’s High-Performance Two-Stroke, liquid-cooled, twin-cylinder, Ban­shee has stood atop the throne of ATVing. Since its introduction in ’87, it has been the ultimate roller-coaster ride among sport ATVs, and one of the best high-performance two-strokes ever made. Few, if any, of its chal­lengers have had the staying pow­er and all-out performance that has marked the Banshee’s reign as the king of speed. From the rat-a-tat-tat sound of the…

*To subscribe to Dirt Wheels Magazine in print or digital form click here https://hi-torque.com/product/dirtwheels. TOO MUCH IS BARELY ENOUGH Bruce Owen at C&O Racing in Redondo Beach, CA, knows there are few production quads that can match the thrill and shrill of Yamaha’s twin-cylinder, two-stroke howler: the 350cc Banshee. Of course, though, his personal machine has to be one up on the stocker. It begs the question when is..."Too Much, Barely Enough?" In this case, Bruce has one-upped it all the way to a…

Hunter Lovelace hails from Muskoka Canada and likes to build brilliant old school custom ATVs. He took one of his old prized machines, a 1988 Yamaha Blaster, and decided to rebuild it better than before for his younger brother. A lot of the parts that Hunter installed are near impossible to find these days and give it a custom look and feel from the 90's! The mods include: Motor: Duncan / Paul Turner ported, decked and polished motor, 175 PSI compression running on VP C12, Pyramid reed valve, factory 7 air box,…

-- A letter from a Dirt Wheels reader -- Hi Dirt Wheels,     I'm Robby from Germany and I would like to present my modified Banshee. I bought it in 2013,  my first Banshee, after I sold my old 2006 Raptor 700. The Banshee was in a stock condition, but was not well maintained. At first I rebuilt the chassis and the plastic (they were painted very bad). At the next step I revised the wiring harness. In the end i could fill a 10 liter bucket with electrical garbage. The other improvements I did from time to time.  This is…

-- 20 years worth of readers' rides -- When it comes to quad riders, which group is the most passionate, enthusiastic and hard core of all? Well, we'd have to say the owners of two-stroke quads. Honda TRX250R riders are certainly fanatics and the same can be said for Suzuki Quadzilla owners as well. However, those two machines were only in production for around four years. On the other hand, you could buy new Yamaha Banshees from 1987 to 2006 here in the USA, and beyond that in Canada and other countries. Based on 20 years…

-- Built by Duncan Racing --

-- Appreciating the beautiful beast -- How many twin-cylinder, two-stroke quads has there ever been? The Banshee is the only one. Yamaha caught the world totally off-guard when they came out with this unique machine back in 1987. No other ATV manufacturer was willing to compete with Yamaha’s Banshee, so it remained in a class by itself for 20 years. You can no longer go to a dealer and buy a new one, and that’s why it’s important to keep the remaining Banshees in good running order. If you’re going to put forth the effort…

-- What each year model looked like -- So, what year Banshee do you own? Perhaps you can get an idea by its colors and this chart shows them all. Which year model Banshee looked the best? Was it the classic red and white of the very first year in 1987? Or perhaps the bold Team Yamaha blue colors of 2006? That was the last year you could buy a new Banshee in the USA, but as you can see, it was offered in other countries for a few years after that. But, no matter what year, you can't beat the beauty of Yamaha's classic…

-- 130 Horsepower, fastest quad we've ever ridden -- Is it possible to turbocharge a 2-stroke? Yes indeed, as long as the turbo is mounted after the cones to the expansion chamber exhaust. Therefore they can still allow the exhaust waves to bounce back and forth to keep fresh intake from flowing out the exhaust port. Not only was this Banshee turbocharged, it also had a fuel-injection system installed. Is this something new for 2-strokes? No, it was 19 years ago when we tested this machine. Below you can read this "Blast…

-- Adding skis & a trax system to a Banshee is not a new idea -- Ever since our very first issue back in 1980 the Dirt Wheels crew has been into hopping up machines for more power and better suspension. When it comes to ATVs we've also been known to try some wild and crazy things. We liked riding in snow and we wanted to improve our quads for that. Back in 2001 we found a company that specialized in setting up quads with skis and a trax system. They put their conversion kit on a Yamaha Banshee and a Yamaha Warrior, so…

-- 2-stroke power to break the sand barrier -- By the staff of Dirt Wheels, photos by Pat Carrigan CT Racing’s 400cc Banshee kits have been a popular kit for years. CTR originally marketed a 370cc, long-rod kit for the Banshee, but after the 4mm stroker cranks proved dependable, it discontinued the 370cc kit and replaced it with the 400cc kit. They are basically identical kits, but the 400cc kit has a longer stroke. The cylinder bore sizes are the same. The added 4mm of stroke works amazingly on the Banshee. It adds…

-- Here's a good letter from a Dirt Wheels reader -- Hello Dirt Wheels, My name is Tony Cooper and I wanted to share some before and after pics of my 2003 Yamaha Banshee build.  This is my second submission to Dirt Wheels with my first being a 2011 KFX 450 that made it into your great magazine last year. I bought the Banshee as a project in early 2017.  It was a complete and somewhat running ATV, but it wasn't until I started the tear down that I realized just how much of a project quad I had bought.  The only real…