mrmatt

The good news is, it is raining right now. So I'll probably be there on Sunday with my wife. She be happy to show anyone how quick a YFZ450 is on dirt. She was spanking 3 banshees last weekend and wasn't even getting out of second gear.

Broke, congratulations on the new truck. Now all that you need is a Weekend Warrior Camper/ATV hauler and you're all set for a trip to the big dunes.

I shaved 30 thou of my stock head which then produced 170 psi of compression. This is too much to be cooled be the stock cooling system! It blew my top-end Here is a quote from the "Vito's Performance" site: "You can assume that your power output will increase 2 horsepower for every 10 psi you raise your cranking pressure. unless you drag race only for 300 ft or less we do not recommend you go past 170 psi it will build heat that cant be dissipated with the stock cooling system without a cool down rest. We get reports that people run smaller sizes than what is recommended above for the specific octane used and you may very well do it for awhile but from our experiences detonation will eventually rear its ugly head and bite the buddy you loaned your bike to." I'm buying a cool head of some sort when I rebuild my topend to be on the safe side. But I do have a stock shaved head for sale Cya I had mine milled 0.030" at a local machine shop and my compression went from 120 to 154 psi. Are you sure that yours hadn't been milled before? What was your compression before you had your head milled. 170 psi sounds like a lot.

What is the deal with painting helmets? Every helmet that I have bought has come with explicit warnings about painting the helmet. But people paint helmets all of the time, heck, some people even make a living from it. Are the helmet manufacturers afraid that the paint will react with the plastic and weaken it? Will all paint do this, or is there only a specific kind, like laquer, that can weaken the plastic?

I live about 7 miles away, so I am there at least twice a month. It is extremely dusty right now. I probably won't go back until we get some significant rain.

This depends on the brand of skid plate. The shock linkage interfers with all but the stock skid plate. The PRM skid plates and others that are designed to protect the shock linkage need to be significantly altered, such as removing the portion that is designed to protect the shock linkage. The rest of them just need a little clearancing on the front edge of the skid plate.

I guarantee you will like the sound. I run T-5 silencers with my PTmids and I always get complements on them. The sound is very similar to a full set of T-5 pipes and silencers, but I think mine has a little more raw sound to them. Maybe they just need repacked, I don't know, but I'm not going to touch them.

I've never ridden a Banshee with 916's so I can't offer a side by side comparison. But like Rod said, mine is pretty quik for having stock port timing. I can't really say that it isn't ported, since I cleaned up the intake and exhaust ports a little. But I think I was the quickest Banshee there w/stock port timing. But, I don't have a lot of top end. Don't get me wrong, it pulls as long as I need and want it too. But compared to the Rocket Pipes on broke's quad, the PT mids shut off a lot earlier. There was such a difference between broke's quad and mine that I didn't even find the end of his power band. It would reving so high that I was afraid to keep going and wait until the power dropped off. The point I am trying to make is that the PT mids may not give you any more top end, but you don't need a lot of top end to be quick. I have heard good things about the 916's, for the price of PT mids you could keep your 916's and have your cylinders ported. Without a doubt, you will be faster with this set up, than with stock porting and PT mids. Matt

I agree. I don't even read the political threads on here. If I wanted to get pissed off, I would just go to CNN.com.

As you found out, a hair dryer does not get it hot enough. You need to use a heat gun. My wife has a cheap one that she bought at a craft store. I don't have any before and after pics. But I would estimate that using this method removed 75% of the white marks on my friend's blue plastics. We may have been able to completely remove the white marks, but we were afraid to push our luck. Your plastic needs to be absolutely clean before you do this and make sure that you don't touch the plastic or you'll leave finger prints. Just keep the heat gun moving, don't hold it in one spot for too long, and if the plastic starts smoking, you got it just a little too hot. You want to heat it up to the temperature right before it starts smoking, unfortunately, you won't know where this point is until it starts smoking. I suggest practicing in an inconspicuous spot, such as under the seat.

This is what I do and it works perfectly. The key to keeping sand out is the outerwear. I don't care what anybody else says, sand will go through a K&N and a foam filter. I have personally seen it. The outerwear keeps the sand from even getting to the filter.

Being the cheap bastard that I am, I looking into doing this also. But I determined that it wouldn't be worth the effort. Here are all of the cons I can think of right now: 1. The stock a-arms are extremetly weak. Not only is the tubing very thin walled but the ball joint mounts bend very easily. 2. The ball joints are non-replaceble, so once they are worn out, you would have to build a whole new set of a-arms. 3. It would be very easy to screw up the caster and camber alignment if you weren't careful with your measurements. 4. The A-arms are, well, shaped like an A. Since the two tubes that need extended are not parallel, then you would also have to bend/straighten the tubes before you could weld in extensions. 5. You will still have to buy or build longer tie rod sleaves.

The power valves are part of the cylinders, not an add-on feature. The RZ cylinders are different enough that they use a different head than the banshees.

The cheapest by far is to us an RZ motor. I think broke is the resident expert. Minkia was talking about selling his RZ powered banshee a while back, maybe he still has it. I rode broke's RZ powered quad at Silver Lake. I was amazed. I thought that my motor had a nice broad power band. His was awesome. I didn't even have to shift. It was like riding a four stroke except it sounded a lot better.